Goal:
The goal of this activity was to test Sir Isaac Newton’s Second Law of motion. Newton’s law states that F= m*a or force is equal to mass times acceleration. In order to test the accuracy of this law, we ran two experiments that each contained five trials. During these experiments we had one variable and one constant for the sake of simplicity. We tested how changing mass would affect acceleration while maintaing force constant and we tested how changing force would affect acceleration while maintaing mass a constant. Both experiments included a test of potential energy as well where E(potential)=m*g*h or Potential Energy is equal to mass times the acceleration of gravity times height.
The Setup:
The set up for this activity was relatively simple and was done through a NXT robot that was connected to a pulley system. A stack of weights (in grams) were provided and allowed us to change or hold the mass constant depending on the experiment. A ruler was also used to measure the height from the base where the weights were placed to the height where they stopped so that Potential Energy could be measured. Below are images of the components required for set up.
Results:
Mass Vs Acceleration
| Trial | Force | Mass | Acceleration | Potential |
| 1 | 75 | 0.11 | 49.64 | 0.30184 |
| 2 | 75 | 0.13 | 48.5 | 0.35672 |
| 3 | 75 | 0.15 | 48.11 | 0.4116 |
| 4 | 75 | 0.17 | 45.4 | 0.46648 |
| 5 | 75 | 0.19 | 44.27 | 0.52136 |
Force Vs Acceleration
| Trial | F | Mass | Acceleration | Potential |
| 1 | 60 | 0.15 | 26.75 | 0.41 |
| 2 | 65 | 0.15 | 31.94 | 0.41 |
| 3 | 70 | 0.15 | 39.68 | 0.41 |
| 4 | 75 | 0.15 | 46.79 | 0.41 |
| 5 | 80 | 0.15 | 55.17 | 0.41 |
Conclusion:
From the five trials run in both experiments, we can conclude that Newton’s second law where Force equals mass times acceleration is true. From the first experiment where we tested how a changing mass would affect acceleration if force remained constant, we saw a relationship that varies inversely where acceleration decreased as mass increased. This makes perfect sense because the heavier the object, the slower the acceleration will be if force does not increase. In the second experiment we saw a direct relationship between force and acceleration where as force increased, the acceleration also increased if the mass remained constant. This experiment also made perfect sense as an increase in the force would provide an increase in acceleration given that the mass did not change.