Unbalanced Force Lab

Riley Morrison Matt Spiedell, Nick Reid, Justin, Kevin April 4, 2011 Mr. Thronton

Purpose: To explain how the acceleration of the cart depends on the net force acting on the cart and the mass of the cart. His will also be expressed in an equation. Hypothesis: The cart will slow down when more weight is added to the cart, and the cart will speed up when more weight is added at the end of the string. Data: Part One:
Mass Total Net Force Displacement Time (kg) (kg) (N) (m) (s) Acceleration (m/s/s) 0.55 0.65 0.98 0.565 1.25 0.723 0.5 0.65 1.47 0.565 0.97 1.2 0.45 0.65 1.96 0.565 0.89 1.42 0.4 0.65 2.45 0.565 0.72 2.18 0.2 0.65 4.41 0.565 0.49 4.71 0 0.65 6.37 0.565 0.36 8.71

The slope of the line of best fit is 1.25 in kilograms. What this represents is the amount of weight added to the cart on each run, and we started off by adding 0.5kg per run then went up to adding 2kg per run. The average between 2 and 0.5 is 1.25. 2kg+0.5kg=2.5kg, 2.5kg/2=1.25kg. Part Two:

Mass Total Net Force Displacement Time Acceleration (kg) (kg) (N) (m) (s) (m/s/s) 0.06 0.16 0.98 0.565 0.71 2.24 0.11 0.21 0.98 0.565 0.69 2.37 0.16 0.26 0.98 0.565 0.63 2.85 0.21 0.31 0.98 0.565 0.68 2.44 1.21 1.31 0.98 0.565 0.99 1.15 2.21 2.31 0.98 0.565 1.24 0.73

What the slope of the line of best fit in the 1/mass graph represents, is the amount of weight added to the cart between each run. Ours was not straight because we didnt always add weight constantly. Calculations: Net Force: Fnet=Fg Fnet=mg Fnet=(0.1kg)(9.8m/s/s) Fnet=0.98N Acceleration: D=Vit+1/2at^2 D=1/2at^2 A=2d/t^2 A=(2*0.565m)/(0.71s^2) A=2.24m/s/s Conclusion: The major results of the lab were that the cart will accelerate faster when there is a lot of weight pulling it and less weight on the cart, and that the cart will accelerate slower when there is a lot of weight on the cart and less pulling it. Three sources of error would be friction on the cart, friction between the string and the pulley, and unreliable timing. The reason why the data of part two goes up before it goes down is because the weight was increasing by to small of increments and from human error while using the stop watch. Thats why the weight was increased during the last two runs by a much higher weight.