Discussion 1

Instructions: Upload your work as a pdf document. All responses must be typed. Any calculations must be done using Latex, an equation editor, or typed. You can insert diagrams and pictures where appropriate but pictures of your hand written responses and calculations will not be accepted.

Significant Figures

1. How many significant figures are there in the following measurements in Figure 1: time interval (Δt), average velocity (µ), area under the curve (a), and slope (s).

2. How many significant figures are there in the following measurements in Figure 2: time interval (Δt), average velocity (µ), area under the curve (a), and slope (s).

3. How many significant figures are there in the time interval (Δt) in Figure 3?

4. In figure 4, was the average velocity calculated to the appropriate number of significant figures?

Unit Consistency

5. In Figure 5, what information does the slope convey? Do the units of the slope make sense?

Motion Diagrams

Each of the motion diagrams below represent the motion of Daisy as she moves along a 1.2 meter long track. Each dot represents her location at 1 second intervals.

6. What type of motion does each diagram represent? How do you know?
7. How can you tell which diagram represents Daisy moving across the track in the least amount of time?
8. How would you go about arranging the motion diagrams in order from slowest to fastest?

Graphing Velocity and Acceleration

9. Figure 6 shows the position, velocity, and acceleration of an IOLab device as I push it on my desk. Describe what I had to do to get these graphs to look this way.
10. Based on the coordinate system printed on the IOLab device, did I push it in the +y or -y direction? How do you know?

Inclined Planes (Ramps)

11. Figure 7 shows the motion diagram for a ball rolling up an inclined plane (or ramp). Each point represents the location of the ball at 1 second intervals. At point 6 the ball turns around and rolls back down the plane (that diagram is not shown). What are the directions of the velocity and acceleration at each point? Is there any point where the ball is instantaneously at rest?
12. Is there a change in the ball’s acceleration as it rolls up the inclined plane? Why or why not?