Identifying the theoretical acceleration of a glider along a linear

track by using statistical tools

Briz Josiah Noella, FloresLovely Keziah, Marzan Shemaiah Mae,
Paglingayen Kimberly, Ramos Patricia
University of the Philippines, Baguio

Abstract
An object that travels in a straight line without diverting its direction and whose
velocity increases equally with respect to time is said to have a uniformly
accelerated motion. In this experiment the time a glider took to travel the linear
air track atdifferent distances was measured and recorded. Using statistical
tools, the slope for ave
v versus 1/2twas -66.63 cm/s2 and for x versus2 tit was
2
291.8 cm/s . The theoretical acceleration was also calculated and was known to
be 414 cm/s2. Based on theesults
r
obtained
, the % error for each of the graph
was high they were knownto be 116.09% and 29.52%, respectively. The
obtained % errors were such because of the reaction time and uncertainties in
the measuring materials used.

Introduction
Think about a ball sliding down a smooth, frictionless inclined plane. The balls velocity will relatively
increase as it moves along the plane due to a constant force action in it. The velocity continuously changes in either
its magnitude or direction or
can be both. Acceleration is defined as the change of velocity at a given period of time.
[1]
Motion where the velocity change is called accelerated motion.
The best example for uniformly accelerated
motion is a freely falling body where theres a motion
where the velocity changes at a constant rate.
An object that
travels in a straight line without diverting its direction and whose velocity increases equally with respectisto time
[2]
said to have a uniformly accelerated motion.
An object that is acted
upon by a force which is constant in magnitude and direction will be accelerated in
constant acceleration in the direction of force. Galileo is credited with discovering that the force of gravity is the
cause of weight and that all bodies, regardless
their
of mass, are accelerated by the force of gravity at the same rate.
[3]
The ball sliding down given as an example also moves with a constant acceleration due to gravity. But the
acceleration down the plane will be lesser than the acceleration of a
g fallin
body in relation to its projected angle.
Using the concept of uniformly accelerated motion the experiment aims to measure the acceleration of a
glide on the linear air track and construct and analyze graphs related to uniformly accelerated motion.

Methodology
Before the experiment proper, it was first made sure that the linear air track to be used is clean and free
from any objects or factors that may interfere and affect the results of the experiment such as dirt that may
significantly affect the friction between the track and glider. Afterwards, one end of the linear track was elevated on
an iron stand. The angle of inclination was measured from the-inbuilt
protractor of the track. Then, the glider was
set on different elevations on the linear air
rack
t starting from the highest point. Six different points were identified
for this particular experimental set
-up: 90, 80, 70, 60, 50 and 40 cm. For each point, the glider was released, and the
time it took to travel from the initial point to the end he
of ttrack was measured and recorded. 5 trials were made for
each identified distance. Theave
V were computed and plotted against 1/2t
. The theoretical acceleration
for the
experiment was computed using the equation
for uniformly accelerated motion
a = g sin

(Eq. 1)

where g is the acceleration due to gravity and is the angle of inclination.

Also, x was plotted again
st t2. The slope
for each graph was computed using linear progression.
The percentage
error between the experimental acceleration
and the theoretical acceleration
from Vaveversus 1/2t and
x versus 2t were also determined using the formula:
% error =

|#

#
#

(Eq. 2)