Basic Kinematics

Physics 151/161

Abstract
This experiment studies the inclined plane and Newton’s 2nd law applications. A
computer-based readout allows you to collect the data quickly and efficiently. In
addition, data fitting techniques will be used in this experiment analysis.

Introduction
In this lab you will use computer-based equipment to the motion of a body under external forces.
The Newton’s second law is used to find the final body acceleration that is inversely proportional to
body mass and proportional to the sum of all acting forces. In this lab, you will learn how to find the
best linear fit to a set of data points and find the error of the slope.

Experimental Description
The experimental setup consists of: smooth track, a car, pulley, mass, Ultrasonic motion Detector,
DataStudio software.

A brief introduction about Pasco Motion Sensor:

The PS-2103A Motion Sensor (Figure 1) produces a series of ultrasonic
pulses and detects the sound reflecting back from an object in front of it.
The interface measures the times between outgoing pulses and returning
echoes. From these measurements, it determines the position, velocity, and
acceleration of the object.

Sensor Tuning and Data Collection

To increase precision (if asked) of the force sensor: double-click on the
position sensor, go to “Numeric” tab and set “Fixed Decimals” to 3:

Figure 1: Pasco Motion Sensor Schematic

For the person, set sensor to setting, or to to measure the cart
(for this experiment). The object should be always farther then ~15cm
from the sensor (distance up to 8m can be measured).

To view Velocity and Acceleration: The Position measurement appears by default. You can also
enable Velocity and Acceleration measurements. In DataStudio, click Setup button to open the
Experiment Setup window. Select the Velocity and Acceleration check boxes.

Click Start. The Motion Sensor starts clicking. If a target is in range, the target indicator flashes with
each click. DataStudio starts collecting and displaying data. Click Stop to stop data collection. Click
Start again to start recording data as a new data run.

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 Experimental Setup

There are two parts to this lab experiment. In the first one, we shall study the motion of the
body on the inclined plane, then (in the 2nd part) the application of the Newton’s second law
that the final body acceleration is inversely proportional to the body mass and proportional to the
sum of all forces acting on it.

For the first part, the setup is shown in Figure 2. It is used to measure the body motion on
the inclined plane. The sensor is located at the top of the track, and the cart is launched with its
magnetic side facing towards the stopper at the track end (velcro side is up). The second part that is
in Figure 3, has the sensor now at the bottom of the track (just lower one side of the track and raise
the other) and a mass on the string that connect to the cart via a pulley. Choose the mass such that
the cart will move upwards. The cart magnetic side should be facing towards the stopper at the track
end as well so that it doesn’t impact it and get damaged.

Figure 2: Inclined plane experiment for Part1.

Figure 3: Inclined plane with a mass for Part2.

Theory

Derive the equations for the body acceleration for the both parts of this experiment, with and
without a mass over the pulley. These will be used in the end to compare your experiment results
with these initial predictions.

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 A new part to this experiment is that we will estimate the slope and error of the slope. In this
experiment we will find acceleration in different ways and one of them will be via slope. Since as we
know all values have error/uncertainty associated with them, it's reasonable to find the error for that
final result as well. You will learn how to do it in Excel.
Experimental Procedure

As you start, make sure that your display has the position, velocity and acceleration vs. time
graphs. Also weigh the cart. Since the digital scales used are very precise, their error is the half of
the smallest division scale (0.05g).

Error estimation (DO THIS FIRST!)

Before proceeding with the experiment, you should determine the uncertainty (error) of
the measurements. It is very difficult to identify the error associated with time as it is very small (on
the order of microseconds, the USB port latency) so we will take it as ‘perfect’. However, it is
possible to determine the error for the velocity even though the intrinsic sensor error is also quite
small. There are external factors (mostly friction) that contribute a larger, much noticeable
effect. To do that, follow the procedure below:

a) Level the track so that the cart doesn’t move by itself.

b) Give it a gentle push, wait about a second or two, then start the sensor and collect about 2
second of data (just the velocity)
c) On the velocity vs. time graph top side menu, press the down arrow right of the “∑” button.
Choose “Standard Deviation”, then select relevant points from the plot with the mouse and
write down the standard deviation value for further analysis. This is the velocity uncertainty
(error) due to friction that use can use with all further data.

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 Data collection

PART ONE PROCEDURE

Angle the track so that the motion sensor is on the topside of it. Measure the angle of
inclination (Hint: later you will need the sine and/or cosine of this angle and the associated errors, so
it’s advisable to measure the sine and cosine directly with the errors as well. Remember to
propagate the errors from your track height and length measurements!)
A. Place the cart near the motion sensor. Start the data acquisition and release the cart.
B. Stop the data acquisition as the cart is deflected from the track’s end.
C. On the acceleration vs. time graph, select the data points corresponding to the actual
motion and record their mean and standard deviation (use the “∑” button from the menu as
before). The result is the mean and stdev of the acceleration.
D. From the velocity vs. time graph, select the data points corresponding to the motion and
copy them to Excel document (via Edit-Copy menu or <Ctrl-C>).
PART TWO PROCEDURE

Angle the track so that the pulley is on the topside of it. Measure this angle (e.g. sine and
oscine, with errors!). From this, predict the mass needed to balance the gravity force on the cart.
Select the mass M to be slightly larger than that value, weigh and attach it to the cart via the string.

A. Place the cart near the motion sensor. Start the data acquisition and release the cart.
B. Stop the data acquisition as the cart is deflected from the track’s end.
C. On the acceleration vs. time graph, select the data points corresponding to the actual
motion and record their mean and standard deviation (use the “∑” button from the menu as
before). The result is the mean and stdev of the acceleration
D. From the velocity vs. time graph, select the data points corresponding to the motion and
copy them to Excel document (via Edit-Copy menu or <Ctrl-C>).

Data Analysis
Use the derived equations to determine the theoretical acceleration values of the cart for each part
using the cart mass, angle measured and the mass M only. Make sure you calculate the
errors properly!

Now, you also have two sets of velocity data and two measured mean accelerations with errors.

Plot both sets of the velocity data in Excel using ‘scatter plot with only markers’ as velocity vs. time
(e.g. vertical axis is positions and horizontal one - time). Label the axes. Include error bars for
the velocity. To set the error bars, click on one of the data points and choose the ‘Layout’ bar on
the main menu. Choose the ‘Error bars’, then choose ‘More error bars options’. Mark ‘both’ in
directions part, then in ‘error amount’ select ‘fixed value’ and enter the standard deviation for
the velocity determined earlier. From the resulting plot, select and remove the horizontal error bars
that are not needed as the time error is much smaller than the time scale used.

From the graph it is obvious that the set of data has a linear trend. To find the best fit for this set of
data, right click on one of the data points and select “Add Trendline”, choose “Linear” trend type
and check the “Display equation on chart” option. The equation describes the line (best fit
found) for your set of data. Make sure you uncheck the ‘Display R-squared value’ option. The slope
of this line is your average acceleration. You also need to find the error of the slope (see below).

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To estimate how close the best fit line is to the experimental data, one of the things we can do is
find the error on slope (see the Excel example on Moodle). For that you should use the theoretical
equation of the best fit that you got from the trendline and calculate the theoretical values of
velocity. Then calculate the squared difference between the theoretical and experimental values.
Divide the obtained value by the number of points minus number of degrees of freedom. Let's call
this value A. Error on slope is then A divided by the sum of squared mean deviations of x:

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𝛴(𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑦,𝑖 − 𝑦𝑒𝑥𝑝,𝑖 )
√ 𝑛𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠 − 𝑛𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑚
𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒 =
𝛴(𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 )2
A screenshot samples below indicated how to do this in Excel. You may also use the excel
file attached to this manual or distributed in the lab session. It may look confusing but if you look
at the formulas of the cells in the Excel it should be clear. (Note that if you take any materials/
plots etc. from this manual, you must reference them as well, same as any external source. On the
other hand, ‘common-knowledge’ formulas like d=vt and similar don’t need any references. )

In all steps, use proper number of significant digits!

First, define the theoretical value by typing in your fit results. Then define the square of the
difference between the measured and theoretical values.

Sum all values of ‘error on slope’ column. Divide the ‘error on the slope’ sum by degrees of freedom
(dof, number of data points minus the number of free parameters of the fitted function (in our case
dof = nvalues – 2, as line y=ax+b has two fitter parameters, a and b). Find the mean of x values, then
find the difference between that and the x value for all points, squared. Add those squared
differences. Finally, to get the error on slope divide like in the formula above.
Include these values on the final plot (see example).

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 Velocity vs. Time
2,5

2 y = 0.1211x + 0.0553
slope=0.121±0.057
1,5
Velocity, m/s

0,5

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Time, s

2-plotting_sample
data.xlsx

Analysis Results
State your answers (possibly as table?) for both parts of the experiment. For each part, you should
have the acceleration that you have calculated using your derived formula 𝒂𝒕𝒉, mean acceleration
that you recorded during the data taking 𝒂𝒎, and the acceleration from the fit 𝒂𝒇,. Remember to
include errors, that is, state all values with their errors (value ± error unit, e.g. 3.22 ± 0.13 m/s2).

Discuss the differences and similarities of these values for each part (within their errors). Can you
see now why did we use a fit to the velocity to obtain the acceleration instead of just taking the
mean value measured by the computer?

Conclusion
In conclusion, discuss the experiment in general, that is how well were you able to measure the
values needed, if there were problems with error analysis, re-state short comparison of the
accelerations as it is your main result. Comment on the possible reasons of their similarities or
differences and possible fixes or improvements if any are needed.