UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR Created 1/1/2019

Date:
Malaysian Institute of Industrial Technology

ENGINEERING SCIENCE Effective 1/1/2019

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT Date:

Practical Assignment: Newton’s Law of Motion Page: 1

1. OBJECTIVE

To use scientific reasoning, logic, and the nature of science to plan and conduct
investigations which will help the students to develop an understanding of force, motion,
acceleration, and Newton’s law of motion.

2. PERFORMANCE TASKS

The student will

(a) use and identify dependent and independent variables.
(b) use and interpret data from the hands on activities.
(c) discuss the relationship between practical and theoretical experiment.
(d) construct the practical assignment report based the observation from the hands on activities.
(e) use experimental results to make valid conclusions after analysing the data.
(f) investigate and understand Newton’s Law of Motion.

3. OVERVIEW

Newton's Laws of Motion help us to understand how objects behave when they are standing
still, when they are moving, and when forces act upon them. There are three laws of motion.
Here is a description of Newton's Laws of Motion and a summary of what they mean.
Inertia – An object tends to resist changes in its motion.
Relationship between the mass of an object, the net applied force, and the resulting
acceleration – F = m a.
Action-reaction pairs – Forces come in pairs. In this lab, you will perform experiments
to explore each of the laws of motion

4. MATERIAL / APPARATUS

Interactive animations

5. PROCEDURE

i. Go to:

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/forces-and-motion-basics

** Click PLAY on the simulator. Please ensure your computer already install the
flashplayer.
 6. DATA COLLECTION & DISCUSSION

PART 1 – NET FORCE

i. Check boxes: ‘sum of forces’ and ‘values’.

ii. Drag some blue guys and some red guys on the rope. Notice how the Sum of
Forces changes.
iii. Simulate (give value) for the left force, right force and sum of forces for each
picture. Then hit GO and describe what happens to the cart .
iv. Complete the following table based on your simulated value.

Left Force Right Force Sum of

TRIAL What happens when you hit GO?
(Blue) (Right) Forces
1
2
3
PART 2 – MOTION

i. Check boxes of ‘force’, ‘values’, ‘masses’, and ‘speed’.

ii. Move the applied forces sliders.
iii. Change the masses.
iv. This activity will perdict how does the mass affect the speed.
v. For 4 different masses, record the top speed and complete the table below.
TRIAL Total Masses Top Speed
1
2
3

vi. Discussion:
In a few sentences, compare and contrast what you found in the table above for
each of the different masses, including any observations you had about how you
arrived at the top speed.
PART 3 – FRICTION

i. Check boxes: Force, Sum of Force, Values, Masses and Speed.

ii. Try sim put: Push the wight. Move the friction slider. Change the masses.
Repeat.
iii. Click reset, recheck all the boxes as in set-up, select “Lots” of friction.

To apply 500 N force  move the slider of

Applied Force until 500 and release)

iv. Complete the following table when you apply 500 N force to the following
masses:

Sum of Top What happen when you reach top

Mass (kg)
force (N) speed speed and stop pushing?
40 kg
80 kg
100 kg
50 kg
200 kg
90 kg

v. Discussion:

(a) Some of the masses would NOT move with a 500N force. Which ones and
Why?
(b) What is the difference between a 500N force and a - 500N force in the
simulation?

(c) What are some jobs/industries that need to account for things found in this
simulation (like applied forces, friction, etc.)?
PART 4 – ACCELERATION

ii. Check boxes: Check boxes: Force, Sum of Force, Values, Masses, Speed and
Acceleration.
iii. Move friction slider to “None”. Apply a force to a mass to get it moving until the

speed is . Can you get the mass to be completely stationary again? If so,
how did you do it? If not, why not?

iv. Change the mass so that is significantly different than in (ii) (more or less!).
Repeat the steps in (ii). Can you get the mass to be completely stationary again?
7.
 v. Remove the wooden block. Move the friction slider to “None”. Put the bucket on
the ice. Apply a force to the bucket until it reaches top speed. The guy will fall off
the screen. When at top speed, complete the table below:

Acceleratio Sum of Applied Water level in the

Top speed
n forces force bucket

Add some frictional force, and complete table below

vi. Discussion:

(a) How are mass and acceleration related (if you change one of them, what happens to the
other one)?

(b) How are Force and mass related (if you change one of them, what happens to the other
one)?

(c) How are acceleration and speed related if you change one of them, what happens to the
other one)?

8. CONCLUSION