Question

Use the exact values you enter to make later calculations.

A group of students performed the same "Newton's Second Law" experiment that you did in class. For this lab, assume g = 9.81 m/s². They obtained the following results:

m1(kg)	t1(s)	v1(m/s)	t2(s)	v2(m/s)
0.050	1.2000	0.2500	1.8108	0.3849
0.100	1.2300	0.3240	1.6360	0.6412
0.150	1.1500	0.3820	1.4768	0.8120
0.200	1.1100	0.4240	1.3935	1.0067

where m₁ is the value of the hanging mass (including the mass of the hanger), v₁ is the average velocity and t₁ is the time at which v₁ is the instantaneous velocity for the first photogate, and v₂ is the average velocity and t₂ is the time at which v₂ is the instantaneous velocity for the second photogate.

(a) Use Excel to construct a spreadsheet to do the following. (You will not submit this spreadsheet. However, the results will be needed later in this problem.)

(i) Enter the above data.

(ii) Compute the acceleration, a, for each trial.

(iii) Create a graph of the hanging weight m₁g vs. the acceleration.

(iv) Use the trendline option to draw the best fit line for the above data and determine the slope and y-intercept from it.

(v) report your results below.

slope	=
y-intercept	=

(b) Use the information you obtained from your graph to determine the total mass of the system M = m₁ + m₂.
M =

(c) Using the information you obtained in parts (a) and (b), predict what the value of the acceleration would be if the value of the hanging mass were increased tom₁ = 0.50 kg.
a =

Answer 1

a) multiply all m1 values by g (9.8 m/s^2). find acceleration by finding the change in velocity by the change in time. (v2-v1)/(t2-t1) for each. Essentially, the first acceleration value would be (0.4876-.25) / (1.7582-1.2). Then type in acceleration values as x and m1g as your y values in excel.

-make a scatter plot, right click on one of the points, add trendline, and set it to where it displays chart on worksheet. your slope and y intercepts are right there! slope will be in kg and y intercept will be in N.
b) is the same answer you got for slope.

c) I am not sure how to do c correctly or explain it But there are a and b!
hope this helps!