Physics Lab-See Attachment (Questions + lab report)

Name: ______________________________ Period: _______________

Simulation Link-

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/balancing-act

Balancing Act

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the factors that determine whether two objects will balance each other

• Predict how changing the position of a mass on the balance will affect the motion of the balance

• Use a balance to the find the masses of unknown objects

Directions:

• Explore the Balancing Act simulation with your partner. As you explore, talk about what you find with your partner (About 5 minutes).

2. Is there more than one way to get two objects with identical masses to balance? How?

3. Next, try to get two objects with different masses to balance. Try to describe at least 2 different ways that you were able to balance them and draw them below.

Make sure you label the masses and the distance to each mass from the center (pivot point).

1.
2.

5. Draw two examples of balancing a single mass on one side with two other masses

Make sure you label the masses and the distance to each mass from the center (pivot point).

1.
2.

6. For your pictures in Question 5, draw in the forces from each mass.

7. Try to draw what will happen next if the box on the left is 45 kg and the box on the right is 60 kg

8. Challenge! What is the mass of mystery object F? Explain how you determined the mass.

LAB REPORT

 Objective: State what you want to achieve in this experiment. A formal way to do

this is to state a question or hypothesis that you want to address.

 Method: You should include a summary of the lab procedure in your words; do

not merely copy what is in the manual. This section should demonstrate your

understanding of what exactly you measured and how you measured it.

 Data: In this section you should include the raw data you measured; generally, an

estimate of the error should accompany all measured values. Be sure to present

your data in an organized manner (e.g. a data table) and to include units.

 Data Analysis: In this section you will manipulate the data in order to help you

address your question or hypothesis. Usually this entails performing calculations

and/or creating graphs of the data.

 Uncertainty & Error: You cannot draw any final conclusions from your data

until you think carefully about how well you can trust your data and what factors

may have affected or biased it. Additionally, you must often propagate the error

from your measurements through your calculations and graphs.

 Conclusion: Finally, after all this work, go back and answer the question you

stated in the beginning. Does your data allow you to support or reject your

hypothesis, or is the data inconclusive? Also do you have anything you can

compare your results with (e.g. a value in the literature, a second measurement, a

measurement with a different method, other lab groups)? How well does it

compare to such a value?