NEWTON'S

LAW
AN INCLINED PLANE

Mahidol University International

Demonstrate School
AP Physics class 2018-2019
Susana Alulod
Made by: Phaphat  Aowsathaporn
 OBJECTIVE
- To demonstrate the newton’s
second law.

- To be able to calculate an
acceleration in an incline plane.
- To understand more about an
incline plane.
- To apply Mathematic and Physic
together to solve the problems.
 INTRODUCTION
There was an scientist in England named Sir Isaac Newton.
He has a bad hair style, but quite an intelligent guy. He
worked on developing calculus and physics at the same
time. During his work, he came up with the three basic
ideas that are applied to the physics of most motion. The
ideas have been tested and verified so many times over the
years, that scientists now call them Newton's Three Laws of
Motion. The first law says that an object at rest tends to stay
at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion, with
the same direction and speed. Motion (or lack of motion)
cannot change without an unbalanced force acting. If
nothing is happening to you, and nothing does happen, you
will never go anywhere. If you're going in a specific
direction, unless something happens to you, you will always
go in that direction. Forever. The second law says that the
acceleration of an object produced by a net applied force is
directly related to the magnitude of the force, the same
direction as the force, and inversely related to the mass of
the object; F = ma. The third law says that for every action
force there is an equal and opposite reaction force. Forces
are found in pairs. For example, if object 1 exerts a force on
object 2, then object 2 experts a force back on object1,
equal in strength but in the opposite direction. In this
experiment, we did about an incline plane to find an
acceleration by using two different equation. There were s =
ut + (at^2)/2 and a = g sinθ.
 MATERIALS
1. cart 4. Ruler

2. track 5. stand

3. Stop watch
SET UP
 PROCEDURE
1. Set up the ramp with the height 25 cm at the
end of the ramp(start with 0 cm side) by using the
ramp stand.
2. Make sure that distance along the ramp at 140
cm the height is 13 cm.
3. Starting with a cart at rest at the distance 20 cm,
use the stopwatch to measure the time to roll down
the ramp.
4. When the cart passed the distance of 80 cm,
press the stop watch(Lab).
5. When the cart passed the distance of 140 cm,
press it another time.
6. Record the time we used.
7. Repeat step 3-6 for three time and average
them.
DATA & RESULT
1. Finding the angle

2. Finding the acceleration

by using newton's second
law equation 
cm

3. Finding the acceleration

by using linear motion
equation
1. Newton's second law equation

2. Linear motion equation

 Analysis
In the calculation part, there are two different
equations that be used to calculate an acceleration of the
cart, which is Newton’s second law equation and Linear
motion equation. As you can see in the calculation part, a
mass of a cart is independent from an acceleration. They
are not related. As the result, an acceleration from Newton’s
second law equation is 0.98 m/s^2 in the first 60 cm. At the
same distance (first 60 cm), an acceleration from a linear
motion equation is 0.94 m/s^2. There is an error in this
experiment, which is human error. It can happen when the
observers are in a different position. It may cause the effect
to the time we took. Furthermore, when the observer
presses a stopwatch button, the time isn’t accurate. So, I
have to do many trials and average it.
At the distance of 120 cm, an acceleration of the cart
is 0.98 m/s^2 by using Newton's second law. And from a
linear equation, an acceleration is 0.85 m/s^2. Also, there is
a mistake that causes acceleration not to be the same,
which is human error. Without a human error, an
acceleration should be the same.
 Conclusion
To conclude, an acceleration of a cart that
slides down an inclined plane is independent from a
mass of the cart. From the equation, a = g sinx, it
shows that no mass needed to plug in the equation.
Thus, the only thing that needs to be measured in this
experiment is height and the distance of an inclined
plane to find an angle of it.
 Reccommendation
There is a mistake that make an experiment
isn't become accurate, which is about human error. In
this experiment, it is a group work. So, our group have
many observer from a different position that makes a
mistake about timing. Because we saw the cart in
different perspective. However, we solve this problem
by using only one observation who was standing in
front of a distance at 120 cm because it will be the most
accurate one to see the cart pass the point.
 References
- (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://study.com/academy/lesson/inclined-plane-lesson-
for-kids-definition-examples.html

- Inclined plane facts Kids Encyclopedia Facts. (n.d.).

Retrieved from https://kids.kiddle.co/Inclined_plane

- E. (n.d.). What is an inclined plane simple machine.

Retrieved from https://eschooltoday.com/science/simple-
machines/what-is-an-inclined-plane.html

- Inclined Plane Examples. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.softschools.com/examples/simple_machines/i
nclined_plane_examples/508/