Lab Motion and Error

Equipment

• None

Procedure - Qualitative

1. See introduction for instructions on how to load Moving Man. Investigate Moving Man by having the man move using the sliders. Use the playback features and look at the graphs ("charts" tab at top).
2. YOU WILL NOT LEARN ANYTHING IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS WIITHOUT USING MOVING MAN - it is okay to be wrong here. In your lab notebook, sketch what you think the graphs or position vs. time, velocity vs. time, and acceleration vs. time would look like for the following scenario and explain your reasoning.
   1. The man starts at the tree and moves toward the house with constant velocity.
3. Now, use the Moving Man simulation to verify or correct your predicted graphs and reasoning with a different color pen.
4. Make new charts for each of the following scenarios. Predict without using Moving Man what you think the graphs will look like, and then use Moving Man to verify or correct your predicted graphs and reasoning with a different color pen.
   2. The man starts three meters from the house and accelerates towards the tree.
   3. The man stands still while he talks on his cell phone at the middle of the sidewalk, then walks toward the house at a constant rate trying to get better cell reception. He comes to a sudden stop when the coverage is good (about a meter before the house) and stands still to finish his conversation.
   4. The man starts close to the house, stands still for a little while, then walks toward the tree at a constant rate for a while, then the slows to a stop.
5. In your lab notebook, write a possible scenario for the following graph.
   
   
6. Try to reproduce this position vs. time graph by moving the man. Take a screen shot of your best try and save it for your lab notebook.
   
   
   
   
7. Try to reproduce this velocity vs. time graph and take a screen shot for your lab notebook.
   
   
   
   

Thanks to the Physics Education Technology Project for some of the above content.

Procedure - Quantitative

Now let's say we want to move the man at a constant velocity of 5.0 +/- 0.5 m/s. Since we cannot take data from the Moving Man, we have created the same sample data that each of you can use. Following is a real data set for time and position of a person trying to move  at the target speed. Now you want to determine quantitatively what the speed is, and have we met the target? Highlight this table and copy and paste it into Excel. See analysis section for hints on this.

Department of Physics