Lab 2

Motion with Constant Acceleration

Group members:
Damon Brown
Adiel Kuri
Tajhoba Williams

Couse Name:
Physics 4A

Instructor:
Dr. Mohebi

DATE
14/09/2022
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 2

Apparatus 2-3

Procedure 3

Data sheets, spread sheets 4-5

Sample Calculation with error analysis 6-7

Discussion and Conclusion 7

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INTRODUCTION:
Our purpose is to observe the motion of an object and to measure its acceleration, and to
gain experience in the graphical presentation and interpretation of data. We used 3 different
methods to calculate the acceleration of the object using the same set of data. We found which
method is the best (easiest, most accurate).
Acceleration is defined as the change in velocity per unit time.

We can find out the acceleration by the following formula:

1. a=(x 2−x 1 )/t 2−t 1
2. a=d 2 x /d t 2
3. a=x /t 2 but this is itself an inaccurate method theoretically.

EQUIPMENT:

● Ramp, a rolling object, stopwatch,

meterstick.

PROCEDURE :

1. Set up the ramp with a small angle, and take an object to roll down the ramp. The angle
is that it takes several seconds for the object to get to the bottom. The measurement of
angle is done by trignometric mathematics using the below formula
−1
θ=ta n (hieght (verticle length)of the ramp/horizontal length of the ramp)

2. To measure the distances divide the length of the ramp into 8 equal intervals. we can call
them x0, x1, x2…x8. Where x0 is the initial position.
3. Now to start the experiment let roll down the object from the starting point, and measure
the time it takes to travel to the position x1. Repeat this measurement 5 times. Calculate
the average time and record it with the position in a table.
4. Since we need to calculate the velocity, we should repeat the step 3 for all position x2 to
x8.
5. To see what is happening in the experiment plot x vs. t values on the graph paper. Using
Excel draw a smooth curve that best approximates the position as a function of time.
6. We should get a parabolic shape of this curve.
7. From the data of x vs. t calculate the average velocity for each one of the intervals (x0-x1),
(x1-x2), (x2-x3)…. Call them V i ; where i = 1, 2, …8.
8. Then make a graph V i vs. t separately. The shape of this cuve should be linear which
indicate constant acceleraion. The slope of the line is the value of acceleration. Calculate
the relative error of the accerleration from the actual point and point from the best fit line.
9. Using the equation of the trend line in the graph of x vs. t calculate the instantaneous
velocity for each one of the positions x0-x8. The slope of the tangent line drawn from each
points are the instantaneous velocity at each point. Call them V i ; where i = 1, 2, …8.

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10. Graph, V i vs. t separately. The shape of this curve is linear which indicate constant
acceleration. The slope of the line is the value of acceleration. This acceleration is the
closer to the one calculated in step 8. The acceleration calculated in this step should be
closer to the actual acceleration. Because error is reduced here in calculating the
instantaneous velocity.
11. We can calculate the acceleration in another way as well, From the graph of V i vs. t
calculate the average acceleration for each one of the intervals (x0-x1), (x1-x2), (x2-x3)….
Call them a i; where i = 1, 2, …8. for each a i. Calculate the average of all these
accelerations.
12. Now, go back to original data and square all the times and calculate t2. Record them in
the table. Now graph x vs t2. Shape of this graph is linear. But the fitted trend line cannot
represent the acceleration exactly. The value of the acceleration is the slope of the graph.
This is the most inaccurate.
13. Acceleration of a rolling object depends on the shape and the mass distribution of the
object. Depending on the object we have chosen we should use the following formulas to
calculate the theoretical value of the acceleration of the object. Here; g = 9.8 m/s2.

Hollow Cylindrical Shell--------------

Solid Cylinder --------------------------

Solid Sphere ----------------------------

Object Sliding with no Friction ------

14. Compare this with the experimental values we have found in steps 8, 10, 11, and 12.

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DATA SHEETS, SPREAD SHEETS:

m s m/s m/s m/s2 s2

Time Average of 5 Average Velocity of Instantaneous Average

Distance square of time
observation each interval Velocity Acceleration

x tav vavg vinst aav t2

0 0 0.0626 0
0.020508462
0.2 1.4121 0.141633 0.09156 1.994026
6
0.4 2.0032 0.338352 0.12052 0.048993402 4.012810

0.6 2.489 0.411692 0.14948 0.059613009 6.19512

0.8 2.9436 0.439947 0.17844 0.063704355 8.647809

1.0 3.3384 0.506586 0.2074 0.073353597 11.14491

1.2 3.5977 0.771307 0.23636 0.111685307 12.94344

1.4 4.0118 0.482975 0.26532 0.069934798 16.09453

1.6 4.336 0.617856 0.29428 0.089327576 18.80089

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❑
Average Acceleration in of each interval = ∑
❑
aav / 8 = 0.067140

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SAMPLE CALCULATION WITH ERROR ANALYSIS:

● The error bars and the values obtained by the plot are shown in the graphs.
● The object which we have taken as a rolling object is solid cylinder, so let’s calculate the
acceleration from the angle at which we have done the experiment.
Our angle is about 5 degree:
So
2
a=0.5∗9.81∗sin(5)=0.4275 m/ s

But the experimental values are :

1. First method : 0.1542 m/s 2
difference with first method = (0.4275 - 0.1542)*100/0.4275 = 63.9%

2. Second method : 0.1448 m/s 2

difference with second method = (0.4275 - 0.1448)*100/0.4275 = 66.12%

3. Third method: 0.0852m/s 2

difference with thrid method = (0.4275 - 0.1448)*100/0.4275 = 80%

These differences is due to frictional forces which we haven’t accounted.

CONCLUSIONS:

The objective of this experiment was to calculate the acceleration of a rolling object with
three different methods described in procedure. The first method is to calculate velocity in each
interval and make the plot of velocity vs time, the slope of the best fit line represent acceleration
which we are getting 0.1542 m/s 2. The second method is to calculate instantaneous velocity by

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the function which we got by making the function with the excel in distance vs time graph, and
then making plot between instantaneous velocities vs time which slope represent acceleration,
we are getting 0.1448 m/s 2 acceleration in this plot. We can estimate the average acceleration
from the instantaneous velocity by taking each interval as shown in table, In this way the average
acceleration we are getting is 0.067140 m/s 2. The third method is distance vs square of time
graph, by which we are getting 0.0852 m/s 2 acceleration.

The most accurate method in these three method is second one, where we plot the graph
of distance vs time and then make a function to calculate instantaneous velocity. by doing this
we minimize the error first then we calculate acceleration by the instantaneous velocity vs time
graph.
The first method is more inaccurat than second because in doing this we are not
minimizing the error in any step, we are calculating the acceleration just by given data.
The third method is more inaccurate because the acceleration is not the distance divided
by square of time. It is the change in velocity per unit time.
The error bars in all the experiment are shown in the graph. We can find that most
accurate method is second one.
Theoretically when we calculated the acceleration, we are getting 0.4275 m/s 2. Which is
different than our experimental results because there can be frictional forces which we haven’t
accounted in our experiment.

This is the good experiment to understand the acceleration.