Day 25: Linear Air Track Experiment

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Yesterday, the team gathered and began to brainstorm on two new possible experiments to take on next. Today, we mainly focused on the Air Track experiment, section B of the Uniformly Accelerated Motion: measurement of g.

Equipment needed for this experiment: a timer, a linear air track, an electric blower, a protractor, a meter-stick, and some weights to incline the track.

Figure 1. A Linear Air Track. An electric blower supplies air to the track through a hose on the right. The car will travel on a thin cushion of air, which greatly reduces friction.
We ran a few trials of the current experiment with the track inclined at various angles (15°,10°,5°,2.5°,1.5°). Tomorrow, we will analyze the data collected using the current experimental procedures as well as analyze the recorded videos in the Capstone software to compare the results.

What's more, we took the measurements of the inclined plane for the Friction coefficient experiment. Tomorrow, the college will be closed due to independence day. On Thursday, we will continue to analyze the recorded videos for Air Track experiment, and visit the machine shop to further discuss our design to resurface the inclined plane for the Friction coefficient experiment.

Happy Independence Day!

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