During the first week of school my classmates and I started learning about the effects of mass on force. To start off this lesson we were given a manual force probe, an electronic force probe and a set of brass weights with different masses. With these materials my group and I started to measure the amount of force exerted to lift brass weights of 200 grams , then 500 grams and after 1000 grams, with a manual probe. After we completed lifting each weight and recording the amount of force it took to lift up the set of weights, we repeated the same procedure with an electronic probe so we could get more accurate data.
Once we got all our data we took this information and began to create a graph that will show the relationship between mass and force. To make this graph we needed to put the mass of each weight(kilograms) as the x-variable also known as the independent variable and the force (Newtons) needed to lift each weight as the y-variable or should I say dependent variable. After plotting each point we connected the lines and came up with our "best fit line", which is line that will hit the most scatter points on the graph then this is what my group and I came up with:
Once we were able to come up with this graph we were able to visually look at their relationship and soon enough we discovered an equation that relates mass to force, and got y=(9.622)M. Looking at our simple equation with a ton of decimals we decided to take it a step further and concluded that F=10M, which also happens to be Newton's formula.
Physics in the real world? NO WAY!
Everyday humans use some kind of force without even knowing it, and usually this force is to lift up some type of mass. It can vary from lifting a pencil or even picking up a picture frame but either way they ALL require some force depending on how heavy the item is. For example I picked up a pencil today with ease but when I got home I had to move my desk with was really heavy and it took my dad and I to lift it. The desk took more force in order to move because it has a bigger mass just like the weights in our lab.
Great summary of lab procedures and what you learned, with reference to your data. Also, nice job highlighting the importance of measuring mass in kg and force in newtons.
ReplyDeleteJust remember to get in the habit of referring to the brass objects as "brass masses" instead of "brass weights" because - as you state in your post- mass and weight are different things.