Purpose; The purpose of the lab is to see if there is a correlation or pattern between the mass of an object and its period.
In the picture below we have the set up of the lab. It involved having an inertial balance with a piece of tape at the end held by c clamp to the table with a photogate to record its period.
Procedure: The way we took measurement involved using the photogate. We attached it to the computer and started up Logger Pro. We made sure the piece of tape was in between the arms of the photogate. We are measuring for period so first we started with no weight and checked the period of just the balance. After recording 5 seconds of motion, Logger Pro calculated the period and we made sure to write it down so that we can have for reference later. Next we moved on to 100 g and then added 100 g more respectively. We stopped at 800 g and made sure all the data was in a lab given to us by Professor Wolf. It is shown in the table below. We also recorded the period of three unknown masses which are also shown below.
Data: In the data table below we have the recorded masses and periods respective to those masses. We also have the ln( mass+mass of the tray) labeled as CC and the natural log of the period.
The graph shows a relationship between mass and period as the mass increases. In order to get a straight line we had to play with the mass of the tray. We managed to get the correlation to 0.9999 with the values of 0.30 kg and 0.31 kg for the mass of the tray. It may seem like straight line but it is a very straight curve because not all points are straight.
Calculations: These are some of my calculations where it shows which of the two values of the balance works best by using the unknown masses. We used a stapler and a padlock. Simplifying the equation given by Professor Wolf we can find out which value of the balance gives the closest value to what the unknown masses really are. As we can see, the closest value is going to be 0.30 kg.
Conclusion: Overall, the lab revolved around finding a pattern between mass and period. By taking different weights and recording their period using Logger Pro we can find a pattern between the two. Using the equation given by Professor Wolf we can also see a visual of what the relationship looks like. We can also use the same equation to see what the inertial balance's mass is. By finding out the period of the unknown masses and then weighing the objects to check our results we can come to a conclusion. The lab was successful because we can see pattern and it correlates with the data of the unknown masses.
