course PHY 201
Here is a break down of how I did my lab, and what the data in the spread sheet means.I took a chain of 6 rubber bands and 8 paper clips, attached a plastic bag with 6 dominoes in it, and hooked it up to a hanging bracket that was beside a ruler that was positioned at the hanging
The data in column A of the spread sheet is just the oscillation, in B was the ""measured time"" using the timer program. in C was the actual clocktime by subtracting the initial reading of time from each subsequent cell. 'dt is just the change in clock time of each. Amplitude was the return of the top of the bag of dominoes to the equilibrium position at the beginning of each cycle, and its position. ""position change"" was the reading on the ruler where the bag had returned to, so just adding that to the original ""unloaded"" position from where I dropped is all I did. The final column was for the ""bottom"" of the cycle, where the bag was at equilibrium position at the bottom, where its height was the lowest.
I found that the ""oscillation"" of the rubber band seemed to stay rather constant, and that the graph of amplitude vs clocktime seems to be a 1/x function.
Including the spreadsheet again.
,Load (cm),Unloaded (cm),Loadweight (g),,,
,62.3,55.2,107,,,
Oscillation,Measured Time (s),Timeclock,'Dt (s),Amplitude (cm),Position Change (cm),
,2080.74,0,0,0,,
1,2081.34,0.6,0.6,53.7,1.5,8.2
2,2081.81,1.07,0.47,53.5,1.7,7.4
3,2082.35,1.61,0.54,52.7,2.5,6.5
4,2082.8,2.06,0.45,52.3,2.9,5.7
5,2083.3,2.56,0.5,51.6,3.6,5.5
6,2083.75,3.01,0.45,51.2,4,5.5
7,2084.25,3.51,0.5,50.9,4.3,5.5
8,2084.73,3.99,0.48,50.7,4.5,5.5
9,2085.22,4.49,0.49,50.6,4.6,5.5
10,2085.75,5.02,0.53,50.4,4.8,5.5
11,2086.22,5.49,0.47,50.3,4.9,5.5
12,2086.75,6.02,0.53,50.3,4.9,5.5
13,2087.23,6.5,0.48,50.3,4.9,5.5
14,2087.76,7.02,0.52,50.3,4.9,5.5
15,2088.28,7.54,0.52,50.2,5,5.5
16,2088.8,8.06,0.52,50.2,5,5.5
"
Amplitude is the distance between the equilibrium position of the mass when it is suspended at rest, and the point of the oscillation furthest from the equilibrium point. The amplitude should approach zero as the oscillator dissipates its energy and the distance of the oscillations diminshes.