Horizontal Circular Motion Lab

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Physics 20IB: Horizontal Circular Motion Lab

Aim: Determine the mass of a metal mass using the principles of horizontal circular motion.

Experimental Design:  A stopper that is attached to a vertical mass will be swung in horizontal circular motion using a specially set up apparatus. The purpose of the experiment is to find the experimental value of the vertical mass and compare in comparison with its actual value. (See diagram for more details)

Materials:

Procedure:

Find the mass of the rubber stopper and vertical mass to the nearest hundredth gram, record on data table.

Use a red marker and color a portion of the string, ideally somewhere in-between the upper clip and the glass tube on the bottom of the apparatus (ideal radius is 50cm-100cm), then a clip will be clipped around the red mark. This step will reduce errors when measuring the radius of the string after before each trial, and it will also ensure the radius stays constant on the apparatus throughout the experiment.

Measure the radius (measure before every trial) of the apparatus to the hundredth digit by using a meter stick, record the radius. The lab is now setup; we can now perform the experiment.

 Partners A, B, and C will all be in ready position, Partner A will be the recorder who records all data observed in the lab. Partner B will swirl the stopper over his head until the upper clip comes very close to the glass tube, he will also make sure that the stopper is swinging in a horizontal fashion and eliminate any vertical directions made by the stopper to the best of his ability, Partners A and C will give feedback about how the accuracy of his swing. Partner C will be the timer who will call out the time required for x number of revolutions made by the stopper.

Partner B will swing the stopper until it reaches a relatively constant speed and position, at this time, Partner C will start his timer and call the time required for 10 full revolutions made by the stopper for Partner A to record to the nearest hundredth of a second.

Since swinging the rubber stopper with the apparatus fatigues the arm of the swinger, the three partners will take turns to swing the stopper, record the data, and time the experiment to ensure the accuracy of our data. A total of 10 trials (minimum) will be recorded for the experiment. Steps 3-5 will be repeated in each trial.

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Experiment Apparatus Diagram:

Data Collection and Processing:

Data Table #1 Final Lab Results:

Miscellaneous Info:

Mass of Vertical Mass: 295.05g ±0.01g

Mass of Rubber Stopper: 19.45g ±0.01g

There are two main parts for the calculation of the vertical mass in this experiment; the first part of the calculations involves the horizontal swinging motion of the rubber stopper, which causes a centripetal force and tension on the string, the tension on the rope can be represented by the Fnet equation: Fc = T where T is the tension of the string

Therefore we can derive:

Since ...

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