Untitled Document

Physics Demo Number: 116

Approximate

Run Time: 10 min

Newton's Second Law By means of Fan Cart

Demo Description

A fan cart and regular cart are used with a low friction track to experimentally show the implications of Newton's Second Law in one dimensional motion.

Scientific Principles

F = ma

Equipment

Low friction track
Fan Cart
Regular Cart

Equipment Location

Track resides on wall bracket opposite [H] columns
Carts are in Kit (116) on [H-4-4].

Instructions

This is the demo version without use of the computer interface and software.

The first picture shows the Pasco Fan Cart and a regular cart. They live in Kit(116) on [H-4-4].

One obtains the Pasco track from its home on the wall bracket opposite [H-2] and [H-3] columns , seen in the next picture,

to assemble the experimental setup as seen in the third photo.

The close up view shown in the fourth photo ( with the fan cart hitching a ride atop the plain cart)

shows that there is a High, Low, and Off Switch for the fan, giving one the options of zero, large and small values for the net horizontal force on the cart system, for the fan's angular orientation index set on 180 degrees as shown.

One thus has all the experimental ingredients for demonstrating F=Ma for the horizontal motion of the Fan/Cart system.

The switch allows variation of magnitude of force for a fixed mass.

The fan cart hitching a ride on top of the plain cart, or not, allows for variation of mass for a fixed force.

The variation of the angular position of the plane of the fan about a vertical axis allows the component of fixed horizontal thrust to be varied along the axis of the cart motion, showing that the vector directions of F and a must coincide in order for F=Ma to be valid.