Lab 5, Conservation of Energy

Cuong Nguyen
Section 12
September 25, 2014

Objectives

The purpose of this lab is to confirm the law of conservation of energy. After
measuring the potential and kinetic energies at various positions of an oscillating
mass attached on a spring, we add the values of these two kinds of energy up
and see if the sum is the same at every positions.

Procedure

The experimental equipments consists of a spring hung from a metal rob with a
mass (0.5005 kg) placed on the other end and a motion detector. To initiate the
oscillation, we pull the spring down a few centimeters and release it such that
it moves in vertical direction. After that, the position of the mass is recorded
with the motion detector.

Data

The position of the mass with respect to time is recorded and plotted on the on
a graph in Figure 1. A sine curve is fitted to the graph and it shows that the
frequency of the motion is about 8.08 rad/s

Figure 1: The position vs time graph is a sine wave.

As seen in Figure 2. We choose a period with minimal noise and find a set
of slope, which is also the velocity of the mass, along this period.

Figure 2: The set of velocity of the mass along the chosen period.

Discussion

The free-body diagrams of the mass oscillating up and down on the end of a
spring in three situations are depicted below.

(a) At equilibrium. This

situation corresponds to the
middle of the oscillation.

(b) When the mass accelerates up. This situation corresponds to the bottom of
the oscillation.

(c) When the mass accelerates down. This situation

coressponds to the top of
the oscillation.

Figure 3: Free-body diagrams for the oscillating mass in three situations

Let the position of the mass at which the spring is not stretched or compressed be the reference point of potential energy (i.e Us = 0), we have the
following equations:
At the top position
Ug = mgyt

Us =

1 2
ky
2 t

K=0

At the middle position

Ug = 0

Us = 0

K=

1
mv 2
2 m

At the bottom position

Ug = mgyb

Us =

1 2
ky
2 b

K=0

The total mechanical energy for each situation:

1
Etop = mgyt + kyt2
2

Emiddle =

1
mv 2
2 m

1
Ebottom = mgyb + kyb2
2

Substituting the acquired data into the above equations, we have the following table of kinetic, potential and mechanical energy of the mass at each
position.

Table 1: Kinetic, potential and mechanical energy at each position of the mass.

Figure 4: Kinetic, potential and mechanical energies as a function of time

According to the data in Table 1, the mechanical energies of the mass on
average is 0.27 0.3J.
Theoretically, the mechanical energies of the mass must be constant at every
point. However, the points represent mechanical energies in Figure 4 do not align
in a straight line. Also, the data shows that the fractional uncertainty is not in
the preferred range (smaller than 0.1) to be conclusive about the conservation
of energy theory. This large error might be due to the noise read by the motion
detector and human errors.