Practical 2.

1
Determining the acceleration of a trolley

Safety
There are not likely to be any major hazards in carrying out this experiment.

Apparatus and materials

• ticker-timer or other motion sensor • adhesive tape
• power supply for ticker-timer • ticker-tape
• trolley • metre rule
• 1 m ramp • connecting leads

Introduction
In this experiment you will determine the acceleration of a trolley rolling down a ramp from its
displacement–time graph.

Procedure

Details of how to use a ticker-timer to study the motion of an object are given on pages 13–14 of the
Coursebook.

The velocity of an object may be determined from the gradient of a displacement–time graph (see
pages 16–17 of the Coursebook).

1 Attach a length of ticker-tape to a trolley at the top of a ramp. Release the trolley and obtain a
series of dots on the ticker-tape.

2 The ticker-timer produces 50 dots every second. Five dots are produced in a time of 0.1 s. Use the
tape to measure the displacement of the trolley at time intervals of 0.1 s.

3 Record your results in a table.

Time t / s Displacement s / m
4 Plot a graph of displacement s against time t.
0
5 Determine the velocity u of the trolley at t = 0.2 s.
0.1

Hint: gradient = velocity 0.2

0.3
6 Determine the velocity v of the trolley at t = 0.5 s. etc.

7 Use the equation:

Remember, t is the time taken
v−u for the trolley to change its
a= velocity from u to v
t – it has a value of 0.3 s.
to determine the acceleration a of the trolley.

Cambridge International AS and A Level Physics © Cambridge University Press 2014 1