Sage Fisher

Hendricks
Physics
9/24/2015
Pulley Lab

The purpose of this lab was to learn how to measure the acceleration of two
differently weighted object on a pulley ,and to understand why. We were given a pulley
set up hanging off a table a length of string and three weights.The first thing we did was
use the equation (m1g-m2g)/(m1+m2) to get our acceleration we used 220 as or first
mass and 200 as our second because we were given two200 gram weight and a 20
gram weight and in the experiment we will attach the 20 to one of the 200. ((220200)9.8)/ (220+200)=.5 m/s^2. so with this we knew that if we did the experiment
correctly we should get around .5

.
two of the weights were 200 grams and one was 20 grams. we attached the 20 onto
one of the 200 and then put it on the string and pulley. We then pulled the lighter weight
straight down to the ground so that we were not pulling at an angle. from there we
measured from the ground to the bottom of the small weight again keeping the
measuring tape as straight as possible we got 68.5 cm for our height. after that we
would time with a stopwatch how long it took for the weight to hit the ground we did this
10 time and took the average and got 1.59 s.we then had enough information to solve it
using the mother of all motion equations Xf=Xi+Vi t+ a t^2 and set it up to solve for
acceleration ((Xf-Xi-(Vi t)) 2)/t^2=a and then plugged in the data
(68.5-0-(0 1.59))2/1.59^2
((68.5) 2)/1.59^2= 54.2cm/s^2 we changed the cm to m 5.42 m/s^2
We were .42 off and i think that is a very good outcome.

If I were to do this again I would get a better way of measuring the time because the
stopwatch could be unreliable due to human error.