Name__________________________
Lab 2 Acceleration
Partners___________________________________
JUNIOR PHYSICS LABORATORY
Acceleration is defined as the rate velocity changes with time. From your own experience,
you know, qualitatively, that you must apply a push or a pull in order to move an object from rest
or to change its velocity while it is moving. In this experiment you will investigate the
quantitative relationship between the velocity change of an object and its acceleration. An
incline with variable steepness will provide the different accelerations necessary. Similar to the
previous experiment, the quantitative and graphical relationships between velocity and
acceleration will be determined.
PROCEDURE
1. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP:
(a) Turn on the ExplorerGLX, plug in the digital adapter and motion sensor. Be sure to plug the
motion sensor in correctly.
(b) Set the trigger rate for the motion sensor at 20 Hz.
(c) Setup the components of the experiment as shown in figure 1.
(d) Make sure the GLX screen is set to display both velocity versus time and acceleration versus
time.
Measurement 1
(a) Click the record button to record the cart accelerating uniformly away from the motion
sensor. (b) Record two separate data runs, each a good representation of constant acceleration.
(c) SAVE the data to your files. Save first to the GLX, then to your flash drive.
Measurement 2
Repeat the steps of measurement 1, but with a different rate of acceleration this time towards the
motion sensor. Be sure to start far enough away from the sensor so that you have room to
complete your experimental run without ramming the cart into the motion sensor and that
you catch the cart before it hits the sensor.
Measurement 3
(a) Place the motion sensor on the floor and place a protective basket over the motion
sensor.
(b) Allow a medium sized notebook to fall freely onto the motion sensor from a height of
approximately 3m. Record your results.
Graph Matching:
Using either the lab cart or a lab partner, recreate the following graphs experimentally.
You will need to analyze your graphs in DataStudio, be sure they are saved on
a flash drive and answer the questions in the worksheet.