10 - April - 2017 Work- Kinetic Energy Theorem Activity

James Okamura
Jin Im

April 10, 2017

Introduction
In this lab, we are trying to explore the relationship between work done by and kinetic energy of an object. We can do this by having a cart on platform with a string attached to it with a hanging mass to the other end of the string.

We first gt a track and we put our cart with the force sensor on it. Then on one end of the cart we attach a string to it and on the other end of the string we attach 50 grams of hanging mass. On the other end of the track we put a motion sensor on it. We calibrate the force sensor.

Next we open the document as posted in the lab manual and we put the cart as shown in the diagram and click record, and let the experiment began. We get a graph like this .

We get this graph after we selected the Force vs, Time graph, changing the x-axis and y-axis and then taking the integral of the graph. our integral value we get is 0.1842 while our kinetic energy value is 0.186 J. This is true because the only work the cart is doing is kinetic energy when the cart goes at some velocity after the cart is let go causing the hanging mass to pull the cart forth.

In this next part of the lab, we want to attack a spring to the end of the force sensor and stretch and let it go after we stretch the spring a certain distance. 

The set up is the same except for the opposite end of the motion sensor that is where we attach one end of the spring and the other end to the cart. We then stretch the cart a certain distance and let it go. In this lab, not only do we have work done by kinetic energy but also with the elastic potential energy. 

The above graph is the integral of the kinetic energy graph and the other one is the graph cause by elastic potential energy. 

This is the graph we have watched where a professor pulled a rubber band back. When you see integration of this graph and the work done by Kinetic Energy, they are quite similar.

In this graph I learned that we can learn and use what we know of the Kinetic Energy Theorem. We have seen this application when doing this lab.