Buggy Lab Report Essay

Buggin’ Out (Buggy Lab)

Purpose - To determine the motion of a battery powered buggy & use the data to determine when the two buggies would collide.
Data -
Position (m)
Displacement (m)
Time 1 (s)
Time 2 (s)
Time 3 (s)
Time 4 (s)
Average Time (s)
Velocity
(m/s)
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
--
.5
-0.5
1.74
1.38
1.44
1.66
1.53
-.333
0
-1
3.03
3.00
2.95
2.85
2.96
-.338
-.5
-1.5
4.44
4.28
4.44
4.41
4.39
-.342
-1
-2
5.81
5.25
5.65
5.83
5.64
-.354

3. Graphs - Position vs time graph and velocity vs time graph attached.
4. Equation- p(t)=-0.342m/s (t) + 1m t in seconds p in meters
5. Prediction for collision - To get the prediction both groups position time graphs were plotted on a calculator (rough sketch on position vs time graph) and the two graphs intersect

Analysis - To initially get the position vs time graph, the whiteboard ramped was marked every half meter and four time trials were done going to every mark. the times were then averaged and plotted on a graph. With each average time a velocity was calculated by distance/time and those were averaged to find the velocity (because the buggy was a constant speed there is only need for one velocity). With this, it turned out the slope of the position time graph was the velocity. If there was a non constant velocity, the derivative of the position time graph would yield the velocity for the specific time. From the velocity time graph, the total distance could be covered by using integrals. For example, to find the displacement from 1 second to three seconds, the equation 13v(t)dt would give the answer of -.684

The actual resulting collision fell only 3.5 cm away from the estimated point and within the uncertainty range. This left a 1.5% error which means the data that was collected was good data and an accurate prediction can be made from it. Considering the uncertainty, a 1.5 % error is good because there is uncertainty in the timing, estimation with the graphing, and also uncertainty with two people dropping the cars for the collision -- they may not have the same reaction