The WhirligigInvestigating Circular Motion Essay Research Paper

Observation Results for varying Force – Seconds taken for ten oscillations. r=0.5m Force-NAttempt123Average for 1 Orbit 15.384.815.090.509 23.53.43.30.34 32.92.92.80.29 42.42.52.450.245 Results for varying Force – Seconds taken for ten oscillations. r=0.75m Force-NAttempt12Average for 1 Orbit 16.46.040.622 24.584.960.477 34.014.020.402 43.623.750.369 Calculation from results r=0.5 Force-NT(s)Mass(kg)Distance(m)Velocity(m/s)Calculated Force(N) 10.5090.53.146.171.04 2 0.340.53.149.232.35 30.290.53.1410.83.3 40.2450.53.1412.84.5 Calculation from results r=0.75 Force-NT(s)Mass(kg)Distance(m)Velocity(m/s)Calculated Force(N) 10.6220.54.77.550.38 2 0.4770.54.79.850.647 30.4020.54.711.690.911 40.3690.54.712.740.108 T- The period for one orbit, measured in seconds with a stopwatch Mass – The mass of the bung, measured in kilograms on a to pan balance. Force – Was calculated using the formulat F = mv2/r Distance – was calculated using the formular d=2r*Pi Radius – was controlled by marking the string with a white dot on the correct point. Safety glasses were worn because there was the danger of the bung flying off. I repeated all the experiments twice or three times to make sure that they were reliable. Analysis The results of the first set of results was very good, with the calculated (theoretical) Force being within 0.04 of a newton of the actual Force (for 1 N) This shows the validity of the formula to be very accurate. The deviation from the actual force increased with the size of the force- more scope for error with the larger weights. Evaluation The second set of results were drastically off. This whole set of abnormal results must mean that something was done totally incorrectly with the all the tests with a radius of 0.75m. This could be attributed to many things. Firstly, I may have measured the radius incorrectly. Secondly when setting the new radius, someone may have swapped the bung I was using to one that was slightly heavier. An increase of 2 grams in the bung would have changed the resuls for a 4 N mass to 3.46. obviously alot closer to the actual force than the previous figure. Contrastingly, the tests with 0.5m radius are all very accurate and reliable- all the results were within 0.5 of a newton of the actual Force. This shows that the method I used for the first set to be sound. Generally, the problems with this experiment are many and varied- the satelite has to be spinning parallel to the ground to be totally accurate; the radius has to be kept absolutely constant- not easy when spinning a satelite around at over ten meters per second; the timing may not accurate. All these things combined can cause a big diffrence in the final results, and they probably did for the second set of results I performed. To further my investigation into circular motion, I could investigate into other examples of circlar motion, for example the different planets in their orbits and their velocities etc.