Motion of a glider on an airtrack: Quantitative Observational Experiment

Aim

To determine what type of motion occurs in this experiment: motion with constant speed, constant acceleration, or changing acceleration (notice that the air glider is used in this experiment, its interaction with the track is negligible)

Prior Knowledge

• Kinematics: position, velocity and acceleration.
• Graphing skills.
• Reference frames.

Description of the Experiment

Observe the motion of the glider. Record the position of the glider frame by frame. Draw a motion diagram and position-versus-time graph. Decide what type of motion an object has when it does not interact with other objects (friction between the glider and the track is negligible).

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Questions

• Draw a motion diagram for the glider.
• Draw three force (free-body) diagrams for the glider for different instances.
• What is the relationship between the motion and the force diagram for each instant?