Purpose

To determine the relationship between force, mass and acceleration using a cart attached to a
pulley with varying weights.

Theory
Newton’s first law of motion tells us that object with no external forces applied on it, will remain
at rest or will keep moving in the same direction and with the same speed/velocity. The first law is
referred to as the law of inertia. While in Newton’s second law of motion, acceleration is produced
when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of the object being accelerated) the greater the
amount of force needed (to accelerate the object). The second law gives us an exact relationship
between forces, mass and acceleration and can be expressed as a mathematical equation : F = m x a,
where F is force, m is mass, and a is acceleration. F and a are vectors which mean they have both
direction and magnitude. This also mean they have to be working in the same axis or they won’t
affect each other. The hanging mass will act as F and we only have to calculate the mass of the cart
and the hanging object.
When it begins to move, we know that the acceleration of the hanging object and the cart are the
same, so we can sum up m cart and m object as m total. The force of the tension of the strings are not
in the same axis, so we must divide it into horizontal (T = m cart x a ) and vertical (m object x g – T
= m object x a) calculation.
Questions

a. Does the friction between the cart wheel and the track have any relation with the speed of the
cart?

Yes the friction between the cart wheel and the track have a relation with the speed of the cart as
it will slow down the speed of the cart and so we should consider this friction into the calculation.

b. Describe how to estimate the friction between the track and the wheel of the cart.

We can estimate the friction by calculating it into the equation of Newton’s second law of
movement. As we already know the force which is the mass of the hanging weight multiply by the
gravitational acceleration minus the friction will be equal to the total mass multiplied by the
acceleration which we get from the computer counter. In other word, we can also count the friction
as:

f = (m x g) – {(M+m) a}

c. If in verifying experiment of Newton’s second law the change in the variable is too small or too
large, what is the drawback in the result?

If the variable is too small, the difference in the result we want won’t be seen or it wouldn’t be
obvious, and it will result in unclear graph. But if the difference is too large, then the curve graphic
won’t also be seen as the gap between the dots will be too far away.

d. Are all the fit data of the curve go through the original point? What is the reason?

Yes because as we already know from Newton’s second law of motion’s equation, when the
force is zero, there will be no acceleration resulting in the graph going through the original point of
the graph. This situation will happen when the system is in a stop condition or without acceleration
resulting in the Newton’s first law of motion.
Steps
1. Set up the equipment.

2. Connect the photogates with the computer counter.

3. First, change the mass of the hanging weight (that is going to be our F) and fix the cart mass.

4. Set the computer counter to zero while holding the cart just before the photogates.

5. Release the cart and see the acceleration and time between the two photogates from the computer
counter.

6. Repeat the process until you have 3 time data for each setting mass (you just need 5 data on
acceleration).

7. For the second part, fix the mass of the hanging weight and change the cart mass (with adding
some weighting object).

8. Repeat step 4 until 6.

9. Using ultrasonic machine record the cart moving distance by the time.

10. Repeat the first and the second part by using ultrasonic machine.

Error Discussion
The error in this experiment can be caused by the slight friction between the wheel of the cart and the track as we
cannot make it absolutely friction-less, but because we assumed that there is no friction, so this could be one of the
reasons for the error. Apart from the friction between the wheel of the cart and the track, there could also be caused by
the friction between the pulley and the thread that will contribute to the error in this experiment. When measure data
by photogates the error is small, but using ultrasonic machine the error become higher and the data recorded by
ultrasonic machine are not stable, so this might cause the error.