Lab 8: Work-KE Theorem 10/1 - 10/6

Purpose

In this lab, we wanted test our hypothesis that, based on the work-kinetic energy theorem, the work done on the spring is equal to the kinetic energy of the spring.

Procedure + Lab Equipment

What we used:

• cart + block
• ramp
• spring
• logger pro
• force sensor + motion sensor 

This is the lab set up for the experiment when the spring is at rest

What we did:

1. the mass of the cart + block was measured
• attached one end of the spring to the cart
2. calibrated the force sensor
• we then connected the force sensor to the other end of the spring and let the spring at rest and zeroed
3. stretched the spring and let go - recorded the data

Data

Graph 1

Graph 2

Graph 3

Graph 4

Calculations + Data Analysis

Kinetic energy is found through... 

This is how the kinetic energy is found.

These are the percent errors for their respective graphs

We can see that throughout the graph, work is close to equal to the kinetic energy. So, we found that the work-kinetic theorem to be true.  

Summary

In this lab, we set out to test if the work-kinetic energy theorem is true. We used a cart-spring system to see if the work done was equal to the kinetic energy. Our data shows that work was close to equal to the kinetic energy. We aren't going to get exact numbers due to some errors. Our spring was resting on something, as can be seen in the lab set up. This may have affected our data. 

Though are numbers weren't exact, they did let us see that the work-kinetic energy theorem works.