Aim : To investigate the type of acceleration and its definition.

Inference : the acceleration of the trolley depends on its velocity

Apparatus and materials

Trolley, Elastic cords for accelerating trolley,Ticker-timer with power supply

unit,Ticker-tape, cellotape

Procedure

a Thread a length of ticker-tape through a ticker-timer and attach the

end to a trolley.

b Pull a trolley with a fixed force along a bench. Loop one end of the
elastic cord around a rod attached to the trolley. Keep the force
constant by making sure that the cord is always stretched by the same
amount as the trolley moves.

c Choose and cut through a dot near to the start of the tape. Do this
when the trolley is travelling quite slowly but the dots are far enough apart
to clearly distinguish one from another.

d Count ten dot-to-dot spaces and cut the tape, through a dot, again.
You have cut a 'ten-tick-tape'.

e Count 40 more dot-to-dot spaces along the tape. Then cut the next
10 dot-to-dot spaces to make another ten-tick-tape.

f Draw a horizontal line, as a time axis, on a piece of paper. Glue your

tapes, vertically and 1cm apart, so the bottom of each tape touches
this axis.
g Draw a vertical axis anywhere to the left of the first tape. This is a
velocity axis.

h Mark a scale, in centimetres per second, on your vertical axis. Each

vertical centimetre on your axis represents 5 centimetres per second.

i Use your velocity axis to help you to work out the initial velocity and
the final velocity. You can call these u and v. (Remember that u comes
before v in the alphabet, just as the first velocity comes before the
second.)

Work out the average acceleration of your trolley during the time
between the two tapes. Acceleration is 'rate of change of velocity'.
j Draw a straight line between the centres of the tops of the tapes.
Draw a horizontal line from the centre of the top of the first tape. Draw
a vertical line through the top of the second tape. You have made a right-
angled triangle. The length of the base of your triangle, using the units of
the horizontal axis, is 1 second.

Result :

Stick on your graph paper

Find :

a) Initial velocity
b) Final velocity
c) Time interval
d) Total displacement
e) Acceleration