Angular Acceleration

Purpose

We are looking at how the angular acceleration is affected by changing the:

• hanging mass
• torque pulley
• disks
  

Procedure + Lab Equipment

What we used:

• rotating apparatus
• aluminum disk
• steel disk (2)
• small torque pulley
• large torque pulley 
• hanging mass
•  caliper to measure disk + pulley diameters
• logger pro

What we did:

1.  took measurements of the disks and pulleys
2. set up the apparatus 
1. cleaned the disks with alcohol
3. set up logger pro
• sensor set to rotary motion
• data set to 200 counts per rotation
4. turned the compressed air on
• check to see if everything's in order
5. let the hanging mass go 
• collect data

Data

The slopes of each graph were found to determine the angular acceleration. These were from using the small pulley.

The slopes of each graph were found to determine the angular acceleration. These were from using the large pulley.

These are the angular accelerations for each experiment

 Data Analysis + Calculations

Hanging Mass

When we look at experiments 1, 2, and, 3, the hanging mass was only changed. Given the angular accelerations, we conclude that when the hanging mass is increased so is the angular acceleration. Based on the observations we also see that as the hanging mass was doubled, the angular acceleration doubled as well. The same thing happened when the hanging mass was tripled, the angular acceleration tripled as well. 

 Torque Pulley

When we look at experiments 1 and 4 (where experiment uses the small pulley and experiment 4 uses the large pulley) we find that the size of the torque pulley was only changed. Based on the experiment, the angular acceleration was increased as the size of the torque pulley was increased. When comparing the size of the torque pulleys, we found that the size was doubled, as well as the angular acceleration. 

Disks Mass

When we look at experiments 5 and 6, where only the mass of the disks is changed, we find that as the mass increased the angular acceleration decreased - unlike with increasing the hanging mass and the torque pulley.

Summary

In this lab, we experimented to see how the angular acceleration would be affected by changing the hanging mass, the size of the torque pulley, and the mass of the disks. We found that each factor has a different affect on the angular acceleration of the system.