Students explore Kinematics using a Pasco smart cart on an inclined track. They discover that their calculations and measurements don’t agree but can be brought into agreement by adding a small constant to the average acceleration. A later lab uses the smart cart on a level track to analyze Newton’s 1 law. Again they see that the speed is not constant but is slowing. A third lab looks at the physics of a cart in equilibrium on an inclined plane for different angles. Tension and normal force are measured and compared to calculated values. After performing these labs, the students are asked to design a lab to test Newton’s 2 law including the instruments used, the procedure and analysis. This exercise broadens the student’s physical intuition and exercises their understanding of the experimental method of having a model, predicting results and comparing to measurements to validate the model.

A Student Designed Lab to Test Newton’s 2nd Law

We will present the design and performance of a complete measurement of a damped harmonic oscillation with the Pasco Smart Cart. Using the position and force sensors from the cart on a steeply inclined track (about 10 degrees from vertical), we measure the displacement, velocity, acceleration and the restoring force of the oscillator, which is the cart on the end of a spring. The students get a full understanding of these quantities in an oscillation, together with the concepts of period and frequency, both graphically, numerically and analytically. With added weights to the cart, the students can measure the spring constant in the system. By fitting to the reduction in the oscillation amplitude, the students can obtain the attenuation from friction. With one instrument, this new lab provides the students with a full range of training in harmonic oscillation. Measurement results and data analysis will be shown in the presentation.

Complete measurement of a damped harmonic oscillation with the Smart-Cart

B2.1 - Introductory Labs/Apparatus

technical paper

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AAPT WM 22

PS.C-SU-06: Introductory Labs/Apparatus I

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Richard Guarino

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SHORT BIO

Presentations

A Student Designed Lab to Test Newton’s 2nd Law

Complete measurement of a damped harmonic oscillation with the Smart-Cart

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