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In this project, we had to first watch videos of a tree swing and determine how physics concepts were involved in its motion. Using that knowledge, we designed our own tree swing to determine if those relationships were upheld in a real life application. We first took data from when our team member started in harmonic motion, then we used video to capture when another team member pushed the swing from the side while it was in motion. This caused the swing (and the person on it) to rotate. We then captured video footage of the person on the swing extending and tucking in to change their moment of inertia. We used the data we gathered to determine the change in velocity and acceleration throughout the harmonic motion, and calculate how both energy and momentum were conserved in the experiment.
Content:
Content:
Conservation of Energy: We used the conservation of energy theorem to find how much energy was conserved before and after our teammate was pushed. We compared the translational or linear energy to the rotational energy present after the torque was applied on the swing.
Conservation of Momentum: We calculated conservation of momentum by first finding the moment of inertia and how it changed using the equation I=1/2ML^2. The radius changed when our teammate was extending and tucking in, which led to this change. We then used the equation Iw=Iw to compare the momentum was our teammate was extended versus tucked in.
Torque: To find torque, we used the equation force perpendicular times radius to determine the torque that was enacted on the pendulum at its maximum height.
Harmonic Motion of Pendulums: Our whole unit was based on harmonic motion in springs and pendulums. We were introduced to the base equations to find period, height, max velocity, and amplitude of a pendulum, all of which we used in this project.
Reflection:
Reflection:
In this project, my team was very good at communicating with each other. We were able to gain a great understanding of the material by tying it to a real world application that we had seen many times in real life. We worked through our project very efficiently and were able to finish ahead of schedule. We were able to work through any calculation errors as a team and got help from peers or the teacher if everyone was confused. Another thing we did well was presenting our information and demonstrating our understanding clearly and concisely. Our slideshow had minimal text to and focused on our main findings. We had a detailed diagram and many visuals of the layout of our swing. Our diagram was clearly labeled with the proper measurements and values we calculated from our original data. In our presentation, we went more in depth to show our knowledge of the material.
Something I'd improve if I were to redo this project is I'd want to go above and beyond to further explore the concepts we learned about or add on to our experiment in a way. This could've been done in several ways. We could've taken data from multiple people of different masses and compare the different amplitudes, velocities, etc. This would've decreased the error that could've happened in our experiment. Additionally, we could've measured different values or instigated an alternative scenario other than our teammate being pushed that would lead to different data to analyze. For example, we could've introduced a torque being applied from an angle and compared how that changed the harmonic motion. Finally, in our slideshow, we could've designed more graphs of the different values we calculated to give a visual of how the relationship and change over the motion of a pendulum.
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