EXPERIMENT 201: WORK, ENERGY AND POWER

FE ANNE L. BRAGAT
Physics Department, Mapua Institute of Technology falbragat@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The main objective of this experiment is to demonstrate the relationship of work, energy and power to each other. In order to do that, a fan cart, smart timer, and a track were used to characterize work, power and the energy conservation principle. The computation was also done on the work of a motion along a curved path produced. The two primary procedure for getting the work and power is to measure initially the force acting on the fan cart and record the displacement and time of it. The fan cart produces a greater amount of work if it moves at a longer distance. On the other hand, since the fan cart is moving horizontally, the power is remained constant. Then, work and energy (gravitation potential energy) was attained on a much difficult way because it displaces on a curve path. Continual increase in pulling the fan cart is done in order to raise it at a certain height. Later in the experiment, the potential energy and work are of the same magnitude which can be proven by the law of conservation of energy and work-energy theorem.
Key Words- work, energy, power, work-energy theorem, kinetic energy, potential energy transformed into mechanical work, the units we use for measuring energy are the same as the units of work. Energy is sometimes quite noticeable because human beings are equipped with senses that are able to detect its presence in various forms. Our eyes respond to visible light. Our ears detect sound energy. Special nerves are sensitive to temperature, an indication of heat energy. Other nerves respond to electric energy. Energy is a concept that unifies physics. More specifically, it is concern of physicists to follow and measure the course of energy from one form to another, for the forms of energy are mutually interchangeable. Take example the energy you expend when you walk. Traced backwards, it came from the food you ate. The food got its energy from nutrients in the ground and radiation from the sun. The sun gets its energy from nuclear reactions in its interior, etc. Tracing your walking energy forward, the friction and motion of your feet on the ground heat the ground slightly, this radiates the heat into space and helps to evaporate water from the earth, which makes rain possible, etc. Some of the energy forms are kinetic, gravitational potential, elastic potential, light and heat, electrical, chemical, etc. Work, on the other hand, is the change in energy from one form to another by means of an external force. When work is done on an object, therefore, the object is said to have either gained or lost a certain amount of energy of a particular type. The total work done on a particle by all forces that act on it is equal to the change in its kinetic energy, also known as the work-energy theorem.

I. INTRODUCTION
When James Watt (1736-1819) was young, he became interested in steam power by watching water boil in a tea kettle over a fire. If the spout of the kettle was plugged, the lid rose. Perhaps this observation eventually led Watt to improvements of steam engines for which he is famous. In any case, this observation is a good example of how energy is related to work. The steam had energy. Energy, then, is a quantity that, if the conditions are right, has the capacity to do work. Since energy can often be

This can derived from:

vectors force and velocity. It is given by the equation:

It can be also expressed as:

One part of the experiment is where a hanging object tied in a string with a certain length, R. It is constantly raised where work and potential gravitation energy is computed. On a motion of a body moving in a curved path, a figure represents the system below:

For a body moving along , displacement with a constant force , work can be defined as: The SI unit for work is J, Joule which is equal to 0.7376 ft.lb in British System. For instance that is not parallel to displacement, only the component parallel to the displacement can only affect work. The angle between , is related by:

When force is in the same direction with displacement which is the maximum, work is simply:

Dividing both equations:

It is related to the magnitude of the vector dot product of force and displacement. Thus, by analysis, for angle is 900, force is perpendicular to displacement. Therefore, W=Fscos(900)=0. On the other hand, Power, which is another term in physics, is the rate of time at which work is done. Power is a function of time unlike in work which is a function of displacement. Similarly, power is also a vector dot product of

Aside from kinetic, another type of mechanical energy is the potential energy. It is due to position or configuration which is the possibility of work to be done. Change in the gravitational potential energy is the work done by gravity. It has an equation:

the cart. We place the fan cart at one end of the track and we determine how long would it take to cover a certain distance using the photogates. We perform several trials varying the distance. The pan is no longer attached to the fan cart by the string.

Naturally for this case in our experiment, energy being used is both potential gravitational energy and kinetic energy. According to Law of Conservation of Energy, energy is neither created nor destroyed, but transform from one form to another. Law of Conservation of Energy states that the sum of the total energy in the universe is a constant quantity. In the experiment, we will determine the power of the fan cart by using the definition of work and energy conservation principle as well as to compute work for a motion along a curved path. It is also reflected how energy is transformed or conserved. II. METHODOLOGY The first experiment is generally divided into two parts. For the first half, calculations of work and power of a fan cart is the primary concern. To do so, materials such as fan cart, track, smart timer, photogates, pan with loads, etc. are given to us in assembling the set-up. When the materials are ready (Figure 2), the first thing we do is to place the cart on a leveled track. Then, we attached a string to the fan cart at one end and at the other end is a pan. The string passes over a small and frictionless pulley. Then, we turn on the fan cart and observe in which direction it moves depending on the orientation of the carts blades. The fan cart move away from where the pan is. While the fan is working, we put some weight on the pan and adjust the value until the total weight on the pan balances the force exerted by the fan cart. After that, we record the reading as force F of

Figure 2: Part 1 of the experiment. Set up for determining the force of the fan cart On the part two of the experiment, determination of work and energy (gravitational potential) was done using an object with mass which is raised time to time. We attach a mass at the end of a string to an iron stand then we record the initial height of the mass. Then, we slowly pull the mass by applying a horizontal force F on the mass, measure the height of the mass and record the horizontal force F as read by the spring balance (Figure 3). We perform several trials increasing the height until the string L is horizontal. It is important to do horizontal pulling to minimize errors. It is also done in order to take the full account of the force exerted. As we pull it, height is increasing. The final height on each pull was recorded as well. Like in the first part, it is done in several trials as a technique of diminishing the percentage error. Lastly, we have computed for

the increase in the gravitational potential energy of the mass for each trial using equation 10.

of . This would lead to decrease of absolute deviation. On the data below, it is shown that the partial result of the first part of the experiment has a positive slope. It is observed that as displacement is increasing, the work done by the fan cart is also increasing. It also shows that the power is constant. By graphing, the workdisplacement relation is linear.(See figure below).

Figure 3: Part 2 of the experiment. Set up for determining work and PEg III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The outcome of the experiment is based on how accurate and precise the data are. The experiment is not 100% accurate because of some factors that are interfering with. On the first part of the experiment, one minor error that can be possibly done is performing the experiment not in a horizontal table. This would affect greatly in the determination of force. Letting the fan cart to move and not holding it just for a moment in order for the fan to generate its full force is another source of error. We cannot easily quantify this error, but surely, it will decrease the original force needed. Another difficulty that we can encounter is when the power we had calculated is in slightly increasing trend, this must be a problem with the time, because in the experiment, the power we had obtained is a function of time. Actually, power is constant. Because of this, correction factor is needed. Since, smart timer is closely to be accurate; we just add an uncertainty number

F=0.49 N Displacement 0.50 m 0.55 m Time 0.1516 s 0.3192 s Work 0.0392 J 0.1176 J Work 0.245 J 0.2695 J Power 0.2429 0.2456

In order to get the values in the table, the equations 3 (for work) and 6 (for power) are used. Power can be obtained using the work we had obtained. Through its definition, power can be expressed as work per change in time.

Displacement, S 0.50 m 0.55 m 0.60 m 0.65 m

Time, t 1.1516 sec 1.2574 sec 1.2692 sec 1.3894 sec

Velocity, V 0.4341 0.4374 0.4727 0.4678

If we had for example, Trial 1, we have measured 370, but if the real value is 390, then, change in work is: The work-energy theorem is still valid even for varying force and even for a curve path of motion.

Equation 11
Using this formula, we can get the velocity of the displacement and time and it is proven that velocity is constant.

Change in height-potential energy graph where x is the change in height and y is the potential energy. As height of object increases, higher potential energy it restores. With each unit increase in height, work is done against force of gravity and equal amount of energy is stored. Potential energy of an object at the earth's surface is not zero.

We should expect that the power is constant. It is because the fan cart is moving at a constant velocity and a constant force. It is proven in the table that the power has negligible differences, making it constant. For the second part, error may all come from human assumptions such as measuring. For an error cause by measuring the angle, we could make use of equation 9.

w = 2.94 N Trial Change in height 0.08 0.205 PEg

1 2

0.2352 0.6027

w = 2.94 N Trial 1 2 Angle 50

o

L = 0.45 m Work 0.4726 0.8705

work done of an object is merely the change in kinetic energy or change in potential energy. The process that we use on the first part will give a more accurate outcome than the second part. It is because the second part has many measuring procedure, which leads us to make assumptions and uncertainties. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The ideas of this paper cannot be done in its present form without first, my group mates who let me to be with them in performing the experiment. Without them, I cant do this work alone. I also want to thank our professor for sharing us his knowledge about this topic for us to have an understanding about the experiment and to the lab assistant that allow us borrow the apparatuses and for orienting us for proper care of those. REFERENCES [1]hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/ hbase/work.html [2]Young, H., Freedman, R., University Physics

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In order to get the values in the tables, the equation 9 have been used. Another equation used is the formula for the initial height which is:

Equation 12
The total force we had applied in the object is transformed into potential energy as it stops at a higher height. As additional information, the work done by tension in this part is zero, while the work done by gravity is the same as with the work done by the force but in negative sign. IV. CONCLUSION

The objective of the experiment is to determine the power of the fan cart by using the definition of work and the energy conservation principle. Also, this aims to compute work for a motion along a curved path. Work is related to power. Power can be determined using work by considering the time. It is from its definition that power is the rate of doing work at specific displacement. The work has linear relation with displacement. If the displacement has increase thrice, work will also increase thrice. Force which is parallel to displacement is doing the maximum work. On the other hand, the force cannot affect work if force is perpendicular to displacement. Energy appearing in various forms like for example, chemical energy, is conserved. It can be transformed from one form to another but cannot be created nor destroyed. It is known as the law of conservation of energy. The total

with Modern Physics, 12th Edition, 2009

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[5]http://inventors.about.com/od/ wstartinventors/a/JamesWatt.htm [6]http://www.edinformatics.com/ math_science/work_energy_power.html