PHYS 216 Lab 4

PHYS 216 Lab 4 Recent

Lab 4–Part a1)

Use Excel to determine the acceleration for an object with mass ‘m’ being pulled by a constant,

horizontal force (F) on a flat, frictionless surface.

i) What happens to the acceleration if the magnitude of the force doubles?

Lab 4–Part a2)

Use Excel to determine the acceleration for an object with mass ‘m’ sliding down a surface inclined at an angle θ (between 0 and 90 degrees) above the horizontal. The surface has a coefficient of kinetic friction μk and a coefficient of static friction μs.

Note 1: Within the calculation, before taking sine or cosine, the angle must be converted to radians.

Use the built in function ‘RADIANS’ for this purpose

Note 2: the coefficient of static friction must be overcome in order for the object to start sliding. Therefore, you must determine if the force pulling the object down the incline is greater than the force of static friction. If it is, the acceleration can be determined. Otherwise, the object will remain stationary and the acceleration reading will be erroenous.

Use the built in function ‘IF’ for this purpose.

If the object is accelerating, have the IF command output “Accelerating”.

If the object is not accelerating, have the IF command output “Stationary”.

Once it has been determined that the object is accelerating, determine the magnitude of the acceleration.

Create a scatter chart of acceleration versus angle of incline for angles from 0 to 50 degrees.Lab 4–Part a3)

An object, with mass m=100kg, is sitting on a scale in an elevator. Use Excel to determine the reading on the scale (in Newtons) for the following 4 situations:

i) elevator accelerating upward at +3 m/s2