Activity2 – Finding instantaenous speed.
ACTIVITY 2 – Finding Instantaneous Speed
The following outlines the steps in setting up an experiment used in physics to find the instantaneous speed of a vehicle on a linear air track. The air track uses a blower to raise a cart on a cushion of air. The cart should move very freely on the track as there is only a small amount of friction.
What To Do
• Set up the linear air track and blower. Check that the vehicle moves smoothly along the track.
• Fit the vehicle with a mask of known width.
• Set up a light gate and detector facing one another on opposite sides of the track at a height such that the mask on the vehicle will cut the light beam as it passes through.
• Connect the light source to an appropriate power supply and the light detector to a timer.
• Switch on the blower.
• Push or launch the vehicle through the light gate. Check that the timer starts and stops when it should and that it is capable of measuring the time taken by the mask to cut the beam. (Some timers cannot measure such short times).
