Trajectories lab 9-21-16

Trajectories lab

Carlos H., Dhalia T., Ariel D.

9-14-16

2. So in this lab we will understand how trajectories work with a problem hand on. Many times we get use to book problems and fail to get our "hands dirty" with real experiments. This lab will help us understand angles ,distance, speed, slope and anything that goes into trajectories.

3. In this lab we will be utilizing a small round object in this case a marble, as well as a ramp that  we could put in a slope for the ball to travel in. Carbon paper. So that we can know exactly where the ball lands by the markings on paper cased by the bounce and a measuring stick. 

4. We first lifted the ramp at a slope that would cause the ball to go at a reasonable distance from the table. Next we placed the paper where we would see the ball landed. After getting data of where the ball landed we started to get to work in calculations .

first we found the distance find times and got the average distance to be more accurate. The distance was 66.36cm from the table in the x axis with an uncertainty, also calculated, that came to be + - .33. The height from the ground to the table(the point where the ball left the table) was 95 cm with a +- .1 for the uncertainty . With this we were able to find with what velocity it left the table being 150.7 cm/s and the uncertainty being the most tedious to solve for being +- .75. 

Now for the second part of the lab or the most interesting part we put a slope from the table to ground. Now we were to predict where the ball would hit on the slope. With our phones we got the angle to be 48.6 degrees on the slope and managed to solve for the distance into the slope where the ball would hit. 

As seen on the photo by our calculations the ball should hit somewhere around 79.5cm . After putting a carbon paper on the slope to test we dropped the ball 5 times . The ball hit at 81 cm, 80.5m, 81.2cm 81.8cm, and 81.9 cm .

I am actually a little surprised with how close our calculations came to be. Surprised in a good way and it left our group feeling like the lab was a success . Trajectories after this lab became a lot more clear and easy to understand after doing this real world problem . Cheers