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Lab 4.4 Acceleration With Photogates

The document describes an experiment to determine the acceleration of a toy car rolling down an inclined ramp. Students will use photogates and a timer to measure the time taken for the car to pass through two gates at different distances down the ramp. From this they can calculate the speed at each gate and then the acceleration by taking the change in speed over the time interval. By graphing speed versus time, students should see that speed increases linearly as distance and time increase, indicating the acceleration is constant, close to the acceleration due to gravity.

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Amy Tan
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89 views3 pages

Lab 4.4 Acceleration With Photogates

The document describes an experiment to determine the acceleration of a toy car rolling down an inclined ramp. Students will use photogates and a timer to measure the time taken for the car to pass through two gates at different distances down the ramp. From this they can calculate the speed at each gate and then the acceleration by taking the change in speed over the time interval. By graphing speed versus time, students should see that speed increases linearly as distance and time increase, indicating the acceleration is constant, close to the acceleration due to gravity.

Uploaded by

Amy Tan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lab 4.

4 : Acceleration Name ____________________________ Class________

Purpose: For this investigation, you will examine the data you collect with the car and ramp system. Using
your data, you will determine the rate of acceleration of the car. You will be using a photogate timer to
accurately measure the time of your car at two positions along the track.

Concept and Skill Check:

When the “A” light is on, the timer reads the time for the car to roll through gate “A”, the time the light beam is
broken for gate “A”. The same is the case when the “B” light is lit. When both “A” and “B” are lit, that is the
time it took the car to travel from gate “A” to gate “B”.

Finding the speed knowing the time through a gate:


Lab 4.4 : Acceleration Name ____________________________ Class________

Materials:
Physics Stand Ramp Car
Photogates Timer box Graph paper

Procedure:

1. Set up the car and ramp as shown on the first page. Place the ramp in the seventh hole on the physics
stand. Attach photogate A at the 10 cm mark on your ramp. Photogate A will stay fixed during the
entire experiment.
2. Set photogate B down the ramp at the 20 cm mark (10 cm from Photogate A), the first position
indicated in the data table. You will move photogate B to different positions to make measurements
throughout the lab.
3. Turn on the timing device and make sure it is in interval mode. Press the buttons under both A and B
so both lights are on. Position the car at the extreme top of the ramp. Press reset so the timer reads “0”.
The timer is now set to record your times. Release the car from the extreme top of the ramp each time.
4. Record the times in Table 1. The first time you will read with both A and B lights on is the “Time from
A to B”. This should be the largest time value of the three times recorded. Push the B button so only
the A light is lit. This is the “Time through gate A”. Now push the A and B buttons until only the B
light is lit. This is the “Time through gate B”.
5. You will repeat this procedure for the six gate positions in Table 1. Make sure to always have the timers
reset to zero when the car is at the top of the ramp. A safe sequence to follow would be:
 Position Gate B
 Pull car to top of ramp
 Reset timer with A and B lit
 Release Car
 Record times
6. Using the fact that the car’s wing has a length of 5 cm, calculate the “Speed at gate A” and the “Speed at
gate B” in cm/sec. Speed at gate A = 5cm/time A Speed at gate B = 5cm/time B

Observations and Data:

Table 1:
Position of Position of Time from Time Time Speed at gate Speed at gate
Photogate A Photogate B A to B (sec) through through A (cm/sec) B (cm/sec)
(cm) (cm) gate A (sec) gate B (sec) v1 v2
10 20
10 30
10 40
10 50
10 60
10 70
Lab 4.4 : Acceleration Name ____________________________ Class________

Analysis:
1. Use the data from Table 1 to make a speed versus time graph. Start numbering the graph at zero. The
x-axis will be time. The y-axis will be speed. You will graph the time from Gate A to Gate B. The
speed axis should be the speed at photogate B. (These two columns are shaded above.) Make sure to
draw a best-fit line through the data points. This line will not start at (0,0).

2. As the car had more time to roll down the ramp, what happened to the speed?

3. What is shape of your best-fit line (a line where just as many data points lie above the line as below the
line)? Does the car gain speed evenly as it rolls down the ramp? How does the graph tell you this?

4. Use the formula for acceleration a = (v2 – v1)


t

where “v1” is the speed at gate A, “v2” is the speed at gate B. The time from A to B is “t” the car
had to change speed. Do the acceleration calculation below for the first set of data and the last set of
data. Show all five steps for each problem.

First Set of Data Last Set of Data

5. Gravity is the force that is causing the car to accelerate down the ramp. You can see from your data table
that the speed is increasing as the car travels further down the ramp. Look at your answers from #4 above.
How do the accelerations you calculated above compare to each other?

6. Even though the car has increasing ____________________, the ____________________ is fairly constant.

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