Measuring Coefficient of Friction Lab

In this lab you will be tasked with measuring the coefficient of friction between the track and
two different types of friction boxes I will show you in class. You will as a group need to create a
procedure to answer the question. Include what you will measure and how you will determine your
coefficient of friction. Include descriptions of possible error and ways to reduce the error in the
measurement. The equipment available to you is listed below. You do not need to use all of the
equipment listed only the equipment you wish to use and need to use to determine the coefficient of
friction. You will make a claim, and support it with evidence and reasoning from your lab.

The list of available equipment.

Meterstick, stopwatch (chromebook), triple beam balance, masses, pulley, string, motion sensor, force
sensor, and friction boxes.

Question: What is the coefficient of friction between lab table and friction box A and the coefficient of
friction between lab table and friction box B?

Procedure to answer your question typed below.

In order to determine the coefficient of kinetic friction between two different friction boxes (one with a
cork bottom and one with a plastic bottom) on the tracks, we will need a triple beam balance, an aluminum
track, 1 meter of massless string, a motion sensor, a near frictionless pulley, 1 five hundred gram mass, 1 two
hundred gram mass, 1 one hundred gram mass, and our chromebook in order to use SparkVUE to find the
acceleration of the friction boxes. After massing each friction box and finding their individual masses (92.45 for
the cork bottomed friction box, and 94.0 for the plastic friction box), we will add a known mass of five hundred
kilograms to slow down the acceleration of the system to better analyze the kinetic friction to overcome in our
experiment. By tying part of a 1 meter string to the friction box and the other to a mass, we will be able to
utilize a pulley system to apply a constant force upon the two trials. By allowing for three trials of the system to
accelerate the friction box along the track, we will be able to calculate the kinetic friction force that occurs
between the aluminum track and the individual friction box that we chose. With the motion sensor connected to
our computer we will be able to find the acceleration of the object and compare it to the theoretical acceleration
of the object if there was no friction. To calculate the theoretical value we will have to take 9.8, the acceleration
of objects closer to the earth and times that by our mass of 300 grams since gravity is acting on that mass
without a force normal to counteract it. After calculating the Newtons acting on the system we will take the
mass of the system (mass of the cork friction box + 500 grams + 300 grams and mass of the plastic friction box
+ 500 grams + 200 grams) and divide the force by this value. This will give us the theoretical acceleration that
our system should undergo, however, it will not due to the force of friction on this object. By using the data
collected from the motion sensor and subtracting that acceleration we get from one of our hypothetical values,
we will obtain a new acceleration, which we would then times by the mass of the system to find the force of
kinetic friction acting upon it. Finally, after getting the force of kinetic friction and the force normal of the
system (the weight acting on the system) we can find the coefficient of friction between the two different
surfaces.

Data: The information you collected in the lab.

92.5g = Cork Friction Box
94.0g = Plastic Friction Box
84.0g = Felt Friction Box

Trial 3 Average
Type of Friction Mass of the Trial 1 Acceleration Trial 2 Acceleration Acceleration Acceleration
Box System (kg) (m/s^2) (m/s^2) (m/s^2) (m/s^2)
Cork Friction Box 0.89245 0.622 0.597 0.45 0.5563333333
Plastic Friction Box 0.794 1.047274 1.377395 1.06425 1.162973

Analysis: How you will manipulate the information to help you answer the question. (Calculations,
graphs, etc…)

By knowing the value of the average acceleration of the trials conducted, we could take the force acting
on the individual systems and divide them by the mass of the system to find a theoretical value of acceleration
that does NOT calculate friction. By getting this value and subtracting it by the real value, we can find the
acceleration that friction applies in the opposite direction of motion. This acceleration will then be multiplied by
the mass of the respective friction box. This would find you the kinetic friction force that acted upon the system.
By dividing the kinetic friction force by the force normal of the system, or the weight of the system (this includes
ONLY the box on the table as the mass hanging off the table does not have a force normal that is applicable.)
we can find the coefficient of friction for the respective friction box.

Trial 3 Average
Type of Friction Mass of the Trial 1 Acceleration Trial 2 Acceleration Acceleration Acceleration
Box System (kg) (m/s^2) (m/s^2) (m/s^2) (m/s^2)
Cork Friction Box 0.89245 0.622 0.597 0.45 0.5563333333
Plastic Friction Box 0.794 1.047274 1.377395 1.06425 1.162973

Force acting on
the system (N)
Weight of the system
Friction Box (N) 2.94
Cork 5.80601 1.96
Plastic 5.8212

Theoretical Difference in
Friction Box Acceleration (m/s^2) Acceleration (m/s^2)
Cork 3.294302202 2.737968868
Plastic 2.468513854 1.305540854

Kinetic Friction Force

Friction Box (N)
 Cork 2.443500317
Plastic 1.036599438

Coefficient of Friction
Friction Box (dimensionless)
Cork 0.4208570631
Plastic 0.178073153

Conclusion: Answer the question with your claim. Support it with evidence and reasoning from the
lab. This should be a full paragraph.

In the above cells you can see the values that are derived from the aforementioned calculation
methods. We took the weight of system by multiplying the mass of 500 grams + the mass of the cart (92.45
grams for cork and 94 grams for plastic) and multiplied it by the constant of gravity. This gave us value of
5.80601 N for the cork and 5.8212 N for the plastic. This value was then used to divide the kinetic friction force
that we found previously.The kinetic friction forces of 2.443500317 N and 1.036599438 N were found by taking
the theoretical acceleration without factoring in friction and subtracting the true average acceleration that we
found to find the Difference in acceleration. By multiplying the difference in acceleration of 2.737968868 m/s^2
and 1.305540854 m/s^2 to the correlating friction box, cork and plastic respectively, Once the division of the
kinetic friction force by weight of the system took place, we were able to find the coefficients of friction to be
0.421 mew for the Cork Friction box and 0.178 mew for the Plastic Friction box.