N2L

=Newton's Second Law Lab=

In this experiment you will investigate Newton's 2nd Law (N2L) using fan carts. You will use a laptop and Motion Sensors to produce velocity data graphs. You will copy these graphs to a document that you will later make into a lab report.

Tasks:

 * 1) Test your fan and battery.
 * 2) However you can, **mount one fan to the cart**. You may ask for any resources. Make sure the fan points straight backward, so that it is pushing the car straight forward. In previous years this is always a difficult task, usually because the fan was not stable or the students just used gobs of tape -- not very inventive. So you will be evaluated for your ingenuity in this task. Keep in mind you will need to mount a second fan on the cart later, and they can't interfere with each other.
 * 3) **Set up your ramp** like you did last week when you tilted the ramp just enough to compensate for friction. When given a slight push, the cart should maintain a constant velocity. Place the cart and fan on the ramp with the fan **off** to test for constant velocity.
 * 4) **Set up the** Vernier **Motion Sensor** at the starting end of the ramp and test that you can detect the cart repeatably. Change the graph to show velocity only.
 * 5) **Take data with the fan off**. The graph should be a horizontal line (approximately). If it is not, adjust your ramp until the data on the graph is a horizontal line. **Open a Word Processor** and **cut and paste** the graph into a new document. (Tip: Make some notes in the document so you'll remember what conditions produced this graph.)
 * 6) **Take data** with the fan **on**. Be aware of how much time it takes the fan cart to move to the end of the ramp. This may be only 1 or 2 seconds! So only a small area of the graph may contain pertinent data.
 * 7) **Select the part of the graph** that pertains to the cart traveling down the ramp. **Find the slope** of the velocity graph. **Cut and paste** this graph into your document.
 * 8) **Mount a second fan to the cart**. Again make sure both fans point straight backwards.
 * 9) **Take data** with both fans **on.**
 * 10) **Select the part of the graph** that pertains to the cart traveling down the ramp. **Find the slope** of the velocity graph. **Cut and paste** this graph into your document.
 * 11) **Analyze** your graph data. In your document discuss whether adding the second fan produced twice the acceleration of one fan. Discuss whether it should or should not.
 * 12) **Upload** your document to Moodle.

Grading
You will be graded on:
 * Ingenuity of fan mounting
 * Schedule - Due Wed 4/22. Earlier submissions will get a better grade. (You are competing against each other.) Moodle records the time projects are submitted.
 * Accuracy of data - i.e., does your data make sense and does it support your conclusions?
 * Neatness - not much to say here. Spelling counts.