PASCO ME-6828 Dynamics Cart Magnetic Damping - Manual (Page 14)

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D y n a m i c s C a r t M a g n e t i c D a m p i n g S a m p l e D a ta
14
Experiment 3: Predicting Terminal Velocity
The graph below shows position versus time as the cart is coming to a stop on a level track.
The graph below shows velocity versus acceleration for the cart on the level track.
From the slope and intercept of the best-fit line: and . From these val-
ues and equation 7, the predicted terminal velocity is .
The graph below shows position versus time for the cart running down a 3° incline. The slope of the linear por-
tion is the measured terminal velocity:
.
In this case the predicted and measured values differ by about 0.01 m/s, or 4%. The
difference may be due to uncertainty in the values of
, , and the angle of
the inclined track.
The terminal velocity would be different if the cart’s mass were changed. In this
experiment, it is not necessary to know the mass of the cart to predict the terminal
velocity.
m b ⁄
– 0.52 s – = f
0
b ⁄
– 0.033 m/s – =
v
T
0.23 m/s =
v
T
0.2225 m/s =
m b ⁄ f
0
b ⁄