Newton’s 2nd Law Of Motion(air track motion)

What was I studying?

-An air track is a scientific device used to study motion in low friction
environment.

- Air is pumped through a hollow track with fine holes all along the track
that allows specially fitted air track cars to glide relatively friction-free.
Air tracks are usually triangular in cross-section. Carts which have a
triangular base and fit neatly on to the top of the track are used to study
motion in low friction environments.

Why was this topic important to investigate?

- When an air track is connected with an air blower, compressed air is

sprayed from the holes on the surface and form a thin air layer. This air
layer will fill the space between the air track and the inner surface of a
glider. As a result, the movement of the glider can be regarded as
friction-free movement. With the help of an air blower and a digital
timer, the air track can be used to experimentally study important
physics concepts . Many different experiments are possible,including
determining the distance travelled by the object as a function of time,
velocity of an object as a function of time, to determine the acceleration
of an object as a function of the inert mass and to determine the
acceleration as a function of force.

What did we know about this topic before I did this study?

-It was invented in the mid-1960s at the California Institute of

Technology by Prof Nehr and Leighton based on Newton’s Law of motion
on relationships between velocity, acceleration, foce and mass and so
on. It was first presented by them at a meeting of the American Physical
Society in NYC in 1965 where it was viewed by Prof John Stull, Alfred
University, and Frank Ferguson, the Ealing Corporation. The original
track was about 1 meter long with tiny air orifices and highly
compressed air where he developed a simple version using standard
square aluminum tubing with large air orifices and air from the vent of a
shop vacuum cleaner. (Revolvy,2017).
How will this study advance new knowledge or new ways of
understand.

According to Newton's second law an object will accelerate in the

direction of the net force. Since the force of friction is opposite to the
direction of travel, this acceleration causes the object to slow its forward
motion, and eventually stop.The purpose of this laboratory exercise is to
verify Newton's second law. In order to see if this simple theory will
allow accurate theoretical acceleration. A mass hanging from a string
over a pulley will act as the “accelerating mass,” applying a force to
accelerate the object being observed. The force this accelerating
mass,ma applies can be determined by multiplying the mass by the
acceleration of gravity. The accelerating force is then responsible for
accelerating not only the object in question, but the accelerating mass as
well. The acceleration, then, can be calculated from the equation. In this
experiment, we will attempt to verify Newton’s second law by using a
known force to accelerate a frictionless object. We will then compared
the actual acceleration of that object to the theoretically predicted
acceleration. In this laboratory report, we present the results of this
experiment and compare our experimental results with the theory of
Newton’s Second Law.

Revolvy, LLC.(2017), “‘Air Track’ on Revolvy.com.”

www.revolvy.com/page/Air-track?mt=1.

Wittman, David M. “Acceleration and Force.” Oxford Scholarship Online,

2018, https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/subscribe

Tompson, C. W., and J. L. Wragg. “Terminal Velocity on an Air Track.”

The Physics Teacher, vol. 29, no. 3, 1991, pp. 178–179.,
doi:10.1119/1.2343267.
velocity obtained by application of a constant force is given as function
of time,t. we carried out an experimental investigation of the reading of
time taken, focusing on the dependence of s and t, where s is distance
travelled and t is time when the glider passing through each barrier.
Next, by application of In this laboratory report, we present the results
of this experiment and compare our experimental results with the
theory of Newman and Searle