Alexander Refaeian

P131 Lab 99MW

27 March 2015
Rotational Dynamics Lab Report
Abstract:
In this experiment, a rotational apparatus was used to experiment with Newtons Second Law:
~net = I~. In this case, Tnet is the torque on the object, is the angular
acceleration, and I is the moment of inertia. Two brass masses are attached to the
pulley, the distance to which the brasses were from the axis of rotation varied. The
arm of the pulley is attached to a rotatable drum, which is rotated by a string which
is attached to a hanging mass. A motion sensor at the bottom of the of the mass
was used to measure velocity, acceleration, and position. Using DataStudio, a
position vs time graph was made for each of the five trials of the mass descending
down and going up. The slope of the line was found in DataStudio, which was the
acceleration. We then made a chart consisting of the mass of the hanging mass,
mgr, a, and error. In the second part of the experiment, we manipulated the inertia
to see how it would affect rotational motion by moving the brass masses closer to
the axis. This experiment helped get a better grasp on understanding Newtons
Second Law, and how inertia affects rotational motion.

Questions:
1. Create the data table for Part 1. Include all measured values (r, L,
marm, Mdrum, R).
Length of arm L (meter)
mass of arm m_arm (kg)
brass mass M_B (kg)
Mass of drum M_drum (kg)
Radius of brass masses R
(meter)

0.25
0.4228
0.4265
0.3765
0.016

Constant Moment of Inertia

hanging mass m (kg)

0.1
0.15
0.18
0.2
0.23

mgr
(Nm)
0.0245
0.0369
0.0442
0.0492
0.0565

a (m/s2)
1.06E-02
1.53E-02
1.84E-02
0.0206
0.0245

error a
(m/s2)
9.80E-05
2.40E-04
2.60E-04
1.50E-04
1.30E-04

2. Make a graph of mgr vs a. What sort of relation do you expect

between mgr and a? Why? Fit a linear best fit line to the data and
determine I/r and fr .

The relation I expect between mgr and a is displayed below:

y = mx+b
y = mgr
x=a
y = 2.315x + 0.008729
I/r = m = 2.315
b = tfr = 0.008729

3. Using I from question 2, calculate I0 using I = I0 + 2MBR 2 ,where .

Now calculate I0 using I0 = Idrum + Iarm, where Idrum =
(1/2)Mdrumr2 and IBar = (1/12)marmL2 (theoretical). How do
these compare? Show your work.
Io = I/r (r) = (2.315) (0.025)
I= 57.9 x 10^-3 kgm^2
Io = I 2MBR^2
Io = 57.9 x 10^-3 2(0.426) (0.016)^2
Io = 57.7 x 10^-3 kgm^2
Io = Idrum + Iarm = 2.28x10^-3 kgm^2
Idrum = 1/2 mdr^2

Idrum = (0.3765) (0.016)^2

=0.48x10^-4 kgm^2
Iarm = 1/12 M arm L^2
Iarm = 1/12 (0.4228) (0.25)^2
Iarm = 2.23 x 10^-3 kgm^2
Io = Idrum + Iarm = 2.28x10^-3 kgm^2
Io = 2.28x10^-3 kgm^2
(Io calculated theoretically is not equal to the one calculated through the
graph).
4. Create the data table for Part 2. Include constant value m.
mgr (Nm)
0.0123
0.0123
0.0123
0.0123
0.0123

a (m/s2)
0.00512
0.00557
0.00744
0.00981
0.0129

mass of arm m_arm (kg)

alpha
0.4163
0.2228
0.2976
0.3924
0.516

tau_net
0.12
0.12
0.12
0.12
0.12

R (meter)
0.245
0.22
0.195
0.17
0.145

R2 (m2)
0.06
0.0484
0.038
0.0289
0.02103

tau_net/alpha
0.2883
0.5386
0.4032
0.3058
0.2326

0.4228

5. Make a graph of net/ vs R2 . What sort of relation do you expect

between net / and R 2 ? Why?Add a linear best fit line to the data
and determine 2MB and I0 .

Here is the relation between tnet/alpha vs R2:

Tnet/alpha = (3.116) (R2) + 0.2314

Io = 0.2314 Intercept
2MB = 3.116 Kgm^2 slope
net = I
I is proportional to R2 . So net / proportional to R2. which means their
relation on the graph will be a straight line(Tnet/alpha = (3.116) (R2) +
0.2314) with intercept = 0.2314 and slope = 3.116.

6. How does your I0 value in question 6 compare to the values in

question 3 of Part 1? Should they be the same? Why or why not?
Yes, I0 and the values in question 3 should be the same. The reason for this is
because the bar and the drum are the same. There will always be a slight
variation in the theoretical and experimental calculations due to errors like
human error, external errors etc. If we consider these errors, the I0 should be
the same as Q3.
Conclusion:
This experiment gave us a further insight on how Newtons second law
works with rotational dynamics. After finding the acceleration of the mass
through five trials, we were able to set up a chart displaying the constant
moment of inertia using equations like mgr (mass x gravity x radius). After
doing this, we wanted to manipulate the inertia of the system to see how that
affected the rotational motion. By manipulating the inertia of the system by
moving the brass masses closer to the axis, we were able to see how this
would affect the rotational dynamic of the system. From this, I was able to
calculate I0 using I = I0 + 2MBR. Once this number was calculated, I0 was
calculated by adding up the inertia of the drum and the arm which was set
equal to = (1/2)Mdrumr2 and IBar = (1/12)marmL2, the theoretical
value. Sources of error in this experiment could be simple error calculations,
since this experiment involved much calculation. Another source of error
could be outside negligible forces acting on the system which in turn may
affect the sensors ability to accurately pick up the acceleration, velocity and
position. One last source of error could be the swinging of the hanging mass,
or the mass not being perfectly still while coming down towards the sensor.
This could cause miscalculation of the masss position.