Artificial Gravity Lab Assignment

Document Type:Lab Report

Subject Area:Physics

Document 1

Question The question that the lab answers is “What is the minimum speed required to simulate weightlessness?” Hypothesis From previous theory, the minimum velocity that is expected of the ball to remain the bucket while rotating is 2. 95 m/s. Materials • A tennis ball • A bucket with strong handle • Stopwatch • Measuring tape Procedure 1. The distance from the shoulder down the arm to the bottom of the bucket was measured. The experiment was done in an outdoor environment where there was a lot of space. Moving at a fast speed, the ball is easily maintained within the bucket. On moving on towards finding the lowest velocity that is needed, the ball drops as the velocity is reduced. To find the right velocity, several tries had to be taken.

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An error that may be encountered is that the hand may not maintain a uniform velocity throughout the movement of the bucket in a circular motion. For example, there is a variance in velocity when the movement of the bucket is at the top and when it is at the bottom. With centripetal acceleration, the minimum velocity is given when: -. In our case: With the acceleration value, the velocity can be found as follows: Calculation of the time taken by 1 revolution [T1]: , where T5 = time taken for 5 revolution. This lab works on the principle of centripetal acceleration and forces. The bucket that is used in moved in a circular motion. Circular motion, can be defined as the movement of an object with uniform velocity in a path that is circular.

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The time of the five revolutions is indirectly proportional to the velocity, in that the velocity reduces as the time taken for the 5 revolutions increases. From the results that were obtained in Table 1 above, the longest time that was taken was 9. 68 s, and the velocity that was recorded was 2. 88 m/s. The shortest time of the revolutions that was recorded was 9. There are two formulas that can be manipulated to yield the minimum velocity. A hitch that may affect the results of the experiment was the handle of the bucket. The handle was a little bit rigid making it hard to swing the bucket. The solution for this impediment was to use a rope that was tied to the handle of the bucket.

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