Force and Acceleration
Source: Nicholas Timmons, Asantha Cooray, PhD, Department of Physics & Astronomy, School of Physical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA
The goal of this experiment is to understand the components of force and their relation to motion through the use of Newton's second law by measuring the acceleration of a glider being acted upon by a force.
Nearly every aspect of motion in everyday life can be described using Isaac Newton's three laws of motion. They describe how objects in motion will tend to stay in motion (the first law), objects will accelerate when acted upon by a net force (the second law), and every force exerted by an object will have an equal and opposite force exerted back onto that object (the third law). Almost all of high school and undergraduate mechanics is based on these simple concepts.
1. Initial setup.
- The air track will have a pulley connected to one end. Tie the string to one end of the glider and run it through the pulley, where it will be connected to the hanging weight.
- Place the glider at the 190-cm mark on the air track. Place the photogate timer at the 100-cm mark. The glider itself has a mass of 200 g. Hold onto the glider so that it does not move and add weights to the hanging end so that the total mass of the weight is equal to 10 g.
- Once the weights are in p
