FIZ101EL

PHYSICS I
LABORATORY
(Mechanics)
FIZ 101 EL EXPERIMENTS:
• BASIC MEASUREMENTS
• MOTION WITH CONSTANT
ACCELERATION
• SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION
• PROJECTILE MOTION
• MOMENT OF INERTIA
• CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION
• PHYSICAL PENDULUM
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As you know, the distance education
process started in our university due to
the COVID-19 pandemic that is effective
worldwide. Within the scope of this
process, it was also decided to conduct
our FIZ101EL course online via Zoom
application.
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 All students enrolled in this course should
consider the following information and show
due diligence.
• The course, which consists of 7 experiments,
is planned to be completed in 7 weeks
(1 experiment per week).

• You can join online lectures through the

“Distant Learning” section on Ninova.

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• Everyone must attend online classes on the
day and time they are registered.

• Students are required to follow all

announcements and deadlines to be made
through Ninova and following web page
https://www.fizik.itu.edu.tr/physics-10x/lab/
and act accordingly.

• Laboratory booklets will be provided on

Ninova in “.pdf” format. 5
• The experiments will be shown as video
recordings. Then, the necessary data will
be given to you as the output of the
experiment. You will be expected to
prepare a report based on these data, and
upload it to Ninova in “.pdf” format.
(Reports must be hand-written.) Mobile-
scan or jpg-pdf converters can be used.)

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• You will be given 1 week to upload your
reports to the system.

• Your reports should contain the following

parts: the purpose of the experiment, the data
of the experiment in tables, the calculations
and results (error calculations and graphs,
etc.).

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• You must attend at least 5 of the 7
experiments in order to pass the course.
(For the first experiment, no report will be
requested, only the attendance to the
online lecture will be evaluated.)

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• At the end of the semester, your grade will
be determined by the evaluations of your
reports uploaded on Ninova. Therefore, for
the evaluation of letter-grades, it is
important to prepare your experiment
reports in the requested format especially
your graphs without any missing part.

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HOW TO DRAW AN IDEAL GRAPH?

• Identify your variables ; Place the

independent variable on the x-axis and
dependent variable on the y axis.

• Determine your variable range ; Sort

your data from the lowest to the highest
value.
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• Determine the scale of your graph ; Specify
a scale for each square (or division) that best
fits the range of each variable. Use a scale
that allows your data to be drawn as large as
possible, that is use the entire page if
possible. The range scales of your axes may
be different. Also, your data values don’t
need to start at zero but sometimes it is
required as this allows you to estimate if
needed. The scales of your axes don’t have to
be identical, but must be self-consistent. 12
For instance, if one division represents 1 volt
in an axis, that one division always represents
1 volt on that axis. But it can represent any
other value on the other axis depending on
your choice .

• Number and label your axes ; Label your

axes including the units of your
measurements.

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• Specify your data points ; On your graph,
specify each value with a cross ²x² or
² ².

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• Draw your graph; Identify a relationship
between your variables. Draw a curve (or a
line) that best describes the identified
relationship. Your curve/line doesn’t have to
coincide with the data points Don’t plot the
graph by connecting the data points.
Only draw your line (or curve) that is in the
range of your data points. You should not
extend your line beyond this range.
If required to extrapolate, you can extend your
graph along the same slope beyond the range of
your experiment data. 15
Fitting

After marking the data obtained during the

experiment on the graph, you must fit an appropriate
function to the data points. For example, since the
relation between the potential difference(voltage) and
the current is known to be linear, you can pick a
linear function to fit your data. In constructing a
graph, the least squares method can be used in order
to minimize the error. The method of least squares
says that the line drawn between data points should
be such that the sum of the squares of perpendicular
distances from the data points to the line is minimum.
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The slope of the line is calculated using the
coordinates of any two points on the line. It
should be noted that data points should not
be used in determining the slope, because
otherwise, one would be skipping error
reduction. Another important point that
should be kept in mind is that the coordinates
of the points are determined by reading the
corresponding values in the axes.
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If you have huge or very small numbers, you can
multiply the axes with the powers of 10.

To draw a graph with best fitting, also consider the

followings:

• You should ignore outlier data.

• Your line should reflect the trend in your data,

in other words, it should line up best with the
majority of your data, and less with data points
that differ from the majority.
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• The line you plot should be balanced; it
should have points above and below the
line at both ends that are at approximately
average the same distance from the line.

• Your line does not have to pass through

zero.

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Example
You can obtain the slope of
your graph from these
arbitrary points which are not
data points.

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Never ²connect the dots².

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Example
You can also use WolframAlpha or any other
program/software to plot your graph in line
with the rules we mentioned.

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 BASIC
MEASUREMENTS
Goal: Learning to make measurements using micrometer
and vernier caliper and determining the absolute and
relative errors in the density calculations of various solid
objects.

Instruments & Materials: Vernier calliper, micrometer,

elecronic balance, geometrical objects such as cylinder and prism.
ERROR

x : measured quantity
ABSOLUTE ERROR R : measured quantity

R ± DR

If the quantity (like mass),

is measured by only one
device the absolute error is
equal to the sensivity of
measurement device.
Partial derivative of R by x
100 gr ± 0.1 gr

Absolute Error

Dx is equal to the sensivity of measurement

device (i.e. Measurable minimum value.)

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RELATIVE ERROR

The absolute error Dx, does not give significant

information about the error.

Two measurements whose absolute errors are the same:

Dx 0.01
0.5 gr ± 0.01 gr ® = = 0.02
x 0.5

Dx 0.01
500 gr ± 0.01 gr ® = = 0.0002
x 500

If appropriate devices are used in measurements, the

relative error (Dx/x) must be <<1.
Example: (Calculation of relative and absolute error for a
cylinder’s density
m 1
r = r (m, r , l ) ,r = = mr -2 -1
l
pr l p
2

¶r ¶r ¶r
Dr = Dm + Dr + Dl
¶m ¶r ¶l

¶r 1
=
¶m p r 2 l

¶r 1 2m
= ml -1(-2)r -3 =
¶r p p r 3l

¶r 1 m
= mr -2 (-1l -2 ) = 29
¶l p p r 2l 2
 1 2m m
Absolute Error Dr = Dm + Dr + Dl
pr l
2
pr l
3
pr l
2 2

Dr Dr p r 2l 1 p r 2l 2m p r 2l m
= = Dm + Dr + Dl
r m m pr l 2
m pr l 3
m pr l2 2

p r 2l

Dr 1 2 1
Relative Error = Dm + Dr + Dl
r m r l

m,r and l : measured quantity in the experiment.

Dm, Dr and Dl : sensivity of measurement devices. 30
Vernier Calliper Micrometer
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 Vernier Calliper (sensitivity : 0,05 mm)

Main scale + Vernier scale

•Length
•Inner diameter
•Outer diameter
•Depth
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 Vernier Calliper

Jaws: For measure outer dimension.

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 Vernier Calliper
Jaws: For measure inner dimension.

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Vernier Calliper

Stem for
measuring
depths.

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Measuring length with calliper :

12,40 mm

After placing the object between the ends of the caliper, first, the value on the main
scale is read. This main scale value is determined by observing the first value on the
left of intersection with the zero value of the vernier scale (arrows on the left). This is
the main part of the measurement.

Second, the value intersecting completely a value on the main scale is read on the
vernier scale, in order to determine the decimal part of the measurement, i.e. the
digits after comma (arrows on the right).
20,05 mm

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15,80 mm 38
8,65 mm

12,25 mm

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34,60 mm

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40,00 mm

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 (sensivity : 0,01 mm)
Micrometer

Main scale+ rotating vernier scale (supplementary scale)

One complete turn of the supplementary scale causes the ends of the
micrometer to open up by 0.5 mm. In other words, each of the 50 divisions
on this scale corresponds to 0.01 mm.

The value on the main scale lying along the fixed cylindrical part is read
(vertical arrows). Then, the value intersecting the axis of the main scale is
read on the supplementary scale (horizontal arrows). These two values are
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summed up and thus the dimension of the object is determined.
7 mm + 0,38 mm= 7,38 mm

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38*0.01=0.38
 Half line

7,5 mm + 0,22 mm= 7,72 mm

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3,5 mm + 0,06 mm= 3,56 mm

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0 mm + 0,29 mm= 0,29 mm

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3 mm + 0,09 mm= 3,09 mm

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5,5 mm + 0,30 mm= 5,80 mm

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