There were two labs for this day. The first used the Force Table and the second used the force sensor to read the tension in the string.
The goals for the labs were:
Separate forces into components.
Sum the forces in the horizontal and vertical or x and y axis.
Determine the sum of the forces on an object that was not moving.
The Force Table
Force table close
This is a force table and is commonly used to show equilibrium. Around the edges of the table are marked the degrees of the circle. There are four movable pulleys around the perimeter. There is a string that is attached on one end to a metal ring. On the other end is a loop from which we were to hang different weights. The pulleys are moved around in such a way that the ring was centered exactly in the middle of the table.
We would then add the forces by resolving them into components and adding the components.
Here is another picture showing us at work around the table. We used the angles around the table to draw vector diagrams. We then draw an x and y axis and separate the vectors into their components. The components were added in the x and y direction to determine how close to zero the sum would be. Since the ring is not moving the sum of the forces must be equal to zero.
Force table
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Tension in cable lab
Here we had a the following equipment:
Force sensor
Two hanging weights
Protractor to get the angles.
The goals
Add weights to the strings until the system is in equilibrium.
Resolve the forces into horizontal and vertical directions.
Sum the forces in ech direction.
hanging weights
Our Methods
We added weight to the string hanging over the pulley until the system reached equilibrium. We used the force sensor to find the tension in the string. The weights hanging from the strings were the forces in the other strings. The string hanging over the pulley made an angle with the horizontal.
angle picture
Here is how we calculated the angels made by the strings. We took a picture of the graph paper and printed it. We lined up the weight hanging vertically with the y axis on graph paper. We then used a protractor to find the angles. We now had a record of the angle to refer to later if needed
List in the discussion section the results you obtained for the sum of the forces for each lab and talk about why you did not get zero as well as how close you were to zero compared to the amount of weight hanging from the string.
Table of Contents
The Force Labs
There were two labs for this day. The first used the Force Table and the second used the force sensor to read the tension in the string.
The goals for the labs were:
The Force Table
We would then add the forces by resolving them into components and adding the components.
Here is another picture showing us at work around the table. We used the angles around the table to draw vector diagrams. We then draw an x and y axis and separate the vectors into their components. The components were added in the x and y direction to determine how close to zero the sum would be. Since the ring is not moving the sum of the forces must be equal to zero.
Tension in cable lab
Here we had a the following equipment:
The goals
Our Methods
We added weight to the string hanging over the pulley until the system reached equilibrium. We used the force sensor to find the tension in the string. The weights hanging from the strings were the forces in the other strings. The string hanging over the pulley made an angle with the horizontal.
Here is how we calculated the angels made by the strings. We took a picture of the graph paper and printed it. We lined up the weight hanging vertically with the y axis on graph paper. We then used a protractor to find the angles. We now had a record of the angle to refer to later if needed
List in the discussion section the results you obtained for the sum of the forces for each lab and talk about why you did not get zero as well as how close you were to zero compared to the amount of weight hanging from the string.