What’s the Big Idea‽
Motion. But this time, not on an incline, but rather, graphed. How does constant velocity and constant acceleration look on a graph? Allons-y !
Procedure
The procedure for this lab was quite simple. Take one video of something exhibiting a constant velocity, another of something exhibiting constant acceleration, and analyze them using Vernier Graphical Analysis.
Takeaways
This lab reinforces the graphical visualisation of kinematics. In order to understand the underlying principles in physics, it is important to understand and interpret graphs for different kinds of motion.
The procedure for this lab was quite simple. Take one video of something exhibiting a constant velocity, another of something exhibiting constant acceleration, and analyze them using Vernier Graphical Analysis.
We represented constant velocity with the tumble buggies, since their velocity changed very little, and constant acceleration with a water droplet, since its velocity increased at a constant rate due to the force of gravity. Though the videos have been lost to the mysteries of existence, the screenshots of our analyses remain intact.
Both graphs show a change in position over time, i.e. velocity. However, since the velocity in the first graph is constant, the graph is linear. The velocity in the second graph is not constant (but the acceleration is), so the graph is quadratic. Notice how acceleration is literally position divided by time squared.
This lab reinforces the graphical visualisation of kinematics. In order to understand the underlying principles in physics, it is important to understand and interpret graphs for different kinds of motion.
No comments:
Post a Comment