Phys130 Lab

Experiment 2: Acceleration

Name (1st/Last) and 92#:

Date Data Taken:

Lab Table # (look on side of table):
Lab Partners (include 1st/last names
plus 92#’s):

INSTRUCTORS, PLEASE NOTE: The PASCO Smart Cars can

VERY easily roll off the table (breaking the electronics
inside). Please insist to students that the cars must be in
one of the following positions:

 Left to sit on the track

 In the supplied “parking garage” box on the tabletop
 Upside down on the table

Equipment:
 A computer with:
o PASCO Capstone software
o Excel or similar spreadsheet program
 Pasco Smart Car
 Pasco Car Track
 Pasco Angle Indicator (attaches to track)
 Extra masses for Smart Car
 Wooden Block, Book, or other item to tilt track
 “Parking Garage” box for table (to hold Smart Cars when not in use)

Objectives:

 Learn about uniformly accelerated motion

 Investigate acceleration down an inclined plane

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Theory

Objects that undergo uniform acceleration obey the equation of motion

v f =v i +at , Eq. 1

where v f is the final speed, v i is the initial speed, a is the acceleration, and t is the
elapsed time.

If the distance traveled x is known (instead of the time t ), we can use another equation
of motion:

Eq. 2
2 2
v f =v i +2 ax

The equations above can be used to find the acceleration (of, say, a cart on an track) if
one knows the initial and final speeds plus the time and/or the distance traveled.

Procedure

In this lab, you will accelerate a cart (the PASCO Smart Car) along an (almost)
frictionless track by inclining the track at a small angle and letting the weight of the cart
pull the cart down. The cart will send motion data to the Capstone software on your
computer via Bluetooth.

Prepare the equipment:

1. Level the track on the table (with nothing propping up the legs). You can do this
by tightening/loosening the feet of the legs, or by placing a folded paper under
the leg(s). The track is leveled when the cart stays stationary when placed on the
track at rest. Your PASCO angle indicator should also read zero.
2. Place a small object (a wooden block or a book) under one set of the leg
supports to incline the track at an angle.
3. Using the PASCO angle indicator to read the angle of your track relative to the
horizontal position, and record this:
Angle of Tilt = ____________ degrees
Prepare the software:
4. Turn on the power of your cart BEFORE opening the Capstone
software. (If you don’t do this, you may have to exit the software and restart it
so it will “see” the Bluetooth signals.)
5. Open your Capstone software.

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 Experiment 2
6. On the left side of your screen, click “Hardware Setup”. At this point, you should
see it start to search for wireless devices. (If not, you may need to click on the
Bluetooth button to make sure it’s on.)
7. You should see a list of the Bluetooth devices your computer “sees”. Choose the
cart with the correct serial number matching the one on your lab table.
8. You are finished with the setup. Click on the little white “X” next to “Tools” in the
upper left area of your screen.
9. Now you are going to tell Capstone how to display your data. For this lab, we will
look at a graph and a data table.
a. On the right side of the screen, grab the “Graphs” and drag and drop it into
the center area of the screen. Now drage “Table” into the center area. You
should see a graph and a data table on your screen.
b. On the graph, click the “Select Measurement” button on the y-axis and
choose “Velocity”. On the x-axis one, choose “Position”.
c. On the Data Table, click the “Select Measurement” button on the left and
choose “Position”. On the x-axis one, choose “Velocity”.
d. (Note that these will give you the same data, just in table or graph form.)
10. Open EXCEL. You are going to label 4 columns:

v-initial [m/s] v-final [m/s] x-initial [m] x-final [m] accel [m/s2]

Take data:
11. Choose a point from which to release your cart each trial. It is very important that
you
a. Release from rest each time
b. Release from the same position each time
c. Point the POSITIVE x-direction noted on the cart “downhill”
12. When you are ready, hit the red “Record” button and release the glider from the
top of the incline. Please catch it at the bottom before it hits the bottom bumper.
Hit the button to stop recording.
13. Using EITHER your data table OR your graph, choose two data points and
record in Excel the v- and x-initial (from your first chosen point) and then the v-
and x-final (from your second chosen point). All of this data should be on one
line (row) in Excel.
14. Repeat the experiment 10 times (so that you have 10 rows of data in Excel).

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Experiment 2
15. Make a second table in Excel with the same column headings. For this set of
data, we will ADD MASS to the cart.
16. Repeat the experiment (10 trials) with the provided masses added to your
cart. Copy this data into Excel in a separate set of columns and be sure to label
which set had the added mass.

Data analysis and write-up

1. Write down the angle θ you used in your experiment.

2. Use Formula 2 (from the Theory section of this lab) to calculate the 10
accelerations in the last column in Excel for both sets of data. (Your instructor
may show you how to do this.)
3. Calculate the average and the standard deviation of the 10 accelerations for the
un-weighted trail. Do the same for the weighted trial.
4. Comment on the precision of your measurement based on the standard
deviations. (Are the standard deviations very small or very large compared to the
average value? What does this say about your precision?)
5. Are the two average accelerations (un-weighted and weighted) significantly
different from each other? (In other words, does adding the weights make a
significant difference on the cart’s acceleration?) Quantify your answer by:
a. Calculating the “percent difference” between the two average accelerations.
b. Determining whether the two average accelerations are equal within one
standard deviation. Show your ranges of numbers for this comparison.
6. Theoretically, the acceleration down an incline without friction should be

a=g sin θ Eq. 4

Using your average acceleration a and your value for θ , calculate your
experimental result for acceleration due to gravity ( gexp ). How does your gexp
compare with the accepted value g=9.8 m/s2 ? Find a percent error.

7. Your instructor may with to show you some other graphs using your data that
represent
 pos. vs. time
 vel vs. time
 accel vs. time
 and how these relate to each other
 Return your cart(s) to the charging station at the back of the
room.

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 Experiment 2
 After each lab meeting, once your group has finished taking
data, clean up your lab area (pick up trash, reset the equipment
for the next class to use, push in chairs, etc.). Failure to do so
may result in a loss of points in your grade.

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