Group6_2_ch6

Maddy Weinfeld Nicole Kloorfain Julia Sellman
 * Members:**

Law of Conservation of Energy Lab
Task A: Julia Task B: Nicole Task C: Maddy Task D: everyone
 * Tasks:**

What is the relationship between changes in kinetic energy and changes in gravitational potential energy? 1. If the cart starts at the top of the ramp, what is its speed at the position of the photogate? 2. What is the speed of the ball when it leaves the launcher at short range? 3. What is the speed of the pendulum at the bottom of its path, if released from h = 20 cm? 4. What is the highest point the ball will reach when released from the top of the shorter incline? 5. What is the speed of the ball when vertically launched at short range? 6. What is the speed of the ball at the top of the loop?
 * Objectives:**

As stated by the Law of Conservation, the amount of initial energy will be equal to the amount of final energy. We are expecting our data to support that initial energy is equal to the total final energy. The Law of Conservation of Energy says that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can change forms. If our data yield calculations for initial energy and final energy are equal, or even close, then our lab will have been successful in quantifying the Law of Conservation of Energy.
 * Hypothesis:**

Procedure: When using photogate on Data studio, click "Recordable Timer" Station 1: Let a cart move down a ramp through a photogate to find the cart's speed at that position. media type="file" key="Movie on 2012-02-02 at 15.41.mov" width="300" height="300" Station 2: Push the ball into the shooter and release it by pulling the string going through the photogate as it leaves the shooter and right before it hits the ground finding the velocity in both places media type="file" key="Movie on 2012-02-02 at 15.42.mov" width="300" height="300" Station 3: Release the cork pendulum from a height of 20 cm and find the speed of the pendulum as it passes through the photogate. media type="file" key="Movie on 2012-02-02 at 15.46 Station 4: Hold the ball at the top of the shorter incline, drop it down the ramp and find the position of where the ball reaches at the end of the ramp. Find the height at that point. media type="file" key="Movie on 2012-02-02 at 15.45.mov" width="300" height="300" Station 5: Push the ball into the shooter, pull the string and the ball will go through the photogate as it is released to find the speed. media type="file" key="Movie on 2012-02-02 at 15.52.mov" width="300" height="300" Station 6: Drop the ball onto the ramp and let it go through the course at the top of the loop the photogate will record the speed. media type="file" key="Movie on 2012-02-02 at 15.53.mov" width="300" height="300"


 * Data Table:**
 * Calculations and Analysis:**









Conclusion: We hypothesized that the amount of initial energy would be equal to the final energy. This did make sense, due to the Law of Conservation of Energy, which we previously discussed in the hypothesis. Although we did get a great amount of percent error, this theory did prove mostly true. There were so many principles that changed our results slightly and could have caused changes, though this theoretically is the right idea. Through our experiments, we basically measured the amounts of initial energy and final energy so we could compare them, to prove or disprove our hypothesis. Results from station 1 had a percent difference of 34.12%, station 2 had 11.25% difference, station 3 had a 51.16% difference, station 4 had a 9.13% difference, station 5 a 5% difference, and station 6, an 11.48% difference. There was a great amount of error found throughout our results in these experiments. This was somewhat expected though, because it was very hard to account for every single principle responsible for creating our results. For example, there was obviously a friction force in some of the experiments like the roller coaster one, which we didn’t account for in our calculations. Therefore, this probably accounted for a large amount of error. We also didn’t account for energy, which may have been transferred in other ways besides into kinetic energy. Energy wasn’t lost, which we know from the law that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, though it could have been transferred to heat energy or something of the sort throughout the experiment. This lab can be applied to real life in so many ways. Roller coasters are a part of theme parks all over the world, and engineers use physics to see how safe they are and how they work. In order to do this, experiments like the one that we did must be done to make sure that theoretical values match up somewhat with experimental ones.