Motion

Vivek Vadali
Matt Graham
9/29/08
Components of Motion

Purpose:

The purpose of this lab is to investigate the independence of horizontal and vertical components of motion as well as predicting the landing point of a horizontally launched object.
Pre-Lab Questions:
1. What measurements do you need to determine the speed of a ball at a single photogate? What equation would you use?
A.) Diameter of the ball and the time it takes for the ball to pass the photo gate. d=rt.    
2.   If a ball was dropped from the top of a 10 m building, what equation would you use to   calculate the time in air?
B.) d=0.5gt²
3. If the ball in Question 2 was thrown with a horizontal velocity of the 5 m/s, how would this affect the time to hit the ground? What would it affect? How would you calculate this distance?
C.) Time for the ball to hit the ground will remain constant. Horizontal velocity will affect the horizontal distance of the ball. Calculate the time the ball uses to fall straight down from the 10 m building. Then plug in the time for t and the rate, 5 m/s, for r in the equation d=rt to find the distance (d).  
4.   A ball is tossed out a 20 m tall building at a horizontal speed of 2.5 m/s, how far will it land from the bottom of the building?
D. The ball will land 5.06 m from the bottom of the building.
Equipment:
o Marble
o “Plumb Bob”
o Cup
o Meter stick
o 2 Photogates (A and B)
o 2 Textbooks (for elevation)
o Wooden Funnel
o Table





Procedure:
1.) Ask the teacher for a marble.
2.) Set up the CPO photogates and ramp. Place the photogates 10 cm apart and 10 cm from the bottom of the ramp.
3.) Place the marble on the ramp and release it from the same point each time.
4.) Record the time through photogate B for 5 trials.
5.) Find the speed of the marble at photogate B.
6.) Give the teacher your marble.
7.) Remove the photogates and make sure your ramp is 20 cm from the edge of the table.
8.) Measure the height of your... [continues]

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