Lab Skills: Introduction to the Air Track∗

1 What is an air track?

An air track is an experimental apparatus that allows the study of motion with minimal
interference by frictional forces. It consist of a track with many small holes through which
air is blown continuously. Gliders are placed on top of the track, but do not contact it, since
the flow of air causes them to hover just slightly off of the track. By allowing the air track
gliders to move on a cushion of air, frictional effects are reduced.
A blower adjusted to the correct output level forces air inside a piece of aluminum extru-
sion. The high air pressure inside the track forces air out of the track through small holes
drilled into the upper surface of the track. The air track glider rides on this surface of air.
To make effective use of eliminating friction from our experiments we need to measure
speeds with great accuracy. This is accomplished with the use of “photogates”. Combined
with these sophisticated timing devices, low friction air tracks enable the experimenter to
make high accuracy confirmations of fundamental motion studies.
Before you start experimenting with the air track, you must learn how to avoid damaging
them. The tracks are made of aluminum which is a soft metal and easily scratched,
nicked, bent, and damaged if not handled carefully. Any irregularity in the track surface
will increase frictional effects and reduce the accuracy of your results. Please be considerate
of our equipment, take care not to damage these tracks as they are expensive and must last
the De Anza physics department a long time.

2 How to avoid damaging the air tracks

1. Never place a glider on a track unless there is air blowing out through the track’s holes.
Never slide a glider along the track unless there is air blowing out through the small
air track holes. Before putting the glider on the track, feel the air blowing out of the
track with your hand. The glider must slide on a layer of air and must never slide
touching the aluminum track. Contact between the glider and track will scratch and
ruin the track’s surface.

2. Remove and replace the track from the storage rack slowly with great care making
sure the track does not collide with other objects. The track is long. Removing
and replacing it is a two person procedure where each person is in charge
of one end of the track to ensure it hits nothing. Hitting the track will throw it
out of alignment. These tracks are straight to within 0.02 millimeters over their entire
length. Deviations from this tolerance will reduce the accuracy of your results.
∗
These notes are by Prof. Newton with small modifications.

1
calculations are made using this length.

3. Never put any kind of tape on the track or glider. Do not write on the glider with pen
F. or pencil.
Calculating It is also
the speed of aaglider
good idea notexperiment.
in an to excessivelyNow
touchthat
the you
trackknow
with the
youreffective
hands length
since finger oil will eventually gum up the track’s surface.
of the flag, you can calculate the average speed of the glider as it moves through the photogate by
dividing the effective
4. Never length
push downofon
theaflag, Leff,On
glider. by or
theofftime
the the
air flag
track,keeps thedownward
pushing timer activated,
on a )t.
glider may bend the delicate sides of the glider. The angle between the sides of the
glider must match the ninety degree angle of the track surface.

3 Preparing the air track, gliders, and photogates for

an experiment

An air track with one glider and one photogate.

3.1 Preparing the air track

1. Carefully remove the air track from its cradle on the storage cart and place it on your
lab bench. This is a two person job!

2. You will also need the following items:

• one air blower box

• one blower box power cord
• one flexible air hose
• two “end pieces” for each end of the track one flat plastic accessory box

3. Connect the air blower hose to the track and the blower; connect the power cord to
the blower. Turn on the blower to a level of about 2 units to allow the track to warm
up. (Once it has warmed up, you will turn it up further before putting a glider on the
track.)

4. In the accessory box you will find four thumb screws used to mount the two end pieces
on the air track. Mount the end pieces on the track. Remember these must be taken
off when you are done.

5. Also from the accessory box, remove two end reflectors (they are flat and U-shaped)
and insert a rubber band tautly in each one. Insert each end reflector in the end piece
you already mounted on the air track. Insert the end reflector in the top hole of the
end piece.

2
3.2 Preparing the glider
The plastic box has many items for the glider. These items can be added to one side
or the other of the glider or the top of the glider. There are also weights provided to
increase the mass of your glider. For the correct balance, weights should always be added
evenly to both sides of the glider. Your lab experiment equipment list will tell you exactly
what accessories are needed for a given lab. You always need at least one glider (see your
experiment equipment list) and the accessory box.
You will always need an accessory in the top of the glider to act as a “flag” (see below,
section 6). The flag triggers the photogate. Typically the flag will be one of the cylindrical
plugs found in the accessory box. You will also need an accessory inserted into both ends of
the glider. Often this will be a cylindrical plug with a flat end on it (two of these are in one
accessory box). Insert one of these cylindrical plugs with a flat end in each end of the glider.
Use the upper of the two holes in the glider end to insert the cylindrical plug. The flat
end on the glider should be oriented vertically so that it will push against the rubber-band
reflector on the end of the air track.
You are asked to hold the glider in your hand when adding accessories to it and not
add accessories while the glider is on the lab bench, or the air track, to prevent having the
sides of the glider bent from pushing down on it while it rests on a hard surface. Your hand
holding the glider will “give” when pushing an accessory into the glider and therefore the
sides of the glider will not be bent or damaged.

3.3 Preparing the photogate timers

You will need at least one photogate timer (see your experiment equipment list). You will
also need a power cord for the photogate. The power cord will have a transformer end that
plugs into the power outlet; you may also need an adaptor to plug the transformer into the
lab bench power strips. The photogate timer is turned on by turning the slide switch to
gate, pulse, or pendulum mode. To correctly position the photogate see sections 4 and 5
below.
Note: When finished with your experiment, the process for disassembling the apparatus
is the reverse of the above. Make sure you take the glider off the track before you turn off
the air blower.

4 How to adjust the air track and photogates for opti-

mum accuracy in measurements
1. Photogate placement. For accurate results the photogates must be correctly placed.
See Figure 1 and notice how close one side of the photogate is to the glider. This
eliminates so-called parallax error. The glider has a “flag” that triggers the timer.
A flag is an object placed on the top of the glider that interrupts the photogate beam
and activates the timer. Use a cylindrical plug on the top of your glider as a flag.
Using the cylindrical plug means that the cross sectional length the beam senses is
independent of the rotation of the cylinder. This is important so you don’t have to
worry about the rotational position of the flag affecting your measurements.

3
 so-called parallax error. The glider has a "flag" that triggers the timer.

A flag is an object placed o

the glider that interrupts the
beam and activates the time
Use a cylindrical plug on th
your glider as a flag. Using
cylindrical plug means that
sectional length the beam s
independent of the rotation
cylinder. This is important
have to worry about the rot
position of the flag affectin
measurements.

The correct
Figure 1: End viewposition ofaligned
of track with the photogate.
photogate and cart.
End View

2. Blower output level. The blower output may be too low or too high. If the blower
output level is too low then the glider may scrape the track and damage could result.
If the blower output level is too high, the glider may be blown one way or the other and
your results will be less accurate. It is better to have the blower output too high than
too low! Note that the air output through the small holes is higher near the blower
input end of the track and air output is lower at the end of the track far from the
blower input. Make sure air output is high enough to keep the glider from scraping the
track at the end of the track farthest away from the blower input. A blower output
level of at least 2.5 is correct when one unweighted glider is on the track.
You will have to increase the output level when two gliders are used or when a more
massive glider is on the track. As long as a glider does not noticeably slow down from
a gentle push, the output level is high enough.

3. How to level the air track. Unless your experiment involves tilting the track for an
inclined plane experiment, you must make sure your track is level. Place one glider
near the center of the track. If the track is level, the glider will drift back and forth
randomly but will not pick up much speed traveling either to the left or to the right.
Placed at rest on the track it should remain at rest. The track is leveled at one end
only using the adjusting screws found on its long “foot”. Leveling may take time, be
patient.

5 Understanding the photogate timer

A narrow infra-red beam is emitted from the arm close to the vertical positioning pole. This
beam strikes a detector in the opposite end of the arm away from the vertical positioning
pole. A timer circuit is connected to the detector that allows four types of timing modes to

4
be used. When theV. Understanding
beam the(Light
is blocked a red LED photogate
Emitting timer:
Diode) lights up on the top
of the photogate arm.
A narrow infra-red b
emitted from the arm
vertical positioning
beam strikes a detec
opposite end of the
the vertical position
timer circuit is conn
detector that allows
timing modes to be
the beam is blocked
(Light Emitting Dio
on the top of the pho
Be careful not The
to over Photogate
tighten the clamp screws on the photogate arm and notice the
small metal lever switch (the memory switch) on the photogate timer cannot be turned in
the left and right direction but up and down only.
The four timingBe careful not to over tighten the clamp screws on the photogate
modes: arm
1. Gate Mode:lever switch
Use this mode(the memory
to calculate switch)
speeds. The on theis photogate
timer timer
activated when the cannot be
direction
beam is blocked. butbeam
When the up isand down the
unblocked only.
timer switches off. If you know the
length, L, of an object (e.g. your glider’s flag) and the time it takes for the object to
go through the photogate then you can compute the average speed of the object as it
passes through the photogate. Note, in reality you must not use the “physical” length
of the object but the so-called “effective” length, Leff , of the object. See the effective
length section found below for more details.

2. Pulse Mode: Use this mode to calculate the time one object moves between two
different photogates placed some distance apart (a second accessory photogate is nec-
essary). Timing begins when the beam is first blocked and continues after the beam
is unblocked; timing terminates when the beam is blocked again a second time at the
second photogate.

3. Pendulum Mode: Use this mode to calculate the period of one full oscillation. The
timer starts when the beam is first interrupted and the timer continues through one
more interruption and then finally stops on the third interruption.

4. Manual Stopwatch: In Pulse mode the START/STOP button makes the timer act
as a conventional stopwatch. In Gate mode the timer starts when the START/STOP
button is pressed and the timer stops as soon as the button is released.

The switches:
Memory switch: Each timer has a memory switch to allow the recall of a previously
timed value. When you recall the stored time, the time displayed is the sum of both events.

5
Therefore you must subtract the two displayed times to find the time of the stored event.
Typically, leave the memory switch in the “off” position.
Resolution switch: The slide switch on the front panel enables the user to set the
“resolution” of the timer to 1 ms (ms = 10−3 seconds) or to 0.1 ms. In both cases the timer
is accurate to 1 percent of its readout. The difference between the two settings is that on
the 1 mS setting a maximum time interval of 20 seconds can be measured whereas on the
0.1 ms setting only a time interval of 2 seconds can be measured. Not remembering this can
lead to many frustrating measurement errors. Unless otherwise told, leave the switch on the
1 ms setting.

6 Finding the effective length of the flag and calculat-

ing its speed
Although it sounds odd, the physical length of the flag you use on the glider is not exactly
equal to the length that the beam senses with the photogate! The length the beam senses is
called the “effective length”, Leff , and can be measured with the following procedure.
1. With the glider off the track and held in your hand, gently place a cylinder into the
top of the glider. This cylinder is your flag. Remember, don’t push down hard on the
glider or you may bend its sides.
2. Make sure the blower is turned on so the glider does not touch the track when placed
on it.
3. Place the glider on the track near a photogate timer switched to GATE mode. Make
sure the photogate is correctly positioned as described above in section 4.
4. Adjust the vertical height of the photogate so only the cylinder on the glider will trigger
the photogate. Move the glider in and out of the photogate. See that as soon as the
flag on your glider blocks the photogate the red LED on the top of the photogate arm
lights up. Use this red LED as the indicator of when the flag first blocks the photogate.
5. You are now ready to measure the effective length of the flag. Make sure the timer
is not running. Slowly move the glider into the photogate until the red LED goes on.
Record in your lab book the position the front edge of the glider makes with the ruler
on the track just when the glider triggers the photogate. Continue to move the glider
through the photogate until the red LED goes off. When the red LED shuts off, record
the new position of the glider’s front edge with respect to the air track’s ruler. The
difference between your two recorded positions is the effective length of your flag, Leff ;
the value should be about 1 cm, you should have the value to one decimal place. Make
sure this length is clearly recorded in your lab book. All speed calculations are made
using this length.
6. Calculating the speed of a glider in an experiment. Now that you know the effective
length of the flag, you can calculate the average speed of the glider as it moves through
the photogate by dividing the effective length of the flag, Leff , by the time the flag
keeps the timer activated, ∆t.
Leff
vglider =
∆t