Determining the Friction and Efficiency of Air Gliders
| Purpose: To determine the acceleration of an air glider and hanging mass of an air rail system (click to view image) | |
| 1. | solving for theoretical acceleration of system |
| 2 | experimentally determining the acceleration of the system |
| 3. | compare the theoretical acceleration with the experimental acceleration of the system |
| 4. | determining the
percentage of system friction loss and the percentage of system efficiency |
| N.B. The
theoretical determination of acceleration is based on the thought that friction of the
system is so small that it can be neglected in the calculation of acceleration on the air
rail system The experimental determination of acceleration is the actual result obtained with any and all friction losses. |
|
Know the following terms:
| 1) Fapp = force applied (units in N) | |
| 2) Fnet = net force or inertial force (units in N) | |
| 3) a = acceleration (units in m/s2) | |
| 4) v = velocity or speed (units m/s) | |
| 5) Ff = frictional force (units in N) | |
| 6) M1 = mass of glider | |
| 7) M2 = hanging mass | |
| 8) d = distance between timing gates(units in m) | |
| 9) Fw = force weight of mass 2 (units in N)) | |
| 10) mu = coefficient of friction |
Know the following equations:
| 1) Fapp = Ff + Fnet (principle equation used for solving this experiment) |
| 2) Fapp = Fw = m2 . ag |
| 3) Fnet = m1a + m2a |
| 4) Ff = assumed to be 0 due to air rail low friction |
| 5) \ m2.ag = 0 + m1a + m2a; remember that [atheoretical = m2ag/(m1+m2)] |
Procedure for Part A:
| Analysis: | |
| 1. | Measure the mass of the glider ( M1 )[kg] |
| 2. | Measure the mass of the hanging mass ( M2 )[kg] |
| 3. | Measure the distance that the glider will accelerate from V1 = 0 m/s to the middle of the timing gate ( d ) m and then solve for V2 at the timing gate |
By measuring the mass of the glider (m1) and the
mass of the suspended weight (m2), and knowing ag (acceleration due to
gravity), solve for acceleration(theoretical) for the system. Remember that [atheoretical
= m2ag/(m1+m2)] and use
proper units in the MKS system.