Lab 16: Angular Acceleration

Lab 16: Angular Acceleration

Lab Members:

Jarrod Griffin

Christina Vides

Enio Rodriquez

Part 1:

In this lab, we are introduced to the physical concepts between angular kinematics.

Intro:

 This lab provides a real world representation of many variables in angular kinematics. We used an apparatus that is described below in order to accomplish this. We also used Logger Pro to allow us to collect and get a visual representation of the concepts. 

Apparatus/Procedure:

For this lab, we used an apparatus that involved two spinning disk that uses compressed air in order to essentially eliminate friction. We used various different setups of this apparatus to get different results from the lab. The various types of setups are described in the lab. We measured the weight and radius of all components of the apparatus and recorded the data. 

In order to take data, we attached a mass to one end of the string and attached the other end to the center of the torque pulley. This setup was varied multiple times.

Data/Calculations:

We found the above data values by using Logger Pro. We took linear fits of the data for when the mass was moving up and down. We then averaged them in order to more easily work with the data and to compare it. Below is an example of the graph of data we got using Logger Pro. We repeated this test with varied parameters 6 times.

Conclusion:

Part 2:

In part 2 of this lab, we used formulas provided in the lab manual, and our collected data to compare our values for known values. Below is a sample calculation for how we calculated the data. Below that will be the results of all data.

Our results were not the best for this lab. I believe that the errors in the experiment were due to unknown friction in the rotating pulley that guided the string, and other frictional forces. We also had uncertainty in each of our measurements, as we had measured almost every part of this apparatus. Overall the experiment went well, but only one data point came close to what we had expected in our theoretical values.