Lab 5: Uniform Circular Motion

Vrunda Satasiya

Group members: Gianna Caputo, Samantha Graff

Date Submitted: 10/16/2022

Purpose: The purpose of this lab was to test the hypothesis that the friction is the source of the
centripetal force in this experiment. Moreover, to visualize vector components of circular motion and to
understand the concepts of tangential velocity, central acceleration, and period.

Apparatus: capstone software, two cubes, a turntable

Procedure:

Part 1

 Two objects were placed on the edge of turntable.

 The turntable was made spinning and the video was recorded from a bird eye view until the two
objects fly off.
 The signal generator was set to DC mode with a voltage of 5.5 V in PASCO capstone software.
 Then the voltage was increased by 0.1 until the objects fly off.

Part 2

 The recorded video was analyzed with help of capstone software.

 The graph, radius vs. time was obtained.

Part 3

 Two graphs, tangential velocity vs. time were obtained. Each graph corresponds to each object.
 Radians vs. time graph was also obtained to display the angle.

Data:

VT r =vt^2/vg
Object 1 0.60 m/s 0.14m 0.262
Object 2 0.86m/s 0.14m 0.262

The radius of the turntable was 0.14 m.

Precautions:

 Made sure that the recorded video is not too long.

 Made sure that the PASCO is working by taking a test run.
 Made sure that the PASCO is connected to the correct cable.

Questions:

1. What force or forces are acting on the objects as they rotate in a circle at constant speed? Draw
a free body diagram for one of the objects as seen from the side. On your diagram indicate the
direction of the force(s) acting on the object.
The forces acting on the objects as they rotate are tangential velocity, inward
acceleration, static friction, and centripetal force.
 2. How can the hypothesis for this lab be tested experimentally? In a few sentences, describe at
least one way to test the hypothesis experimentally by using the rough and smooth surfaces
available on the turntable.
To measure the hypothesis experimentally, we can place objects on rough and smooth
surface. We already know that the rough surface has static friction and smooth surface
has kinetic friction.

3. What path do you expect the objects to take after they fall off the edge of the turntable? Use the
figure showing the top-down view of the turntable to select which of the paths you think they
will take A through E.
Based on the figure, path A.

4. Does the choice of origin location have much effect on the tangential velocity data? Try changing
the location coordinate tool origin to see what happens, then come back to this question.
Qualitatively, how was the data affected by changing the origin location to a different point?
Yes, the tangential velocity data was affected by the origin’s position.

5. Angle in radians is often an unfamiliar unit, so let’s gain more familiarity by looking at our graph
of radians vs. time. About how many radians did your first object move through from start to
finish of your tracking? Check for internal consistency: how many radians are there in a circle? Is
the number you are reporting reasonable?
0.1 radian to -2.2 radian. There are 2pi radians in a circle.

6. What simplified expression did you obtain for the coefficient of friction? Does the expression
depend on the mass of the object?
The simplified expression we obtain for the coefficient of friction = VT^2/Vg. No, the
expression does not depend on the mass of the object as the mass cancels out both
sides.

Errors:

One of the possible errors that occurred while performing the experiment was in part 1, where we are
supposed to increase the voltage by 0.1 but we were increasing the voltage by 0.01 which resulted in
having too long video.

Conclusion:

In part 1, we recorded the video of turntable spinning with two cubes on it. We were supposed to
capture the video in which we can see two objects flying off when the turntable spins at certain speed.
As the objects keep spinning, the velocity also keeps increasing. In part 2, we analyzed the captured
video using capstone software. And the radius vs. time graph was obtained. Moreover, through this
experiment, we observed the circular motion and determined that the friction causes the centripetal
force. The direction of the net force on an object was tangential to the circle.