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i)
ii)
Experiment
Resistivity of iron wire
To determine the %loss in KE of
bouncing ball
Resistivity of constantan wire
Hooke's Law
Resistivity of a metal
Young Modulus of a wire
To investigate the variation in R of NTC
thermistor
Viscosity of oil
EMF and internal resistance of a cell
Acceleration of free fall
EMF and internal resistance of a solar
cell
???
Year
marks
Jun-09
7
Jan-10
Jan-10
Jan-10
Jun-10
Jan-11
5
9
7
9
12
Jun-11
Jan-12
Jun-12
Jan-13
11
13
13
4
Jan-13
Jun-13
14
???
All these experiments are suggested in the syllabus. Some experiments which
are also suggested but have not come up are:
Experiment
Estimate power output or efficiency of an
electric motor
Stress-strain experiment for rubber
Force-compression experiments
Measure the speed of sound in air using
standing waves
Measure the speed of sound in a solid
Measure the refractive index for a liquid
I-V graphs experiments
iii)
iv)
Book page
3
This was just an introduction. In Part II we will see specific examples of
questions.
Say you have to measure the time for a ball to fall through a
distance. Below you can find an examiners summary of the pros and
cons of using light gates connected to a data logger vs the stopwatch
method.
There are other cases where data loggers can be employed but sensors other
than light gates are used. For example if one wants to take temperature
measurements of a hot liquid as it cools down they will need a temperature
sensor connected to the data logger. Of course the other way to do it would be
to use a thermometer. Here are the pros and cons.
5
unavailable one has the choice of digital multimeters vs analogue meters. Below
you can see the pros and cons.
Youngs modulus
Diagram
Brief description
Viscosity of a liquid
Experiment
Acceleration of free
fall (g)
Diagram
Brief description
Experiment
Diagram
Brief description
Experiment
Diagram
Brief description
Experiment
Diagram
Brief description
10
Experiment
Diagram
Brief description
11
12
the form y=mx +C so that we obtain a straight line from which we can get
something from the gradient and/or the y-intercept.
All these points are really good. Id like to discuss some of them.
Say you are carrying out an experiment to discuss how extension (x) varies with
force applied (F) on a piece of wire. If you carry out the experiment and you
obtain a straight line through the origin this means that the two variables, x
and F, are directly proportional. So,
F x
We can now write an equation of the form y=mx as,
F=k x
So the gradient of a graph of F against x is equal to k (the stiffness of the wire
or if it was a spring the spring constant).
On the other hand if we plot x against F the gradient will be equal to
1
k
Another important point is that if we have many measurements its hard to pick
out the anomalous readings which could have arisen due to a mistake while
carrying out the experiment. With a graph these can easily be identified.
Systematic errors are errors in the experiment that affect all our results
equally. These usually arise due to careless usage of measuring instruments or
zero errors in the instruments themselves or wrong calibration of the instrument.
Let me give you examples.
Say that you want to measure the height of a bench using a ruler which doesnt
have the zero mark right at the edge of the ruler. Say that theres a 0.5 cm
interval before the zero mark. If you take your measurements forgetting about
this then all your measurements will be bigger than what they should be by 0.5
13
cm. This is what we call a zero error and its a systematic error. Such errors can
even arise when we use electronic equipment as well! For example ammeters,
electronic balances, electronic force sensors etc often have zero errors. One has
to calibrate an instrument or correct zero errors before using the instrument. If
this is not done then systematic errors might give rise to unexpected yintercepts. For example you may carry out a current- voltage experiment for an
ohmic conductor and obtain a straight line that does not pass through the origin
as expected!
Random errors are errors which occur due to unpredictable changes which
might occur in the environment of the experimental setup or in the instruments
themselves.
Say you are carrying out an experiment at room temperature and theres a
sudden change in T due to change in weather. You cant do much about this and
your results might be affected. Minimising random errors involves taking a
large number of measurements and calculating an average or drawing a
line of best fit in the case where you plot a graph.
The points accepted in such questions are very typical so learn them as most
probably you will face such a question. The marks scheme for thi one:
14
15
16
So far there have been few marks per paper dedicated to calculating uncertainties and %
uncertainties.( June 2009, q6(b) (2marks), Jan 2010, q7(e) (1mark), June 2010, q5 (c)
(2marks), q6 (b) (1), June 2011 q8 (bii) (2marks), June 2012 q8 (b) (4marks).