Experiment: Motion Analysis

PHYSICS LAB REPORT

Experiment1: Motion Analysis

Aim: To analyse motion of different types of balls rolling over inclined planks.

Hypothesis: If a ball is let go freely on the steep end of the plank, the force of gravity will act on it and because it cannot fall freely to the ground it will roll over the inclined plank and it will accelerate as it moves towards the low end of the plank and therefore its velocity will increase steadily till the time it reaches the bottom. This is when the ball starts to decelerate.

List of equipment: Two smooth planks, one cricket ball, one tennis ball, one plastic ball, three stop watches (digital or analogue).

Experiment setup:

Method: One by one, the balls were made to roll down the plank onto the smooth flat plain. The time was noted at every 1 meter interval when the ball passed that mark.

English: A free-falling object achieves its termin...

English: Acceleration as derivative of velocity al...

Ball pool

For each 1 meter section between A&B and B&C, the average speed was calculated. Then for each motion a line graph was constructed showing the position of the ball at various intervals of times.

Data Collection: For each ball the data was collected adequate number of times for getting a sufficient relevant data. The responsibilities among the group were also interchanged (that of keeping the time and releasing the ball).

Tennis Ball(79.5g)

Time(s) Distance(m) Velocity(m/s) Acceleration(m/s^2)

0 0 0 0

0.63 1 1.58 2.51

1.00 2 2.70 7.30

1.40 3 2.50 6.25

0 0 0 0

0.69 1 1.44 2.10

1.50 2 1.23 1.52

2.40 3 1.11 1.23

Cricket Ball(101.5g)

Time(s) Distance(m) Velocity(m/s) Acceleration(m/s^2)

0 0 0 0

0.31 1 3.22 10.40

0.85 2 1.85 3.42

1.20 3 2.85 8.16

0 0 0 0

0.66 1 1.51 2.29

1.50 2 1.19 1.41

2.30 3 1.25 1.5

Plastic Ball(2.7g)

Time(s) Distance(m) Velocity(m/s) Acceleration(m/s^2)

0 0 0 0

0.66 1 1.51 2.29

1.00 2 2.94 8.65

1.50 3 2.00 4.00...