Our mass-pulley experiment provided us four objectives and concepts to work with:

1. Newton’s Second Law: Force= Mass multiplied by Acceleration. The acceleration of an object produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the direct force not just in the same direction, but also in an inverse proportion to the object’s mass.

2. The law of conservation of energy: total energy of an isolated system remains constant because energy can only change form, never lost.

3. Velocity and Acceleration: although quite similar, the distinction between these measurements is crucial to determine full results of the lab experiment. Speed determines the rate of motion of an object (magnitude component), while velocity determines the direction of said object (magnitude and direction).

4. Power: the power level sets the force on the masses. By setting the power level of the motor, it applies torque to the motor wheel and results in a particular force used to lift the masses. As seen in our findings below, the higher the power level, the higher the force.

 

 

If you have trouble viewing the graphs, use this link:
http://web.cas.suffolk.edu/faculty/lshatz/Sustainability_class/Lab1.htm/.

As evidenced above, the greater the mass, the greater the battery drainage. This is where the importance of work is seen: with a heightened gravitational effect, there is a inherent requirement for increased power and velocity needed to move the object. The inverse of this is when you apply force to an object and it doesn’t move because you didn’t apply any work to it.

 

We calculated the power used by dividing potential energy by time, which equals mgh/time. A secondary finding here is that when we decreased power level, the acceleration decreased concurrently. Also interesting was the inverse proportion in the decreasing of mass and its increasing of acceleration. Each of these findings falls in line with Newton’s Second Law.

 

At its essence, this experiment has shown us the direct and inverse proportions amongst power level, acceleration, work, and velocity and their relations to the efficiency of an object such as the pulley mechanism. Our findings are crucial to bear in mind regarding the climate change debate because these same sustainability fundamentals are involved in creating a more efficient, greener source of energy. A perpetual energy source, although not yet conceived, is certainly the goal of our efforts in transcending the finite resources we depend on today.