Moment of Inertia for Rotating Objects Lab Report
For this lab, the guiding question that needed to be answered was: For the system shown below, is there a functional relationship between the rotational inertia of the rotating object and the time required for the hanging mass to fall a known distance that can be determined experimentally? (as seen in Figure 1) Before beginning to attempt to answer the question, the lab had to be set up correctly. First, the rotating object was set tangent to the hanging mass. Once the hanging mass was released from rest, the rotating object began moving in the clockwise direction. The weights placed on the rotating object would also affect the time for the hanging mass to hit the floor.The greater the mass, the less time it would take for the weight to reach the floor. The lesser the mass, the more …show more content…
Once we recorded the time for the mass to reach the floor, the data would be placed in the excel spreadsheet (as seen in Figure 2). To find rotational inertia, the equation I=mr2 had to be rearranged. The new equation resulted with I=1/12*m1(a2+l2) + 1/12*m2(a2+l2) + 1/12*m3(a2+l2) + 1/12*m4(a2+l2) + 1/12*m5(a2+l2) +1/12*m6(a2+l2). Once the rotational inertia was found, it was possible to break down each mass value and add them back together to get a value of .0128.
Figure 2: Rotational Inertia vs. Time Graph
The evidence presented was chosen for this experiment because it displayed different situations where the mass has a functional relationship with the rotational inertia. This evidence is reasonable for answering the guiding question because it shows how rotational inertia and time can have different values if there is more or less mass. The correlation between the points and the trendline support the physics principle used to connect the evidence to the question, which was that rotational inertia = mass x
For this lab, the guiding question that needed to be answered was: For the system shown below, is there a functional relationship between the rotational inertia of the rotating object and the time required for the hanging mass to fall a known distance that can be determined experimentally? (as seen in Figure 1) Before beginning to attempt to answer the question, the lab had to be set up correctly. First, the rotating object was set tangent to the hanging mass. Once the hanging mass was released from rest, the rotating object began moving in the clockwise direction. The weights placed on the rotating object would also affect the time for the hanging mass to hit the floor.The greater the mass, the less time it would take for the weight to reach the floor. The lesser the mass, the more …show more content…
Once we recorded the time for the mass to reach the floor, the data would be placed in the excel spreadsheet (as seen in Figure 2). To find rotational inertia, the equation I=mr2 had to be rearranged. The new equation resulted with I=1/12*m1(a2+l2) + 1/12*m2(a2+l2) + 1/12*m3(a2+l2) + 1/12*m4(a2+l2) + 1/12*m5(a2+l2) +1/12*m6(a2+l2). Once the rotational inertia was found, it was possible to break down each mass value and add them back together to get a value of .0128.
Figure 2: Rotational Inertia vs. Time Graph
The evidence presented was chosen for this experiment because it displayed different situations where the mass has a functional relationship with the rotational inertia. This evidence is reasonable for answering the guiding question because it shows how rotational inertia and time can have different values if there is more or less mass. The correlation between the points and the trendline support the physics principle used to connect the evidence to the question, which was that rotational inertia = mass x