phy lab 6

Lab Report for Lab 6 – Phy 201 WB 07/11/2023 Lab 6 Testing Newton’s 2nd Law: Simulation Lab for Force Frictionless Situations Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to investigate the variables that affect the acceleration of an object and the manner in which those variables affect the acceleration. Background: When forces are unbalanced, objects accelerate. But what exactly affects the acceleration of the object? You will explore this question by running a collection of simulations in the absence of friction. Set the friction value to 0.00 and run the following trials. Collect sufficient velocity-time information (fifth column) for determining the acceleration in the last column. Trial Applied Force (N) Mass (kg) Net Force (N) Velocity-time information Acceleration (m/s^2) 1 10.0 2.0 10.0 Linear 5 2 20.0 2.0 10.20 Linear 5.1 3 40.0 2.0 30.20 Linear 15.1 4 60.0 2.0 50.20 Linear 25.1 5 80.0 2.0 70.20 Linear 35.1 6 100.0 2.0 90.20 Linear 45.1 7 40.0 1.0 35.10 Linear 35.1 8 40.0 3.0 25.30 Linear 8.4 9 40.0 4.0 20.40 Linear 5.1 10 40.0 5.0 15.50 Linear 3.1 Analysis: 1. What effect does a doubling of the net force have upon the acceleration of the object? Be quantitative. (Don't just say it decreases or increases; indicate the factor by which acceleration decreases or increases.) To find the acceleration of an object you need to look at the mass and net force. However, the mass acceleration inversely depends on it. So if you double †the net force you're also doubling the acceleration. Identify a set of two trials that support your answer above: Trial 3 and 5. It's not an even split but none of the trials above “double” so I chose the closest to a double. 2. What effect does a tripling of the net force have upon the acceleration of the object? Be quantitative.

Seeing that the mass is the same for trial 2 and 3 you can see the correlation of the net force to the acceleration. If the net force triples so does the acceleration. However it also depends on the mass. The more the mass increases the more the acceleration decreases. Identify a set of two trials that support your answer above: Trials 2 and 3. 3. What effect does a doubling of the mass have upon the acceleration of the object? Be quantitative Since the applied force is consistent in this scenario and we double the mass, the acceleration will decrease by the factor of two. So basically while mass is doubled the acceleration is halved. Identify a set of two trials that support your answer above: Trials 9 and 3. 4. What effect does a quadrupling of the mass have upon the acceleration of the object? Be quantitative. If you quadruple the mass while keeping the force consistent it reduces the acceleration by the factor of four. Identify a set of two trials that support your answer above: Trials 7 and 9. 5. Lab partners Vera and Bill Confuzzens attempted to use Trials 5 and 8 to show the effect that a doubling of force has upon the acceleration. Explain why these two trials cannot be used to show the effect of force upon acceleration. These two trials have two different applied forces which can affect the outcome for acceleration. Conclusion: What variables affect the acceleration of an object and in what manner do they affect the acceleration? The acceleration of an object is affected by several variables, and the manner in which they affect acceleration. There is the net force according to Newton's second law of motion, the acceleration (a) of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it. If the net force increases, the acceleration will increase proportionally. In trials 3 and 5 the acceleration doubled almost 15. Conversely, if the net force decreases, the acceleration will decrease proportionally. Also mass, the acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass. When the net force acting on an object is constant, increasing the mass will result in a decrease in acceleration, and decreasing the mass will result in an increase in acceleration. Situations Involving Friction Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to explore some relationships between variables for the situation of a block being accelerated across a horizontal surface by an applied force. Background: When forces are unbalanced, objects accelerate. But what exactly affects the acceleration of the object? What effect does the amount of force that is applied, or the mass of the object, or the amount of friction experienced by the object have upon the acceleration the object experiences? In this activity you will conduct several controlled or simulated studies in order to determine the answer to these questions. Challenge 1: Conduct a controlled study in which you determine the effect of a varying applied force upon the acceleration in the presence of friction. Think hard about what variables you change and what quantities you will keep constant over the course of the study. Run several trials in which you collect data to

Challenge 2: Conduct a study in which you determine the effect of a varying coefficient of friction (mu) upon the acceleration. Run several trials in which you collect data to determine this cause-effect relationship. Before you begin, think hard about what variables you will change and what quantities you will keep constant. If your original plan fails, then adjust your values and start over until you have a sufficient quantity of data. Plot the data and perform linear regression in order to generate an acceleration equation, expressing acceleration as a function of mu. Trial Applied Force (N) Mass (kg) Mu – Net Force (N) Velocity-time Information & Fk (N) Accel’n (m/s^2) 1 10 1 0.10 9.02 Linear & Fk = 0.98 9.02 2 10 1 0.20 8.04 Linear & Fk = 1.96 8.04 3 10 1 0.30 7.06 Linear & Fk = 2.94 7.06 4 10 1 0.40 6.08 Linear & Fk = 3.92 6.08 5 10 1 0.50 5.10 Linear & Fk = 4.9 5.10 6 10 1 0.60 4.12 Linear & Fk = 5.88 4.12 7 10 1 0.70 3.14 Linear & Fk = 6.86 3.14 8 10 1 0.90 1.18 Linear & Fk = 8.82 1.18 N/A = “The box will not move under these conditions” Challenge 2 Conclusion: The equation relating the acceleration (a) to the coefficient of friction (μ) is given by a = μg, where g represents the acceleration due to gravity. The experiment involves measuring the acceleration of the object for different values of the coefficient of friction and plotting the data on a graph. As the coefficient of friction increases, the object experiences a greater resistance to motion, resulting in a lower acceleration. This relationship can be observed by plotting the coefficient of friction on the y-axis and the corresponding acceleration on the x-axis. Upon analyzing the graph, we observe a direct relationship between the coefficient of friction and the acceleration of the object. The data points on the graph show a linear relationship,

indicating that as the coefficient of friction increases, the acceleration of the object decreases proportionally. This observation aligns with the equation a = μg, where a represents the acceleration, μ represents the coefficient of friction, and g represents the acceleration due to gravity. According to this equation, the acceleration is directly proportional to the coefficient of friction. A higher coefficient of friction implies a stronger force opposing motion, resulting in a lower acceleration for the object. Conversely, a lower coefficient of friction allows for less resistance, leading to a higher acceleration. Therefore, based on the data and associated graph, we can conclude that the experimental results support the claim that the equation relating the acceleration to the coefficient of friction is given by a = μg.