Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 128 views

    Energy Conservation Lab: Mini-Lab Physics Investigation Title Purpose

    Uploaded by

    John Ling
    1. Students John Ling and Emily Huang conducted an experiment to determine if a pendulum can be considered frictionless using the law of conservation of energy. 2. They measured the velocity of a pendulum at the bottom of its swing using a photogate from various release heights and calculated the potential and kinetic energy. 3. Their results showed the experimental kinetic energy was lower than the theoretical kinetic energy, with up to a 17% error rate, likely due to the photogate not measuring instantaneous velocity.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Energy Conservation Lab: Mini-Lab Physics Investigation Title Purpose

    Uploaded by

    John Ling
    128 views3 pages
    1. Students John Ling and Emily Huang conducted an experiment to determine if a pendulum can be considered frictionless using the law of conservation of energy. 2. They measured the velocity of a pendulum at the bottom of its swing using a photogate from various release heights and calculated the potential and kinetic energy. 3. Their results showed the experimental kinetic energy was lower than the theoretical kinetic energy, with up to a 17% error rate, likely due to the photogate not measuring instantaneous velocity.

    Original Title

    Energy Conservation Lab[1]

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    1. Students John Ling and Emily Huang conducted an experiment to determine if a pendulum can be considered frictionless using the law of conservation of energy. 2. They measured the velocity of a pendulum at the bottom of its swing using a photogate from various release heights and calculated the potential and kinetic energy. 3. Their results showed the experimental kinetic energy was lower than the theoretical kinetic energy, with up to a 17% error rate, likely due to the photogate not measuring instantaneous velocity.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    128 views3 pages

    Energy Conservation Lab: Mini-Lab Physics Investigation Title Purpose

    Uploaded by

    John Ling
    1. Students John Ling and Emily Huang conducted an experiment to determine if a pendulum can be considered frictionless using the law of conservation of energy. 2. They measured the velocity of a pendulum at the bottom of its swing using a photogate from various release heights and calculated the potential and kinetic energy. 3. Their results showed the experimental kinetic energy was lower than the theoretical kinetic energy, with up to a 17% error rate, likely due to the photogate not measuring instantaneous velocity.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 3

    John Ling, Emily Huang

    September 15th, 2010


    AP Physics B, B4
    Dr. Garcia/ Mr. Nolin
    Energy Conservation Lab
     
    Mini-Lab Physics  
    Investigation
    Title Pendulum /Energy Lab
    Purpose Determine if a pendulum can be considered frictionless.
    Overview The law of conservation of energy (1st law of Thermodynamics) is as
    close to absolute truth as anything in all of science. If a pendulum can
    be considered frictionless then the potential energy at the top of the
    swing will exactly match the kinetic energy at the bottom.
     Set up a photogate to measure velocity at the bottom of a
    pendulum's swing
     Release the pendulum from a variety of different heights and
    measure its velocity at the bottom of its swing.
    Data, Calculations Distance of photogate to lab bench: 0.18 m

    Height (m) 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.45


    Velocity (m/s)
    - Trial 1 0.618 1.316 1.761 2.001
    Velocity (m/s)
    - Trial 2 0.63 1.295 1.691 1.948

    Utotal = mghi = ½ mv2 + mghf


    ghi = ½ v2 + ghf
    9.8hi = ½ v2 + 9.8hf

    Height (m) 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.45


    Utotal (J) 1.96 2.94 3.92 4.41
    KE (J)
    - Trial 1 0.191 0.867 1.55 2.002
    PE (J)
    - Trial 1 1.769 2.073 2.37 2.408
    KE (J)
    - Trial 2 0.198 0.839 1.43 1.897
    PE (J)
    - Trial 2 1.761 2.102 2.49 2.513
    John Ling, Emily Huang
    September 15th, 2010
    AP Physics B, B4
    Dr. Garcia/ Mr. Nolin

     Make a plot a kinetic energy at the bottom verses potential


    energy at the top.  
     Show a theoretical line on the plot.    
    Find the slope

     Do a % error calculation. 
    Using hi=0.4.
    Utotal=Ugi+Uki=Ugf+Ukf
    Utotal(i)=3.92*m
    Utotal(f)=(1.764+1.49)*m=3.25*m
    %Error= (Experimental-Theoretical)/Theoretical*100
    =(3.25*m-3.92*m)/(3.92*m)*100
    =-17%
    John Ling, Emily Huang
    September 15th, 2010
    AP Physics B, B4
    Dr. Garcia/ Mr. Nolin
    Questions, 1. Should the theoretical line be above or below the line of best
    Conclusions fit for the above plot ?  
    The theoretical line for kinetic energy should have been below
    the one in the above plot because of the conservation of
    energy. As the potential energy increased, the kinetic energy
    should have decreased with the same magnitude.
    2. Why does the photogate not measure instantaneous velocity
    and how does this error impact the above plot .
    The photogate doesn’t measure instantaneous velocity
    because it calculates the time required for an object of a
    certain width to pass through a certain amount of space. This
    is not instantaneous because during the time which the object
    is crossing the photogate, the acceleration of gravity will still
    cause a change in its velocity. This error impacts the above plot
    because the velocity at the certain point may be less than or
    more than the measured value.   
    Resources/Materials photogate, pendulum
    :

    You might also like