Physics Kinematics Lab Report
Kinematics is the study of the motion of bodies without reference to mass or force. This lab aided students in observing kinematics by giving them a visual graph to look at from experiments previously performed. Variables used in this lab were “x” for position of the object, “v” for velocity of the object, and “a” for acceleration of the object. Understanding the graphical representation of motion was important in helping students understand how position, velocity, and acceleration are affected with a moving object over a certain period of time. Using a motion detector and an Xplorer GLX, a calculator that graphed our distance velocity, and acceleration, students were able to create graphs for the information. The purpose of this lab was to allow students to visualize a graphical representation of the physics of kinematics being preformed.
For this lab students used the following materials: silver pasco dynamics track, mechanics box- with pulley, black variable speed cart, Xplorer GLX (captures, analyzes, annotates, and stores data quickly and seamlessly, without being connected to a desktop computer), 50g mass, string, meter stick, colored tape, and scissors. With the above materials students were able to run the four experiments.
For experiment students turned on the Xplorer GLX, put the motion detector at the end of the silver track, and aimed the black variable speed cart away from the motion detector. They pressed the play button on the GLX and a clicking noise began on the motion detector. This meant the motion detector was picking up motion from the cart. Hitting the play button once again was necessary to stop the GLX when finished collecting data. A fast and slow run was done. The line going up to the right meant that when the cart was moving away from the motion detector at a constant rate there was a positive slope. If the