Three tests are done through a Gizmo to determine how radius, mass, and velocity affects centripetal acceleration of an object undergoing uniform motion. The results show centripetal acceleration is affected by radius and velocity but not mass. It gives a better understanding to why objects in uniform motion accelerate towards the centre of a circle.
Introduction
The purpose of this lab is to determine how the radius, mass and speed of an object can affect the centripetal acceleration of the object in uniform motion. Some concepts used to understand this lab are:
1. Acceleration (a=v/t), although velocity is constant, the velocity vector changes in direction which results in acceleration. This proves velocity should affect centripetal acceleration …show more content…
Newton's second law F=ma states the more mass the more force is required to accelerate an object, but here force is not involve only radius and speed. Therefore mass does not affect the acceleration. This is proven by the data “table 2” since acceleration remained the same for all ten difference masses. Next, changing the radius will affect the acceleration. As the radius becomes greater, the acceleration decreases since the object is further away from the middle and how a greater distance to travel to make a full circle, the acceleration decreases because circumference of greater so a much smaller slope would be found from a tangent. However if the radius is very small, the circumference would be smaller. As well a much steeper slope would be calculate from the tangent, therefore indicating a greater acceleration. This theory is also proven by the results since the data shows a decrease in acceleration as the radius decreases in “table 1”Lastly, changing the speed of the object affects the acceleration greatly since acceleration is speed divided by time. Therefore the greater the speed the greater the acceleration of an object. This reflects the results since the chart shows an increase in acceleration as the velocity increases. To conclude, both radius and speed affects the acceleration but mass has no effect on acceleration. Therefore the theories match the
Introduction
The purpose of this lab is to determine how the radius, mass and speed of an object can affect the centripetal acceleration of the object in uniform motion. Some concepts used to understand this lab are:
1. Acceleration (a=v/t), although velocity is constant, the velocity vector changes in direction which results in acceleration. This proves velocity should affect centripetal acceleration …show more content…
Newton's second law F=ma states the more mass the more force is required to accelerate an object, but here force is not involve only radius and speed. Therefore mass does not affect the acceleration. This is proven by the data “table 2” since acceleration remained the same for all ten difference masses. Next, changing the radius will affect the acceleration. As the radius becomes greater, the acceleration decreases since the object is further away from the middle and how a greater distance to travel to make a full circle, the acceleration decreases because circumference of greater so a much smaller slope would be found from a tangent. However if the radius is very small, the circumference would be smaller. As well a much steeper slope would be calculate from the tangent, therefore indicating a greater acceleration. This theory is also proven by the results since the data shows a decrease in acceleration as the radius decreases in “table 1”Lastly, changing the speed of the object affects the acceleration greatly since acceleration is speed divided by time. Therefore the greater the speed the greater the acceleration of an object. This reflects the results since the chart shows an increase in acceleration as the velocity increases. To conclude, both radius and speed affects the acceleration but mass has no effect on acceleration. Therefore the theories match the