Determining g on an Incline

September 7, 2023

– laptop – track end stop

– PASCO Interface – foam ball

– USB cord – PAScar

– power cord – blocks

– Motion Sensor – ruler

– track – 500 grams

Theory:
During the early part of the seventeenth century, Galileo experimentally examined the
concept of acceleration. One of his goals was to learn more about freely falling objects.
Unfortunately, his timing devices were not precise enough to allow him to study free fall
directly. Therefore, he decided to limit the acceleration by using fluids, inclined planes, and
pendulums. In this lab exercise, you will see how the acceleration of a rolling ball or cart
depends on the ramp angle. Then, you will use your data to extrapolate the acceleration
on a vertical “ramp” that is, the acceleration of a ball in free fall.

If the angle of an incline with the horizontal is small, a ball rolling down the incline moves
slowly and can be easily timed. Using time and velocity data, it is possible to calculate the
acceleration of the ball. When the angle of the incline is increased, the acceleration also
increases. The acceleration is directly proportional to the sine of the incline angle, (θ):

a = gsinθ.

A graph of acceleration versus sin(θ) can be extrapolated to a point where the value of
sin(θ) is 1. When sinθ is 1, the angle of the incline is 90◦ . This is equivalent to free fall.
The acceleration during free fall can then be determined from the graph.

Galileo was able to measure acceleration only for small angles. You will collect similar
data and determine if this data can be used in extrapolation to determine a useful value
of g, the acceleration of free fall. We will see how valid this extrapolation can be. Rather
than measuring time, as Galileo did, you will use a Motion Detector to determine the
acceleration. You will make quantitative measurements of the motion of a ball rolling
down inclines of various small angles. From these measurements, you should be able to
decide for yourself whether an extrapolation to large angles is valid.

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1 Introduction
Objectives:

1. Use a Motion Detector to measure the speed and acceleration of a cart travelling
down an incline.
2. Determine the mathematical relationship between the angle of an incline and the
acceleration of a cart travelling down the ramp.
3. Determine the value of free fall acceleration, g, by extrapolating the acceleration vs.
sine of track angle graph.
4. Determine if an extrapolation of the acceleration vs. sine of track angle is valid.

Preliminary Questions:
1. One of the timing devices Galileo used was his pulse. Drop a foam ball from a height
of about 2m and try to determine how many pulse beats elapsed before it hits the
ground. What was the timing problem that Galileo (and you) encountered?
2. Now measure the time it takes for the foam ball to fall 2m, using a stop watch (use
an app on your cell phone). Did the results improve substantially?
3. Roll the foam ball down a ramp that makes an angle of about 10◦ with the horizontal.
First use your pulse and then a stop watch to measure the time of descent. Compare
each method measuring the time of decent? Which is easier?
4. Do you think that during Galileo’s day it was possible to get useful data for any of
these experiments? Why?

2 Experiment
Procedure:
1. Connect the Motion Detector to the a port on the PASCO Interface. Make sure the
PASCO Interface unit is plugged into a power source and turned on. Connect the
PASCO Interface to the laptop with the USB port.
2. Place the Motion Detector at the top of the inclined track and fit it to the end of the
track. Referring to Figure 1, place a single block under one end of the track so that
it forms a small angle with the horizontal and adjust the point of contact to be at
0.2m. Again referring to Figure 1, adjust the track bumper on the track so that the
PAScar’s distance traveled, x, is between 1 and 1.5m. You can use the ruler on the
track help guide you.

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 3. Bring up the Capstone software by clicking on the Course Programs folder on the
Desktop, choosing the Physics folder, and clicking on Capstone. Then from the Quick
Start templates page, on the right side of the screen under Displays, select the icon
Graph. This should bring up a full page graph. On the y-axis click on “<Select
Measurement>” and choose velocity. This should default the x-axis to be time.

4. Hold the PAScar so that side closest to the Motion Detector is at the 0.2m mark on
the track. Click “Start” to begin collecting data; release the PAScar after the Motion
Detector starts to click. Get your hand out of the Motion Detector’s path quickly.
You may have to adjust the position and aim of the Motion Detector several times
before you get it right. Adjust and repeat this step until you get a data set showing
approximately constant slope of the velocity vs. time graph during the rolling of the
cart.

5. Capstone allows you to find a best fit of a given set of data points. Use the data
highlighter tool to select the data of the moving PAScar and use the best fit tool to
find a linear fit of the data for times when the PAScar was freely rolling. From the
slope of the fitted line, record the acceleration of the PAScar in your data table.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 two more times.

7. See Figure 1. Measure the length of the incline, x, which is the distance between
the track’s contact point of the blocks to the contact point on the table. This value
should should stay the same with each trial if the blocks are placed in the same
position each time. Measure the height, h, the height of the block(s). These last two
measurements, length of incline and height of blocks, will be used to determine the
angle of the incline. Record your measurements in meters.

8. Raise the incline by placing another block under the end. Adjust the blocks so that
the distance, x, is the same as the previous reading by making sure the place of
contact of the track and the blocks is at 0.2m. Open a new page with a full page
graph and set the axis to velocity vs. time. Then repeat Steps 4 to 8 for the new
incline.

9. Repeat steps 4 to 8 for 3, 4, and 5 blocks.

10. Repeat steps 4 to 9 with the addition of 500 grams on the PAScar.

Analysis: Show work for following calculations.

1. Calculate the average acceleration for each height. Record in the table provided.

2. Using trigonometry and your values of x and h in the data table, calculate the sine
of the incline angle for each height. Note that x is the hypotenuse of a right triangle.

3. Plot a graph of the average acceleration (y-axis) vs. sin(θ). Use Excel to make your
graph. The independent variable goes in the first column and the depend variable
goes in the second column. Highlight the first column and the second column. Click
on the insert tab and click on the scatter box. Choose the scatter plot without the line
joining the points. Make a second graph with the same data but this time right click
the horizontal axis and choose “Format Axis”. Choose a forward forecast value to be
1.0. Here we are carrying the sin(θ) axis out to 1 to leave room for extrapolation.

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 4. Next, we will find a best fit line. Right click on a data point and choose “Add
Trendline”. Choose a linear fit and select the boxes labeled, “Display equation on
chart” and “Display R-squared value on chart”. Click close. The slope is used to
determine the acceleration.

5. Write down your best fit line, and find the acceleration for θ = 90 degrees.

6. The value you found in question 5 is the acceleration due to gravity for an object
in free-fall! How well does the extrapolated value agree with the accepted value of
free-fall acceleration (g = 9.8 m/s2 )? Compute the percent error.

7. Repeat the analysis, including the extrapolation, for the loaded cart.

8. Did one of your results provide a closer approximation to the accepted value of g
than the other? Should either cart have work better than the other? Justify your
answer.

9. Discuss the validity of extrapolating the acceleration value to an angle of 90◦ .

Questions
Part 1
1. One of the timing devices Galileo used was his pulse. Drop a foam ball from a height
of about 2m and try to determine how many pulse beats elapsed before it hits the
ground. What was the timing problem that Galileo (and you) encountered?

2. Now measure the time it takes for the foam ball to fall 2m, using a stop watch (use
an app on your cell phone). Did the results improve substantially?

3. Roll the foam ball down a ramp that makes an angle of about 10◦ with the horizontal.
First use your pulse and then a stop watch to measure the time of descent. Compare
each method measuring the time of decent? Which is easier?

4. Do you think that during Galileo’s day it was possible to get useful data for any of
these experiments? Why?

Part 2
1. Did one of your results provide a closer approximation to the accepted value of g
than the other? Should either cart have work better than the other? Justify your
answer.

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 Data for Empty Cart

Acceleration Average
Number of Height of Length of
sin(θ) trial 1 trial 2 trial 3 Acceleration
blocks blocks, h(m) incline, x (m)
m/s2 m/s2 m/s2 m/s2

Data for Weighted Cart

Acceleration Average
Number of Height of Length of
sin(θ) trial 1 trial 2 trial 3 Acceleration
blocks blocks, h(m) incline, x (m)
m/s2 m/s2 m/s2 m/s2