5 Torque

For this lab, we will use the Force sensor on the IOLab device to measure how much force is applied when pushing on a door from various distances from the door’s pivot. 

1. First, we will measure a door from the hinge side to the doorknob side and mark out 10 cm increments like in the picture below. These distances are recorded in Table 1 on the lab report such that 10 cm is close to the door’s hinges and 70 cm is close to the doorknob.

2. For each data point, we will push on the door with the IOLab device (the screw pushing against the door like in the picture below). 

3. The first push will be close to the doorknob edge of the door (the 0.7 cm location). We will then repeat the push at each 10 cm increment until we get to the hinge edge of the door (the 0.1 cm location). The graph below shows what the data will look like. The data is labeled “Torque Data” in the IOLab repository. (I recorded all of the measurements in one recording, starting close to the doorknob side and ending at the hinge side.)

4. You will use the data tool to find the force applied (the blue arrow in the screenshot above points to the data tool). The graph above shows data for 7 pushes. You will notice that most of the pushes contain a peak on the graph (two of these are shown by the green arrows). Just like in the friction lab, these peaks represent the point where the object starts moving. This is the measurement you want to take for each push. Use the data tool to measure the force of each push by placing the cursor (which creates a vertical line) over each peak. The force reading is represented by F_y in the upper left corner of the graph. Collect this data into Table 1 on your lab report. If part of your graph is cut off (like my last push above), you can use the scroll feature (indicated by the red arrow) to see the rest of the graph. Save a screenshot of your graph.