Newton's 2nd Law Laboratory
Read the lab manual, Chapter 3, Newton's second law.
Use the same sonic ranger program as before.
Use the smallest nuts as weights. Put 5 or 10 on the balance to determine mass (around 4.7 g each)
You need the mass of something else. What is it?
Turn the air supply on '3' and get the track as level as possible.
Do a run where you shove the cart gently. Fit v,t to see what acceleration there is. Call it a*
If a*<0.01 m/s^2, don't subtract from your subsequent values of acceleration
Attach the string to the cart over the pulley to a paper-clip hanger.
Do 3 trials for each of 4 sets of data. Use the smallest nut (from 2 to 8 of them, so m differs by about 9 g each time. From about 9 to 36 g)
for each run, fit x,t to find acceleration and also fit v,t to find acceleration
record the equations in your lab notebook
average the accelerations for each run, all 6 of them. Subtract a* if necessary.
if you are running short of time, just do 2, 4, and 8 nuts.
Check the theory section on p. 3-18.
If you plot the hanging mass m vs acceleration, you will not quite get a straight line.
What must you plot in order to get a straight line?
Do the plot which should give you a straight line.
Put error bars on the acceleration axis, based on standard deviation.
Measure the slope. Compare it to theory.
Carefully describe your work in your lab notebook. Be thorough!