8: Motion Flashcards
What is the difference between a scalar and a vector?
A scalar has no direction - it’s just an amount of something
A vector has a magnitude and a direction
How do you find the resultant vector?
Adding two or more vectors together
Define speed
How fast something is moving, regardless of direction
Define displacement
How far an object’s travelled from its starting point in a given direction
Define velocity
The rate of change of an object’s displacement (its speed in a given direction)
What is instantaneous speed?
The speed of an object at any given moment in time
What is the average speed?
Total distance covered, over the total time elapsed
What is another way of saying uniform acceleration?
Constant
Define free fall
The motion of an object undergoing an acceleration of ‘g’. Only gravity
What is/are the force(s) acting on an object in free fall?
Weight
Describe the rate of free fall for different objects
All objects free fall at the same rate
Describe the experiment (trapdoor, ball bearing), that can be used to find the value of g
Measure the height from the bottom of the ball bearing to the trapdoor
Flick the switch to simultaneously start the timer and disconnect the electromagnet, releasing the ball bearing
The ball bearing falls, knocking the trapdoor down and breaking the circuit - which stops the timer. Record the time
Explain how do find the value of g, from the data collected in the experiment (ball bearing)
You recorded the height, and time it takes the ball to fall that height
Plot a graph of height against time it takes the ball to fall, squared. Then draw a line of best fit
With constant acceleration: s = ut + at²/2
u = 0 if you drop the ball so
s = at²/2
so the gradient of the line of best fit = g/2
How can you increase the accuracy of the measurements you make, in the experiment to find the value g? ( Ball Bearing)
Use a small and heavy ball bearing so you can assume air resistance is so small that you can ignore it
Use a ruler with smaller increments and pick a certain point on the ball bearing to measure from to reduce the errors in measuring the height
Experiment to find g (Ball bearing):
How can you remove the random error that might arise if you timed the ball bearing manually by eye? What does this do to the uncertainty?
Using a computer automatically and time the ball bearing’s fall
Reduces the uncertainty in time measurement
How can you do a different experiment, to find g, using light gates to calculate the velocity?
Drop the ball bearing from a height h so it falls though the light gate. The light gate automatically calculates the velocity of the falling object.
Then use v² = u² +2as to find the acceleration due to gravity
What is the main uncertainty in the experiments (light gates and trapdoor) to find the value g?
The height h
What is parallax, in the context of uncertainties?
Systematic error due to looking at the ruler at an angle