Graphical Analysis Lab

The purpose of this lab was to familiarize ourselves with the graphing software to be able to construct graphs. We are also going to learn how to use the motion detector on the interface and program that it works with.

The items used in this lab consisted of:

• Graphical Analysis Software
• Logger Pro Software
• Lab Pro Interface
• motion detector
• rubber ball, and
• wire basket

Part I:
In this part of the lab we were using the Graphical Analysis Software. We opened a file with a function that described a table that was also provided. We looked at the different x values and changed our domain to fit the correct graph because there were different values for x (x1, x2, x3)*. Once we became familiar with editing the graph, we ewre asked to create our own function with the table of x values given.


The function we used for this graph was f(x)=(x2)sin(3(x2))*.

We said that we could use this graph to describe a beating heart because of the sine waves on either end of a flat line that runs along the x-axis from -0.5<x<0.5.

Part II:

In this section of the lab we set up a motion detector on the floor with a wire basket over it to protect it from a falling ball. The motion detector was plugged into the Lab Pro Interface which was hooked up to the computer because it had the Logger Pro Software that we were going to be using for this part of the lab. We dropped the ball above the motion detector and collected data in Logger Pro.

The data we collected created this graph which describes how high we dropped the ball and how long it took to hit the ground. We performed a fit to the data to come up with an equation and came to a conclusion that we needed a quadratic equation because this is the right half of a parabola going in the negative direction. The equation for this particular graph was f(x)=-7.175t^2+10.56t-2.067

Unit Analysis
To find the distance at a certain time you could use the equation d=gt^n where d is distance (m), g is gravity (m/s^2), and t is time (s). To find what n would be we do the following unit analysis:

 

 

d=gt^n

m=(m/s^2)s^n

ms^2=ms^n

n=2

Conclusion:
In the lab we worked together to learn how to use the Graphical Analysis Software and how to adjust the axes to whatever we need them to be. We also learned how to create a function when we are given a table of values. We became familiar and comfortable using the motion detector as well as the lab interface and Logger Pro to create graphs and functions with live data which we collected.