Objective

In Lab 3, we explored the relationship between the mass of an object as it relates to force and acceleration. The general concept we learned through our work is that: when mass is increased acceleration decreases and when mass is decreased acceleration increases. The following demonstrates how we put this to work.

Procedure

1. Before beginning any experimentation, we gathered the materials required. An important component to making the pulley operate is the NXT Robot. This piece is connect by USB to the program Labview and using the motor of the NXT Robot we are able to move the weight up and down. A photo of it is below:

 

 

2. The pulley system has been pre-assembled by the professor prior to the lab time so a pulley simply has to be retrieved before using it. But, as an example, there are a couple of components to this system that allow it function correctly. First, a something that resembles a wheel is at the top and around it a string has been secured around the wheel, as the weights go up and down, the string should always be secure or else the weights may come loose. An illustration of a basic pulley system is below.

3. Please take note: you will not be pulling the weight up and down and instead the wheels and the motor of the NXT Robot will be doing the work. This image is for illustrative purposes. At the end of the string, a small weight weighing a total of 0.25 grams (250 kg) is attached through a loop similar to the illustration above.

4. Once all of the equipment is connected and functioning as expected, we will launch the Labview program on the desktop computer to begin the experiment.

Part One: Mass vs. Acceleration

In Part One of the experiment we will alter the mass of the weight in order to see how this affects the acceleration. The following graph are the results that were found after removing weights to see how it affected acceleration. The first trial actually begins with 0.21 grams and the last trials ends at 0.05 grams.

Part Two: Force vs. Acceleration

The next part of the lab holds the mass constant and experiments with how acceleration changes if different amounts of power are exerted onto the weight.  In this case, the mass remains at 0.25 grams which means that no weight was removed.

 

Conclusion 

As you can see, both trend lines shown demonstrate the relationship between acceleration, force and mass. This lab gave provided hands-on experience with the concepts learned in Newton’s Law. Through a combination of lecture and visualization, the pulley experiment taught both the importance of close observation and organization of data. The use of Microsoft Excel and Labview provided time to practice both new and foundational skills when working in many scientific settings and work that also involves data analysis. Over all, error in measurement was limited or eliminated because the computer calculations were used. The limited number of components made this easy to perform successfully.