Lab Report

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1)     Our group used stopwatches and motion detectors, a couple two meter sticks, and some-paper-that-I-can't-quite-remember-the-name-of to gather data. Measurements we gathered include: the time of the ball in the air, the displacement of the ball, the height of the launcher, and the angle of the launcher. To determine the ball's air time, we first tried the motion detector, but it proved unreliable. Instead, the three of us measured the time in the air with stopwatches. We then averaged our three times and used this average with the displacement (which was measured with the two meter sticks and the aforementioned paper) to determine the approximate velocity of the ball.

2)     Ball displacement: 323 cm, 323 cm; Ball air time: .62 s, .75 s, .87 s; Launcher height: 117 cm;

Uncertainties: Ball displacement: +/- 1 cm; Ball air time: +/- .2 s; Launcher height: +/-.25 cm;

3)     (.62+.75+.87)/3=.7467 s; v = d / t = 3.23 / .747 = 4.33 m/s;  4.33 m/s x 2 = 8.66 m/s = vi (as suggested)

We first used the motion detector to calculate the velocity of the buggy and got a value of 1 to 3 m/s. At the time we didn't think about it enough to know that this was impossible for the buggy. By the time we realized this, the period was over and it was too late to try again after finding the buggy's speed. We would have done it by measuring how long it took the buggy to travel one meter. Measurements would be taken with a meter stick and a stopwatch. We would then try and match the buggy's speed with the hang time of the ball and launch at an appropriate time. 

I asked another group for the data they collected on just the buggy. They found the velocity of their buggy to be .513 m/s

4)     We used the model with the data we collected to determine, depending on the angle of launch, how long the ball was in the air and at what distance it landed. We tested different angles until the ball landed at 1.75m and used the time provided by the simulation.

5)     We did not hit the target. In fact, we landed at an unfortunately large distance away from our target. To improve this, we probably should have found a better way to time the ball’s hang time, or at least performed more trials in order to get better data.

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