FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

LABORATORY REPORT
PHY433

SESSION 1 2021/2022

Experiment No. : 1 (VECTOR)

Name of Student &

Student No. : 1) NUR LUTFIYAH MELYNA BINTI MOHD JAMIL(2021627736)
2) HUMAIRA BINTI ZAINUN BAKRI(2021823472)
3) NOOR AFRINA BINTI FAZRUL(2021458818)

Program : AS251

Group : AS251 1M1

Date of Submission : 9 NOVEMBER 2021

Name of Lecturer : DR SITI ZAFIRAH BINTI ZAINAL ABIDIN

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TITLE: EXPERIMENT 1 (VECTOR)

OBJECTIVE :
-To illustrate the principles of vector addition and subtraction by component methods.

APPARATUS:
- PhET Simulations
- Paper
- Ruler
- Pen
- Calculator

THEORY:
A vector quantity is defined as a quantity that has both a magnitude and direction. A good
example of vector quantities are forces which are defined as any interaction that, when
unopposed, will change the motion of an object. Forces are said to be concurrent when
multiple acts on one body and pass through a common point. All these forces can be added
together to produce a resultant that is equal to the vector sum of other forces. Because vector
quantities include magnitude and direction, both of these properties must be considered when
adding them together. This is known as the vector sum, which is shown with this equation:

R = F₁ + F₂ .

R represents the resultant and F₁ and F₂ are the forces being added together.
Each force added contains x and y components and magnitudes.

To find the x and y component of each force, you must take the sign (+/-), magnitude, and
trigonometry into consideration. As a result, the x-component can be found with this equation
F₁x= F₁cosθ ;

and the y-component can be found with this equation:

F₁y=F₁sinθ ;

while the magnitude of the force is represented by

F₁=|F| .

Once the x and y components of each vector has been found, the respective x and y
component of the resultant can be found using vector addition:
Rx = F₁x + F₁x and Ry = F₁y + F₂y ;

The magnitude of the resultant is found using the theorem pythagorean,

a² + b² = c² (take the square root),

and the final angle is found taking the inverse tan ;

tan θ = Ry/Rx .

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PROCEDURE:

PART A

1. The vector pHET simulation was started and explore 2-D was clicked.

2. A few minutes have been spend to understand and explore the functionalities of different
tabs. (Fig 7)

Fig. 7 : Vector PhET simulation

3. Two vectors A and B from the vector panel (2) to graph paper (1) were dragged.
Their length and orientations were adjusted.

4. Their magnitudes and the angles were recorded in Table 1.

5. The x and y-component of the two vectors a and b were calculated by using the
formula.

6. The x -components of the resultant Sx were found by using the formula.

7. The y -components of the resultant Sy were found by using the formula.

8. The observed values obtained from the graph paper (1) were recorded in Table 1.

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Table 1: Addition of two vectors by algebraic method and observation from experiment

PART B

Your cat is running around the grass in your backyard. It undergoes successive
displacements 7.00 m north, 5.70 m southeast, and 15.0 m east. What is the resultant
displacement of the cat?

a) The resultant displacement of the cat were determined by

i) the component method using the calculator and
ii) the 2-D vector PhET simulation.

b) The calculation and the PhET simulation image of the resultant displacement were
shown.

c) The results for both methods were discussed.

PART C

Two displacement vectors are given as: X = 18.0 km 56.3° E of N

Y = 11.2 km 26.6° N of W
a) X – Y was determined by
i) the component method using the calculator and
ii) the 2-D vector PhET simulation.

b) ) The calculation and the PhET simulation image of the resultant displacement were
shown.

c) The results for both methods were discussed.

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PART D

Fig. 8 shows two persons pulling a box. The person on the right pulls with a force F1 of
magnitude 117 N and direction of θ1 = 59.0°. The person on the left pulls with a force
F2 of magnitude 82.0 N and direction of θ2 = 76.0°.

a) Using the calculator and PhET simulation,

i) the single force that is equivalent to the two forces were shown and
ii) the force that a third person would have to exert on the box to make the resultant
force equal to zero were determined. The force was measured in units of newtons
(symbolized N).

b) The equivalent force in a)i) and the force by the third person in a)ii) were shown on
the calculation and PhET simulation image.

c) The results for both methods were discussed.

Fig. 8

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DATA AND RESULT :

Part A

Phet simulation for vector A and vector B

Observed value obtained from vector PhET simulation

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Part B

PhET simulation for vector A , B and C

Observed value obtained from vector PhET simulation and the calculations

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Part C

PhET simulation for vector A and B

Observed value obtained from vector PhET simulation and the calculations

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Part D

PhET simulation for vector A and B for a)i)

PhET simulation for vector A and B for a)ii)

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Observed value obtained from vector PhET simulation and the calculations for a)i) and a)ii)

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CONCLUSION:

Discussion for part B:

After doing the calculation for the question of part B,students are able to resolve the vector for
component-x and component-y by using free body diagram method.The result from the
calculation method and the PhET simulation were compared,and the resultant value from both
method are almost same.This can be proven by calculating the percentage difference of both
method.Below are the formula for percentage difference:

𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 |
Percentage difference=|
| 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 |X 100

| (19.26−19.20) |
= X 100
| (19.26+19.20)÷2 |
Thus,the value for percentage difference is 0.3%

Discussion for part C:

After calculating the magnitude of the resultant displacement using PhET simulations and
calculation method,we can conclude that the result is almost same as we got different value
for magnitude which is 24.99 km using calculation method and 25 km using PhET
simulation.We also got a very close answer for angle value for the resultant displacement
which is 11.28° using calculation method and 11.30° when using PhET simulation.This can be
shown by using the formula of percentage difference.

𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 |
Percentage difference=|
| 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 |X 100

= | (25.00−24.99) |X 100
| (25.00+24.99)÷2 |
Thus,the value for percentage difference is 0.0004%

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Discussion for Part D

For this part,the angle for the equivalent force of two forces calculated using calculation
method and PhET simulation are not same.This can be seen by the calculated value of
percentage difference.

𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 |
Percentage difference=|
| 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 |X 100
77.33−70.30 |
=| X 100
| (77.33+70.30)÷2 |

Thus,the value of percentage difference is 9.52%

Some error may occur when the experiment were conducted.The first error is the final value
for resultant of both method are different due to the rounding off of significant figures when
doing the calculations.The second error is when conducting the experiment using PhET
simulation,the value of the magnitude from the calculation are not same with the magnitude
value from PhET simulation.This result to some difference in the final value.

In conclusion,the principles of vector addition and subtraction were illustrated by component

methods and students are able to solve the vector problems.

REFERENCE

● Physics Web Assign Ch 3 #12. (2013, September 23). YouTube. Retrieved November
9, 2021, from https://youtu.be/lkqPOWOGt5M
● Tabugbo, E. (n.d.). Vectors and forces - A full completed physics lab report. All of the
labs remain the same each year. StuDocu. Retrieved November 9, 2021, from
https://www.studocu.com/en-us/document/university-of-louisville/fund-of-physics-lab-i/
vectors-and-forces-a-full-completed-physics-lab-report-all-of-the-labs-remain-the-sam
e-each-year/6742261

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