One Dimensional Motion and Graphical Analysis (Physics 105L, Sierra College)

In this experiment, we learn about one dimensional motion of a cart being drawn by a constant tension, which should give it a constant acceleration. As the cart moves, a piece of heat-sensitive tape is pulled forward with it and a spark gap leaves small points on the tape every 0.05 seconds. Students tabulate this data and use the program Graphical Analysis to produce curve fits to the data.

Corrections and addenda:
• You do not have to do Part 1 of the experiment. (My sections only.)
• Your instructor may not request that you turn in a copy of your acceleration graph since students are not instructed to do so in the lab manual. For my classes, I would still like you to do so.
• Take good care of your heat sensitive tape. Don't throw it away until your write-up is submitted. Reading the tape is a little tricky and you may notice that your quadratic fit has a kink in it. This can be because you neglected to include a data point or you included what you thought was a data point but was instead just a stray mark on the tape. If your quadratic fit isn't very good, take a closer look at your tape and add or remove data points as needed.
• If error values do not automatically appear on your best-fit curves, just right-click the box with your curve fit parameters, then click "Curve Fit Options..." or "Linear Fit Options..." and then check the box labeled "Show Uncertainty".
• It is a good idea to change the font size on the fit parameters box for better visibility. Right-click the box, select "Linear Fit Options...", click "Appearance", and then in the dropdown menu, select a larger font size. 20 point font is reasonable.
• If you do not have access to a color printer, graphing position, velocity, and acceleration in different colors will not differentiate your three figures. In that event, you should instead use different markers to distinguish between them.

[zachariahjose]

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