Graphical Analysis

GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS

Purpose: The purpose of this experiment was to familiarize ourselves with the graphical software and also to gain experience in drawing graphs.
Introduction: Dr. Haag gave us the lab worksheet and my group started. We grabbed a laptop, logged on and found the Graphical Analysis program and opened the program. Next, we started exploring the different functions of the program. The first graph we came up with was a wave looking graph. We concluded that the graph could be described as the motion of shocks for a car. The x-axis represented time and the y-axis represented the displacement of air in the shocks.

For the second part of our lab experiment, we were to connect the lab pro to the laptop and the motion detector to the lab pro. We opened the appropriate folders and practiced using the provided cardboard. We finally used the racquet ball to test the motion detector. It took us about 30-40 throws, but we finally managed to get something similar to a parabola.

This picture illustrates the “semi” parabola that resulted in the ball throw. The black and orange box is where the ball was dropped and hit the wire basket.

Data: After achieving this semi parabola, we analyzed the range of the parabola. The result was that the equation of the parabola was y = -4.616x^2– 1.301x + 1.329

After we drew the graph on the blackboard, we presented along with the other groups. We saw that many other groups had similar A coefficients. Someone threw out the idea that it can be related to gravity.

The equation d is proportional to gt^2 adheres to the distance fallen because where d is gravity and equal to 9.8 m/s^2, d is the distance traveled, and t is the time traveled.
Distance is measured in m
gravity is measured in m/s^2
and time is measured in s.

Conclusion: The idea that this is related to gravity is logical. On the handout given to us, an equation was given to show the relationship of the parabola to gravity. It showed that gravity is the result of acceleration of an object being 9.8 m/s^2. The A coefficient that resulted in the analysis of our experiment is nearly half of 9.8. The reason for this is because if you drop an object, after a second, it will reach 4.9 meters.

A reason that we could have received inconclusive results is that we did not throw the ball up, rather just drop it on the wire basket. This resulted in the graph being a semi parabola instead of a full parabola.