SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCES

A-LEVEL TRAINING AND CONSULTATION UNIT (ATCU)

Experiment 2 Newton's Second Law AIM The aim of this experiment is to investigate that a constant force when applied to objects of different masses, the resulting acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the object. APPARATUS Plane with pulley, metre rule, scale pan, trolley, ticker timer, tape, masses. The Ticker Timer The ticker tape timer is used in the measurement of velocity, acceleration and general timing. It has a frequency of 50 to 60Hz (varies according to type) equivalent to that of the mains power supply. The timer uses an electromagnet which activates a striker producing dots via a carbon disk on the ticker tape. At 50Hz, each dot will represent 0.02seconds ie when you pull a tape through the ticker, it puts a mark on the tape every one-fiftieth of a second. If the tape moves slowly the distance between adjacent dots is small; if it moves faster the distance increases. By measuring the distances of dots from some reference point, and the time taken for covering the corresponding distances, one can calculate the average velocity and instantaneous velocity of the body at the corresponding times. Figure 1 If the distance between two adjacent dots is 1cm, then speed=1cm/0.02s= 50 cm/s. THEORY Let m = hanging mass (100gm/200gm) Mx = extra masses added to the trolley (0.5Kg, 1Kg) M = mass of the trolley. If T is the tension in the string and a is the acceleration then for the arrangement shown above, the equations of motion for the bodies are as follows (assuming negligible friction between the trolley and the plane):

Figure 2a.

Figure 2b.

From Figure 2a, it follows from Newton's second law that mg T = ma (i)

From Figure 2b, again it follows from the second law that T = ( M + Mx )a (ii)

Adding equations (i) & (ii), T cancels and we get : mg = ( Mx + M + m )a (iii)

m Hence, a g M M m
Comparing equation (iii) with Newton's second law, F = mass acceleration, we see that in the above arrangement, mg supplies the applied force and the mass that undergoes the acceleration is (Mx+ M + m). PROCEDURE 1. Measure as accurately as possible the following masses. Mass Mass Mass Mass of of of m the trolley, M = ...... the scale pan, m1 = ...... the added weight in the scale pan, m2 = ...... = m1 + m2 = ......

2. Arrange the equipment as shown in Figure 1. Move the trolley to the opposite end of the track and add mass Mx=1.5kg to the trolley. Add small weights to the scale pan until the trolley just begins to move. Now add an additional mass 30g. All these masses on the scale pan provide the net applied force and should be kept constant throughout the experiment. 3. First with Mx = 0, obtain the ticker tape of the motion when the applied force is mg. 4. Obtain ticker tapes for motions when extra masses of Mx= 0.5kg, 1.0kg, and 1.5kg, are added to the trolley. You should obtain four tapes for the four masses added. 5. For each of the four tapes calculate the instantaneous velocity (v) and average velocity (V) at five points on the ticker tape.

6. Tabulate your results as shown below. Make tables for each masses as shown below. Mass Mx = ...... t sec 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 S mm S mm t sec v =S/t mm/s V =S/t mm/s

7. Draw velocity-time graphs for the four motions: Mx = 0, 0.5kg, 1kg, and 1.5kg. For each graph (line), calculate the acceleration for each system and tabulate your results as follows. Mx (kg) 0 0.5 1 1.5 8. Referring to equation (iii), plot a graph of acceleration a against (Mx + M + m)1 and verify Newton's second law (F=ma).Use your graph to estimate the applied force on the trolley. Note:-Measurement of average velocity and instantaneous velocity (i) Average velocity The average velocity is the total displacement divided by the total time. Let S be the distance travelled for a given time t. Then the average velocity=S/t. For example, the distance S = 0 at time t = 0 for obvious reasons. Now to find the distance travelled for time t = 0.1s, choose a convenient point on the ticker tape and assume t = 0sec at this point and count the number of points which gives you t = 0.1s. Mark this point and now measure the distance between the marked point and the point at which you had assumed t = 0s. This distance is now S which is covered in time t = 0.1s. From this data, the average velocity for the time interval t = 0.1s can be calculated. (ii) Instantaneous velocity If the velocity is changing, the velocity at any instant is called the Instantaneous velocity. To find the instantaneous velocity, we need to measure the change in displacement over a very short time interval, and divide that displacement by the short time. This is done as follows. (M + Mx + m) (kg) (M + Mx + m)1 (kg)-1 Acceleration from the graphs (ms2)

Choose some convenient point on the ticker tape and assume time t = 0s for this point. Now choose a point at time t and mark the immediate neighbouring points to the left and right. Measure the distance between these two marked points. Following diagram illustrates this procedure:

Figure 3. Figure 3 shows that the point t=0 is selected arbitrarily; then t=0.2s is selected as the first point, which corresponds to 10 dots from t=0 as the reference point. At this point, the distance between two neighbouring points is S1 covered in the interval of time 0.04s. Hence the velocity v1 = S1/0.04 at time 0.2s. The next point selected is at time t=0.4s with the distance between neighbouring points being S2 .Velocity v2 = S2/0.04 at time 0.4s. Note that t=0.4s is exactly 20 dots from the reference point t=0 and the distance between two neighbouring points is covered in 0.04s. S 1 and S2 are the distances from the point at t=0 to t1=0.2s and to t2=0.4s respectively.

Prepared by: Dr. Rekha Rajan Department Of Physics