The Work-Energy Experiment: The Principles Of Newton's Second Law

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Introduction
In 1687, Newton put forward the Newton's Second Law of Motion-Force and Acceleration in the book “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica”. According to Newton’s second law, , this is integrated over position from an initial position (i) to a final position (f). (Wang,1)
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Therefore, we can get the work-energy theorem,
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W is the work done by the net force on the object, which equals to the change in kinetic energy according to the equation. We can get the formula:

Work-energy theorem, which based on Newton’s second law, plays an important role in studying problems concerning energy and work. Though we learnt this theorem in lectures, we still hope to validate the work-energy theorem in a laboratory setting.
Methods …show more content…

The linear velocity vs position curve was created with Program Capstone.

Discussion
For the first part of the experiment, the percentage error ranges from 34.9% to 46.4%. The source of the error comes from the friction between the glider and the air track. When the glider moved, the friction exerted a negative force on it. So the net force exerted on the glider was smaller than the force from the spring bands. Also, when the glider moved, the string on spring bands also had kinetic energy. And air friction could affect the results as well.
For the second part of the experiment, the percentage error ranges from 8.9% to 13.6% in the first four trials, which was acceptable. However, in the fifth trial, the percentage error was 48.7%. The friction was a source of the error. Also, the mass of the string should be taken into consideration. And in the fifth experiment, the change in position was too small and increased accidental chance.
To improve our experiment, oil can be used to decrease the friction between the glider and air track, also decrease the friction between the string and pulley. Besides, we can measure the mass of the string and calculate the change in kinetic and potential energy of the

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