GCSE Physics required practical activity: Acceleration
|Required practical activity||Apparatus and techniques|
|Investigate the effect of varying the force on the acceleration of an object of constant mass and the effect of varying the mass of an object on the acceleration produced by a constant force.||AT 1, AT 2, AT 3|
Investigating acceleration using an air track and light gates.
Newton’s Second Law of Motion is the relationship between force, mass and acceleration. The Logger Pro file automatically calculates the acceleration data from the length of the interrupt card. It is also possible to disable this automatic calculation so student can experience the equation first hand, this is the equation yo would need to do it manually
Data Logging Equipment Needed
- 1 Vernier Interface with Digital inputs eg Labquest Stream, Labquest2, Labquest Mini, Labquest, Labpro
- 2 Vernier Photogates/Light gates
- 1 Logger Pro Software*
Other Equipment Needed
- Setup the equipment as shown
- Connect the Photogate furthest from the Weight Stack to Digi 1 and the Other one to Digi 2(this is important)
- Open up the experiment file in Logger Pro(click here to download)
- Adjust the length of the interrupt card In Logger Pro
- Press the Green Collect Button
- Release the weight
- Record the Weight, Force, Velocity, Time and Acceleration in Data Table (Example Below)
- Repeat until various weights have been used.
- Press Stop
For any other platforms please get in touch via our contact page we would Love to hear from you!
Sample Data Table
|Weight||Force||Initial Velocity(u)||Final Velocity(v)||Time Between Gates(t)||Accleration(a)|