Re: Newton's Second Law Lab

[SSHS KPHOX <kphox@MAIL.CCSD.K12.CO.US>]

PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu writes:
> I am trying to come up with a good lab for high school students to do
> that will clarify and test N2.  I have air tracks available but have the
> following experiences.

I still do this lab in the mode of PSSC with carts and rubber bands. I
have given up on ticker timers and have measured acceleration both with
picket fences, and sonic rangers in the computer age as well as with
stopwatches over fixed distances.

My students get reasonable confirmation of N2 and a wonderful kinesthetic
sense of acceleration. This is an attractive reason to do the car push.

The car push can be improved by having students push on bathroom scales at
a "fixed" amount. This allows a nice analysis of why the A vs F greaph
does not pass through the origin.

Ken Fox
AP/IB Physics Teacher
Smoky Hill High School
Aurora, CO