Graphing Your Motion Lab

Graphing Your Motion

Today we used our own movements to create graphs that showcase velocity, distance, and time.

Hypothesis: The motion detector will detect the movement made by walking forward and backward and it will correlate with velocity, time, and distance.

Procedures: Place the Vernier Motion Detector on a table facing an aisle. Connect the Motion Detector to a computer with the Logger Lite software. Place marks on the floor with masking tape at the 1 meter mark, 2 meter mark, 3 meter mark, and 4 meter mark. Open the “33a Graphing Motion” file. Stand at the 1 meter tape mark facing the Motion Detector. Have someone else click collect. Slowly walk backwards. Click Store Latest Run, and repeat the same thing only moving faster. Then, open “33b Graphing Motion.” Try to copy the line by making different movements in front of the Motion Detector. Open “33c Graphing Motion.” Stand at the 1 meter tape mark facing the Motion Detector. Have someone else click collect. Slowly walk backwards. Click Store Latest Run, and repeat the same thing only moving faster. Then, open “33d Graphing Motion.” Try to copy the line by making different movements in front of the Motion Detector. Open “33e Graphing Motion.” Stand at the 1 meter mark facing away from the computer. Have someone else click collect. Stay still for a second, and then walk fast to the three meter mark. Say “stop” when the 3 meter mark is reached, and have someone press Stop.

Data and Analysis:

The two lines are different because the red line represents the time that I walked slowly, and the blue represents the time the I walked faster. The blue line goes farther than the red line because I walked farther when I walked faster.

This is a graph in which we followed the same procedures as the graph above except we walked toward the Motion Detector. The difference is about the same as the difference above. The red line is the time Wolfgang walked slowly, and the blue line is the line that Wolfgang walked slowly.

To try and match the red line I had to start about 0.5 meters away from the Motion Detector. Then, I had to walk slowly to the 2 meter mark. Then I had to stay still for about 4 seconds, and then walk slowly to the three meter mark. Finally I stayed still until the Detector was done collecting. I did not exactly match the red line, but I was close. My timing was right, but my position was not as far as it needed to be.

The two lines are very different in this graph because the green line was the line that I walked slowly, and the red line was the line that I walked faster. The red line has more spikes because I was moving faster. Velocity is the time rate of change of position of a body in a specified direction.

This graph does not match the given line at all. It was extremely difficult to control the velocity. I tried to stay still, but the velocity still wavered around the zero mark. I tried to maintain the same speed and make the drastic jump from 0 m/s to 0.25 m/s. It did not work because it is very difficult for humans to maintain a constant velocity.

The motion needed to make this graph if it is position vs. time would be to walk backwards, stay still, and walk forward.

If it is a velocity vs. time graph, then the person would have to speed up, stay at a constant speed, and then slow down.

The acceleration vs. time graph differs from the other graphs because it wavers more. It makes constant jumps. On the velocity graph the points when the line goes down are deceleration points, and the points when it goes up are acceleration points. The same goes for the acceleration graph. Acceleration is increase of speed or velocity.

Conclusion: This lab deepened my understanding of velocity and acceleration. My hypothesis was accepted. This is because it the Motion Detector helped to create the graphs the demonstrated velocity, time, and acceleration. I learned that is much harder to control acceleration and velocity than to control position. This is because it is extremely difficult to maintain a constant velocity. The variables in this experiment were the position, velocity, and acceleration. Some errors in our experiment could have occurred when we were collecting data because the Motion Detector was very sensitive to any other outside movements. In conclusion, this lab was a good introduction to physics, and it definitely helped me gain a better understanding of velocity and acceleration.