F=ma
Today in Physics class we empirically derived Newton's Second Law, a = F/m (or F=ma).
We had a constant force (ignore air resistance) of a very small mass falling off a table being used to pull a cart across a (frictionless) track.
We measured the distance the car moved and the time it moved, and calculated acceleration. We tried 10 different masses of carts, ranging from 0.25 kg to 4 kg.
Then we used MS Excel to plot the data points and find the best power series fit using the Excel Trendline feature. Ideally, we would find that a = F * m^(-1)
First period: a = F * m^ (-1.14)
Fourth period: a = F * m^ (-0.96)
Fifth period: a = F * m^ (-1.14)
We did this experiment in about 20 minutes as a class, with students doing all the measuring, and me inputting the measurements into Excel.
At the end of class:
Student: Wow! How long did it take Isaac Newton to do all this?
Me: Decades...but he didn't have Excel to do all his math!
We had a constant force (ignore air resistance) of a very small mass falling off a table being used to pull a cart across a (frictionless) track.
We measured the distance the car moved and the time it moved, and calculated acceleration. We tried 10 different masses of carts, ranging from 0.25 kg to 4 kg.
Then we used MS Excel to plot the data points and find the best power series fit using the Excel Trendline feature. Ideally, we would find that a = F * m^(-1)
First period: a = F * m^ (-1.14)
Fourth period: a = F * m^ (-0.96)
Fifth period: a = F * m^ (-1.14)
We did this experiment in about 20 minutes as a class, with students doing all the measuring, and me inputting the measurements into Excel.
At the end of class:
Student: Wow! How long did it take Isaac Newton to do all this?
Me: Decades...but he didn't have Excel to do all his math!