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Adinabobina
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Homework Statement
Okay, so I did a lab for my intro to mechanics physics class the other day and my lab report is due at 5pm tonight and I am having A LOT of trouble.
The lab was a frictionless air track glider on a horizontal surface with a fixed mass M connected by a massless string to a hanging mass m, which we changed each trial in order to prove Newtons second law, F= ma.
The questions I am having trouble with are:
1. Suppose the string connecting M and m is cut during their motion. Explain the subsequent motion of each mass. (Hint: comment on the subsequent velocity and acceleration of each mass)
2. In case the acceleration of the system is very small, we can naively estimate that T=mg .
Calculate the “actual” tension T in the string for one value of the acceleration and represent the difference between “actual” and “naive estimation” as a % difference.
3. During the experiment we assume that the air track is frictionless. But there is in fact a small amount of friction between the glider and the track. Explain how measuring the glider's acceleration for a full bounce (glider moves up and down the track) helps to minimize the affects for friction? How would your experimental value of g change (smaller or larger) if you only measured the glider going down the track? How would your experimental value of g change (smaller or larger) if you only measured the gliders acceleration coming up the track? (Note: you do not have to offer a quantitative answer.)
Homework Equations
acceleration= mg/ (m + m)
The Attempt at a Solution
I don't even know where to begin. Please, any help is greatly appreciated. I am a learning disabled student so vague explanations tend to make me extremely confused. It would be wonderful if someone could just provide me with a straight forward and detailed method of how to approach each problem so that I am on the right track and can then answer the questions myself.
Thank you so much!