Wednesday, September 17, 2008

"Graphing Your Motion" Lab

On Tuesday, September 16, we preformed a lab that helped us to interpret motion graphs. We used the Vernier Motion Detector to measure position, velocity, and acceleration. We positioned the motion detector on the floor and marked a four meter straight line with masking tape.

My job in the experiment was to stand on the one meter mark and slowly walk backwards to the four meter mark, while my partners controlled the motion detector to monitor my movements. After the data has been recorded, the screen shows two graphs: one documents the positon, and the other documents velocity. As I walked slowly backwards to the four meter mark, the position graph lines went from the bottom to the top of the graph. The postion graph looked like stair steps, and the velocity graph spkiked and declined rapidly.

Our next test was to start at the four meter mark and walk a little faster towards the one meter mark. This time, the graphs were backwards. The position graph lines went from top to bottom, but still looked like stair steps. The velocity graph was also reversed. Acceleration is represented in the graphs by how close the stair steps (on the position graphs) and the humps (on the velocity graph) are on the graphs. The farther apart they are separated, the slower the acceleration.

We were not able to finish our lab today, but for the most part, I learned alot about velocity, position and acceleration.

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