Ms. Chase teaches Physics at Mass Academy. We are given a choice to take algebra-based or calculus-based physics. Concepts taught apply to both tracks, but on tests there is a choice of whether to do an algebra-based or a calculus-based problem. We have finished Kinematics, Dynamics, Forces, and Energy and Momentum and are now moving on to Rotational Movement. This class is fast paced and covers the AP Physics curriculum.
This lab was designed to obtain empircal evidence for formulas that we used in class. We tracked the velocity of a battery powered car on a flat surface and a freely moving cart down a ramp. We then then observed trends in data. We expected the battery powered car to travel at constant velocity and the cart to travel with constant acceleration. The data reflected these trends.
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This assignment allowed us to be creative and design our own experiment. Our group decided to see if the coefficient of friction changed with the orientation of an object. When we analyzed the data, we got a very significant difference in the coefficients of friction. We tried a simpler version of the experiment on level ground and discovered that the blocks we were sliding tended to lean forward as they had a very high coefficient of friction. This was a potential source of error in our experiment.
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