Physics Kinematics Lab
Name________________
Read and Re-read all your directions. This is an inquiry type lab, so don’t look for your lab design to be the same
as other lab groups. You will be turning in a separate lab report for this assignment, so write all your notes and
data in your lab notebook. Your lab report will include your data for uniform motion and constant acceleration.
You should include error analysis with your data. Your lab report will summarize your reasoning, lab design, data
and conclusion. Please use the Lab write up handout to help you.
One-dimensional motion with constant speed
We begin our investigation of Kinematics by studying the motion of objects that travel in a straight-line without
speeding up or slowing down. This kind of one-dimensional motion is call uniform motion or motion with
constant speed.
Experiment 1: Uniform motion
The purpose of this experiment is to record the motion of an object. This can be done by noting the time when
the object passes checkpoints.
A. Set up a track at least two meters long so that a ball rolls along the track with nearly uniform motion. (This is
the investigative part, so try several different ways until you get it to work best) Some hints:
1. Each person should be assigned a checkpoint along the path of the moving ball. Think about
a good way to describe the location of each checkpoint and describe it in your notebook.
2. Each person should have a stop watch. Everyone in the group should start their stopwatch
when the ball passes the starting point. Each person’s stopwatch would stop when the ball
passes their checkpoint. What does the timer reading tell you? What should you be seeing the
motion is uniform?
3. Set up a starting ramp on the track. Practice rolling the ball a few times until you able to
obtain the same clock reading repeatedly, and then start taking data. How do you know if the
motion is uniform? If not, what can you do to make the motion more uniform?
B. Once you have data for a run of the experiment that shows that motion was essentially uniform, plot your
data on a graph of distance from the start to the checkpoint versus timer readings at the check point. Use a full
sheet of graph paper so that your graph is large enough to easily read. Take an average of your runs or plot your
best run.
C. The points should nearly form a straight line, but do not connect the dots. Draw a line of best fit to represent
your data. What does the straightness of the graph tell you about the motion?
D. Compute the slope and discuss what the slope represents.
E. Plot the same data on another graph, this time with time on the y-axis and the distance on the x-axis. What
does the slope mean this time?
Experiment 2: Acceleration
Perform an experiment similar to Experiment 1 but with a ball bearing that is speeding up noticeably. What did
you have to do (what was different about your experimental set-up)to make the ball bearing speed up?
A. Plot a graph of your results recording distance from the start on the vertical axis and clock reading on
the horizontal axis.
B. Is it proper to try to draw a straight line through your point? Explain your answer.
C. How can you tell that the object is speeding up by looking at your graph? Does it matter which of the
axes the distance and time are on? Explain.
Discussion:
Consider the motions you examined in Experiment 1 and 2
A. Suppose you were to divide these motions into several consecutive 1 second time intervals… In which of
these motions does the ball bearing travel the same distance during each of the one second intervals?
Explain.
B. In which of these motions does the ball bearing travel different distances during each of the one second
intervals? Explain.
C. Suppose you were to divide the motions into several consecutive one meter intervals. In which of these
motions does the ball bearing take the same duration of time to travel each of the one meter intervals.
Make sure to include all discussion points within the context of your lab report and include all data and graphs.
Please turn in your lab report by ____________________________.