Simple motion experiments with a datalogger

Demonstration

An introduction to motion using ultrasound position sensors.

Apparatus and materials

Ultrasound position sensor

Trolley, ramp
Lab jack
Buffer to rebound trolley

Technical notes

Most position sensors will return the distance from the sensor. Often they can also produce
automatically a value for velocity and acceleration. They should be able to produce 'live' graphs
and a data collection rate of 10 Hz is adequate.

Safety

Read our standard health & safety guidance

Procedure

There is a series of participative experiments you can perform but the details will depend upon
the datalogging system you have.
 
a Get a few students to produce live position-time graphs of themselves as they walk towards
and away from the sensor. They should be able to identify which parts of each graph correspond
to what they were doing.
 
They can then predict the speed-time graph, which should include positive and negative parts.
Then this can be compared to what the datalogging software produces.
 
b Record the position-time graph of a trolley rolling on a friction-compensated ramp. Place the
sensor at the top of the ramp.
 
Again predict and check the velocity-time graph.
 
c Repeat b but with the ramp steeper so the trolley accelerates. Record the velocity-time graph
and predict the position-time graph and acceleration-time. Again, check with the computer
output.
 
5 Repeat b with a buffer at the bottom of the ramp so the trolley rebounds.
 
6 This last step may confuse even the best students - have them roll the trolley up the ramp
towards the motion sensor so it comes to a halt and then starts to roll back. Again compare
velocity-time and acceleration-time graphs.

Measurement of acceleration using light gates

Demonstration

This activity uses light beams and timing technology to obtain values for acceleration.

Apparatus and materials

 Scaler or datalogging timing system

 Light beam assemblies (sources and sensors), 2
 Dynamics trolley
 Runway, with means to produce a uniform slope
 Elastic cords with means of fixing them to the trolley, 3
 Card
 Stopwatch or stopclock

Technical notes

Whichever device you use, you will need to know how it operates.
 
The card should be 10 or 20 cm long and 5 or 6 cm wide.
 
Depending on the timing device, the lamps and sensors may be connected separately to the timer,
or both of them connected in series with the timer.

Safety

A long runway is too heavy for one person to carry and manipulate: ensure that two persons are
available to set it up.
Read our standard health & safety guidance

Procedure

a Put the trolley on the runway and adjust the slope so that, when you give the trolley a push, it
rolls at a near-steady speed. The force of gravity now compensates for the effects of friction. The
trolley behaves approximately as if there were no friction.
 
b Set up the two light beam source and sensor pairs, at least one metre apart, along the runway
near to the beginning and end of the trolley's journey.
 
c Fix the card to the trolley so that it breaks the light beam between both source and sensor pairs
as it moves down the runway.
 
d Pull the trolley along the runway, starting from above the first light beam, with a constant
force. Use a single elastic cord to do this, keeping it at a fixed amount of stretch or extension.
(Aligning the end of the cord with the front edge of the trolley enables you to keep it at constant
length.)
 
e Measure the times for which the card is blocking each of the light beams. If you are using a
scaler then you will need to read the first time before the trolley gets to the second beam. If you
are using a datalogging system then it will record both of the times.
 
f The distance travelled by the trolley during the two measured times is the width of the card.
Divide distance by time in each case to work out the two velocities.
 
g To work out acceleration, you need to know the time that the trolley takes to travel from one
beam to the other. If you are using a scaler system, you will need to use a separate stopwatch or
stopclock for this. Your datalogging system may be capable of measuring the time directly.
 
h Use a = (v - u)/t to find the trolley's acceleration, where a = acceleration, v = final velocity, u =
initial velocity, t = time between u and v.
Teaching notes

1 This measurement of acceleration takes little time once you have set up the apparatus. Let the
students take their own measurements in groups of two or more.
 
2 You can extend the activity beyond the simple measurement of acceleration to an investigation
of the dependence of acceleration on applied force or on mass. Force can be varied simply by
adding more elastic cords in parallel. Each extra cord, all of them always stretched by the same
amount, adds an extra 'unit' of force. You can vary mass by stacking trolleys one above the other,
using the metal rods supplied.
 
3 The activity raises issues of the distinction between average and instantaneous values of
velocity and acceleration. If the cards were of vanishing width, they would give values of
distance and time for a single instant. This is of course impossible, but the resulting calculated
velocity would be the velocity at that single instant. (Note that a speedometer does supply values
of practically instantaneous velocities, so it is not merely a theoretical concept.) Since the card
has a finite width, the recorded values of distance and time give the velocities averaged over the
fairly short times for which the card breaks the beams.
 
4 Even with instantaneous values of velocities, this experiment yields information about average
acceleration during the time between the two measurements. It does not measure the acceleration
instant by instant as the trolley travels. However, since force and mass are constant, acceleration
is constant. Thus the average acceleration and its acceleration at any instant are, in fact, the same.

 
5 If the timing device does not appear to count correctly:
 
' try adjusting the relative position of the lamp and detector to get maximum illumination of the
latter
 
' try reversing the polarities of the detector.

Multiflash photographs of projectiles

Demonstration

More evidence of Galileo’s insight: the horizontal and vertical motions of a projectile are
independent of each other.

Apparatus and materials

 Steel ball (2.5 cm in diameter is ideal)

 Camera and multiflash system
 Retort stand and boss
  Lamp, 500 W

Technical notes

Read the Guidance note Multiflash Photography for detail of specific methods and for general
hints.
 
You will need a grid made of equally spaced horizontal and vertical lines. Position this so that it
is in the background when the camera operates.

Safety

Read our standard health & safety guidance

Procedure

Making the image

a Set up the multiflash system.
 
b Start the camera and multiflash system and then launch the ball by rolling it along the bench,
so that it rolls off.
 
Analyzing the image
c Use the horizontal and vertical scales to compare the horizontal and vertical spacings of the
ball images.
 
d Describe what happens to the horizontal spacings between each position of the ball.
 
e Describe how the vertical spacings change.

Teaching notes

1 Students should see that the horizontal spacings are constant, since the horizontal velocity is
constant. They should see that the vertical spacings increase according to s=1/2 at2, since the
vertical velocity increases as the ball accelerates downwards.
 
The two motions have different causes and behave differently. It is valid and useful to consider
them separately.
 
Galileo realized this and used the idea to analyze cannonball motion. This revolutionized
‘ballistics’ and hence warfare.
 
2 You could repeat this using a ball showing:
 
• vertical motion of a ball bearing
 
• horizontal motion along a bench at constant speed
 
• projectile motion of a ball bearing thrown out horizontally
 
• two ball bearings released simultaneously; one to perform vertical motion and the other thrown
horizontally to follow parabolic projectile motion.
 
3 Analyze the photographs by transferring the motion to an overlaid grid (e.g. a sheet of acetate).
Mark the positions of the ball bearing on the sheet and then draw lines horizontally and vertically
through the ball bearing positions.
 
Check the vertical motion for constant acceleration (the horizontal lines are spaced from the top
in intervals of 1:4:9:16 ...). Check the horizontal motion for constant speed (the vertical lines are
equally spaced).
 
To calculate the acceleration due to gravity: measure the average speed of the ball bearing near
to the beginning of its motion and near to the end. Divide the time taken between these two
calculations, i.e. from the centre of the space between the two positions of the ball bearing for
which the average speed was calculated in the first position. (It will be the time for one less flash
than the number of images between the first ball position measured and the last.)

Finding the center of mass of a flat

irregular-shaped object
Philllip K. Bigelow
Fig. 1

It is sometimes difficult to accurately determine the center of mass of irregularly-shaped

flat objects, such as the weirdly-formed plate illustrated above (Fig. 1). Here is one
well-known method that always yields excellent results. The method has been in use for
at least two hundred fifty years, but its discovery is probably ancient. Note: In order for
this method to work well, the object must have a uniform thickness.
Step 1) Cut a length of string that is at least as long as the longest dimension of the object
that you are measuring. Attach a weight (such as a lead fishing sinker) to one end. Tie a
small loop at the opposite end of the string.
Step 2) Place a small dot at 3 randomly-placed locations on the object, each dot located
near an edge (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2
Step 3) Using a pin or a nail, punch a hole through each dot. Insert a pin or tack through
one of the holes (Fig. 3). If the object is hard, then you will have to drill a hole in the
object. Important: The hole should be slightly larger than the diameter of the
pin or nail (in other words, the hole should be big enough so that the object rotates
freely on the mounting pin). Then, using the same pin/nail as a hanging attachment,
attach the object onto a vertically-oriented cork board or to a similar vertical wall. Make
 sure that the object can swing freely, with no resistance and no binding.
Fig. 3
Step 4) Next, attach the string with its attached weight onto the pin/nail (Fig. 4). The
weight should hang straight down, with the string perfectly aligned with the "g" (gravity)
vector. The string with its attached weight is your plumb line.
Fig. 4
Step 5) Trace the line of the string onto the object with a pencil or other marker. This step
is where you must be very precise. One easy way to do this is to use as one end point the
hole from which the string is hanging. Then place a mark on the object, directly under the
string, close to its opposite end (to facilitate this, you can shine a flashlight’s beam at
exactly... really...I mean exactly 90 degrees to the surface of the object, and then place
your mark along the shadow that is being cast by the string. Do not touch the string,
itself). Lastly, use a straight edge (ruler) to help you draw a straight line between these
two points.