Projectile Motion Experiment

Decent Essays
This lab is divided into two major sections: the measurement of a freely falling objects and the measurement of projectile motion. Though the two fall under different subjects, both of them use many of the same concepts. As such, the calculations that overlap between experiments will be discussed before the procedures.
Technology: In order to capture the initial velocity of an object, a photogate was used. This device fires a constant laser towards a sensor. When the beam is interrupted, the photogate records how quickly the object passing by was moving. By measuring these interruptions, we were able to get the initial velocity of our objects.
Newton’s Laws: Regardless if the experiment was freely falling objects or projectile motion, Newton’s
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The second equation merely states that the final velocity is equal to the initial velocity plus the product of the acceleration and the time. This is true assuming that there are no outside forces acting against the object. If there is no outside force to oppose the initial force, then the velocity of the object will continue to increase at a specified rate.
The third equation finds the product of the change in distance multiplied by double the acceleration. The initial velocity squared is added to this to find the final velocity squared.
In all three equations, we substitute what we know based off what we received from the
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We measured it first with 0 mass, and then we added 100 grams and then 300 grams to measure any changes in acceleration with increased mass. We attempted to minimize error by releasing the bar tape from as close to 90° as we could get to avoid any air resistance that would result from horizontal movement. The Loggerpro software did all the calculations for us and gave us the velocity. We were to assume that air resistance was negligible, so the output wasn’t exactly

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