Academic Physics
Lyzinski, CRHS-South
Name: ___________________________
Partner’s Name(s): __________________
Date: _________
__________________
Purpose: During this lab, you will see how a simple motion (you walking down the hallway) can be described using a motion graph. There are many different ways to describe something. You could use words (“Sally backed out of the driveway at a constant speed” or “Bob was stopped at a stoplight and then hit the gas, speeding up at a constant rate”), or you could raise your eyebrows (which might convey some information, but not much

), or you could use a motion graph. Why motion graphs? Because they can provide a lot of information (much more so than words) in a little package.
Equipment needed: Stopwatch, masking tape
Procedure:
1.
Go into a long stretch of hallway and stand close to one end (maybe a few meters away from the very end of the hallway). Put a piece of tape on the ground and label the tape as “0”.
2.
Place another piece of tape on the ground, 5 meters from the “0” piece of tape. Continue placing tape down (in a straight line) until you have 10 total pieces of tape on the ground, each 5 meters apart.
3.
Have one student start walking down the hallway at a constant speed. Make sure that they begin walking a few meters before the first piece of tape, to assure that they hit every piece of tape at roughly the same speed. Lab partners will need to record the times at which the “walker” crosses each of the 10 pieces of tape. Record these times in the table attached.
4.
Remove the tape from the ground.
5.
Use the data that you collected to create an x-t (position vs. time) graph that describes
Tape #
Time
(sec) the person walking down the hallway.
THIS MUST BE DONE ON GRAPH
PAPER!!! Put position on the y axis. This graph must be on an 8-½ x 11” piece of
0
1
2 paper and must be large enough to appropriately fill the space. It must be properly labeled, titled, etc.
3
4
6.
Answer the questions on the back of this lab.
7
8
5
6
9
10
Position relative to starting point (m)

Analysis and conclusions:
1.
What kind of motion did the walker undergo? Explain it in words.
2.
What information might the x-t graph provide that someone watching the event might not be able to provide?
3.
Find a numerical value of this “information” (from question #2) and fully explain (using both words and numbers) how you found this.
4.
Now that you have created an x-t graph, let’s see if you can draw an appropriate x-t graph for some different scenarios. For each descriptive statement below, draw the appropriate x-t graph. a) Tim stood in the hallway, not moving c) Larry was walking down the hallway (in the positive direction) at a constant speed when he suddenly began to slow down. b) Sally stood at rest for awhile, and then sped up, moving down the hallway in the positive direction. d) Alex sped up the negative direction, and then began walking at a constant speed (still in the negative direction).