Physics 105

February 3, 2003

Today we will continue our exploration of motion by focussing on the velocity of an object. Position, velocity, and acceleration are the three most commonly used parameters used to describe the motion of an object. To find out more about the definitions of these parameters, please refer to the course notes:

There are many different techniques to measure the velocity of an object. The two techniques we will use in this course are:

  1. Measure the difference in position at fixed time intervals (motion sensor)
  2. Measure the difference in time at fixed distance intervals (photo gates)

Each of these methods has it advantages and disadvantages as we will discover this week. Today, we start with making a comparison between the velocity measured with the motion sensor and the velocity measured with the photo gate. Use the "Velocity - Comparing Techniques" setup in your handout folder for this comparison. Both techniques of course should give the same results.

After our initial experiment with the photo gate we will explore measurements with the photo gate in more detail. Use the "Velocity - Intro" setup in your handout folder to work on this intro experiment.

© Frank L. H. Wolfs, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA

Last updated on Monday, February 3, 2003 10:44