Lab: Force and Acceleration

Lab 1.9: Force and Acceleration

Nancy Chu, Roxanne Chu,

and Tanvir Islam

SPIK-05

Introduction

In this experiment, an unbalanced force was put into action on a moving body to see its effects. The moving body was the total accelerated mass which varied from 0.020 kg and 0.100 kg. Newton's 2nd law of motion states that acceleration is caused when there is force acting upon an object. The force in this experiment was the gravity and weights that pulled a string attached to the accelerated mass. The equation used to calculate the acceleration was a=2d/t2 which is derived from the formula d=1/2at2. The problem of this experiment is "How does unbalanced force acting on a body moving in a straight line affect its acceleration?" The hypothesis of this experiment was "If the procedure is followed, then the effects of unbalanced force acting on a body moving in a straight line can be found."

Summary Questions

1. The relationship between the slope and accelerated mass is that, the larger the accelerated mass is, the less steep the slope is. That is because when there is more mass, more force is required to accelerate it but for each experiment the same amounts of force, which is the hanging mass and gravity, were used. The relationship shows that with more mass, the resulting acceleration is lower for each amount of accelerating force

2. Newton's 2nd law states that when an unbalanced force is applied on an object, it causes the object to accelerate. This essentially means that when enough force is applied to something, it will start to move. This is verified by the results of the experiment because the force that was provided by the hanging mass and gravity was needed to move and accelerate the cart, which was the accelerated mass. As more and more mass was added onto the cart, the forces became more and more balanced meaning the net force would have been zero and the cart would have remained at rest. Only when there is an unbalanced net force acting on the cart will it move.

3. A common example that I can think of is carrying my book bag on my back. In some manner, as I walk, I always pull my book bag. The force I exert on the book bag would cause it to accelerate. In addition, the heavier the book bag (more mass), with the same force applied, would actually decrease the acceleration. These are examples supporting Newton's 2nd Law.

4. The tension on the string is caused by the pull between the hanging mass and the cart. To calculate the tension of the string, one would use the equation T (tension) = mass of cart x acceleration of cart. Therefore the tension for a hanging mass of .100 kg equals .5kg x .209008 meters