MAPUA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Department of Physics

E201: WORK, ENERGY AND POWER

DESPABILADERAS, DAVE J.
davejdespabiladeras@yahoo.com.ph/2013107716/BSCESE-2

PHY11L-B3 Group 5

SCORE
Signed Data Sheet
(5)

Objective
(5)

Materials & Method

(10)

Observations and
Results (20)
Discussion &
Conclusion

=
=
=
=
=

(20)

Acknowledgment
& References (10)
Performance
(30)

TOTAL
(100)

JULY 29, 2015

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E201: WORK, ENERGY AND POWER

DESPABILADERAS, DAVE J.
OBJECTIVE
The three main principles in physics that is
involved in this experiment are work, energy and
power. Work results when a force acts upon an
object to cause displacement or simply the
product of force and its distance. Power is
defined as the rate at which work is done upon
an object and energy is the capacity or ability to
do work. The purpose of this experiment is to
familiarize ourselves
to the nature
and
applications of work, power, energy and to the
very famous law of conservation of energy which
states that Energy is neither created nor
destroyed but is just changed from one form to
another. In this experiment, one of the various
forms of energy that is involved is mechanical
energy. It has two types, one is the mechanical
energy due to position called the kinetic energy
and the other one is due to position or
configuration called potential energy. Potential
energy has two forms, the gravitational potential
energy which is due to position of a body or
height while the second one is the elastic
potential energy that is due to configuration like
that of a stretched spring. This experiment aims
to determine the fan carts time rate of doing
work by using the definition of work and the
energy conservation principle and compute work
for a motion that is oriented along a curved path.
This activity should be performed in order to
understand the real life applications of doing
work and computing power and energy because it
will help us understand more the essence of
these principles and how we are going to use it in
a good way.

FIGURE
1:
Materials
for
the
experiment
accompanied by the members of the group

The experiment is subdivided into two parts. The

first part is all about determination of the force,
work, and power of the fan cart. First, we set-up
the leveled track on our designated working table
and made sure that it is in a balanced position by
using the compass application of the iPhone and
setting it to zero. Second, we placed the fan cart
on the leveled track and attached a string to the
other end of the fan cart and at the other end on
the pan. We made sure that the string pass over
a small and frictionless pulley and it should be
parallel to the leveled track. The next thing we
observed is the direction of the fan carts
movement based from the orientation of the fan
carts blades as shown in Figure 2.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The materials that we used in this experiment are
one set of dynamics track and its accessories, fan
cart, two photogates, protractor for measuring
the angle, meter stick for measuring the ho or the
initial height of mass and hf or the final height of
the mass on the second part of the experiment,
one set of weights for balancing the force exerted
by the fan cart on the first part of the
experiment, iron stand and spring balance.

FIGURE 2: Observing the direction of the fan

carts movement

It should move away from the location of the

pan. After observing the fan carts movement
while it is working, we put some weights on the
pan simultaneously while adjusting its values
until the pan balances the force exerted by the
fan cart. Then, we put a small metal strip at the

other end of the fan cart so that it will be the one

that will pass across the photogates because if
the photogates were located near the leveled
track, the fan carts blades will hit the
photogates. Next, we determine how long would
it take to cover a certain distance using the
photogates and perform several trials varying the
distance as shown in Figure 3.

is the length of the string in meters and is the

angle of the string with the vertical in degrees.
lastly, we computed for the increase in the
gravitational potential energy of the mass for
each
trial
that
we
performed
using
or
.

FIGURE 4: Measuring the angle () formed using

the protractor

FIGURE 5: Measuring the horizontal from the

spring balance
FIGURE 3: Group 5 members performing the first
part of the experiment

The second part of the experiment is all about

the determination of work by a force on a curved
path. First we attached a mass at the end of a
string tied to an iron stand and we recorded the
initial height (ho) of mass. By using the
protractor, we measured the angle () formed by
the string attached with the mass and the vertical
as shown in Figure 4.
Second, we attached a spring balance on the
mass and slowly pull the mass horizontally. Then,
we measured the final height (h f) of the mass
and record the horizontal force as read by the
spring balance as shown in Figure 5. Afterwards,
we performed several trials by increasing the
height until the string is horizontal. After
gathering all the data in each trial, we computed
for the work done by the force F using the
equation
where W is the work,
w is the weight of mass measured in Newtons, L

OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS

Data Gathered
Table 1. Part 1. Determining the Force, Work
and Power of the Fan cart

Force of the fan cart=weight of pan + weight

added = 0.245 N
Trial Displacement Time Work Power
0.4 m
1.18 0.098 J
0.08
1
sec
Watts
0.5 m
1.45 0.1225 0.0845
2
sec
J
Watts
0.6
m
1.50
0.1470
0.098
3
sec
J
Watts
0.7
m
1.64
0.1720
0.105
4
sec
J
Watts

For the Table 1, it shows the values of the

displacement of the fan cart, time travelled by
the fan cart, work and power for each trial we
made on the first part of the experiment. As we
can see on the table, the force of the fan cart
was held constant throughout the performance of
the first experiment. It was the sum of the
weight of pan and the weight added that resulted
to 0.245 Newtons. We can observe the values
from the second column of the table until the last
column of the table that they all have the same
trends. As the displacement increases by 0.1 m
for each trial starting from 0.4 m until 0.7 m, the
time travelled by the fan cart and the work and
power are also increasing. We can say that the
values for work are directly proportional to the
values of power.

Computations

Table 2. Part 2. Work by a Force on a Curved

Path
Initial height,
Length of
Weight of
ho= 0.14 m
string, L = 0.32
mass,

Trial 3

w=3.14 N

Trial

hf

GPE

1N

0.06
m
0.23
m
0.29
m
0.30
m

0.015
J
0.346
J
0.414
J
0.645
J

0.031 J

2.6
N
5.7
N
5.4
N

0.01
m
0.09
m
0.16
m
0.19
m

10

0.15
m
0.23
m
0.30
m
0.33
m

3
4

49
54
69

Part 1. Determining the Force, Work

and Power of the Fan Cart

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 4

0.283 J
0.502 J

Part 2. Work by a Force on a Curved

Path

0.596 J

where F-Force
hf final height
h increase in height
angle
X displacement
W work
GPE gravitational potential energy
For Table 2, we can observe that all of the
parameters such as hf, h, , X, W and GPE has an
increasing trend except Force because the value
of the F for the third trial with lower value of
angle has a greater value of F compared to the
last trial with a higher value of angle. We can say
that the values for Work are directly proportional
to the values of Gravitational potential energy for
each trial because as the other value increases
the other one also increases.

Trial 1
(

Trial 2

Trial 3

Trial 4

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

Force, work, energy and power are some of the
commonly known words that we encounter when
we are studying physics and some other
branches of science and these words are used
frequently in our everyday lives. These concepts
and principles are one of the foundation concepts
in studying physics. But what exactly do they
mean and what are their relationship to each
other? To put it simply, force is the one
responsible for an object to move while work is
done when force causes movement and
displacement. Energy is the natural capability of
any object to do work while power is the rate at
which the work is done.
Based from the data we gathered from the first
part of our experiment, we can say that the
values we computed for the work done by the fan
cart are directly proportional to the values we
calculated for the power exerted by the fan cart
because as the work or the product of 0.245 N
and the distances increases, the quotient of the
work and the time or simply the power also
increases. For the second part of the experiment,
we can conclude that as the work increases its
values, the gravitational potential energy
increases also its values, so work is directly
proportional to gravitational potential energy.
The only discrepancy in our data for the second
part of the experiment is the force that we
recorded in our third trial which is 5.7 N is higher
compared to the force that we recorded in our
last trial which is 5.4 N although the value of the
angle () for the last trial is higher than the value
of the angle () for the third trial but it does not
affect the trends of the values for work and
power.
The possible errors that arise from our
experiment are the conditions of the instruments
that we used like the spring balance that is not in
its equilibrium position because the initial reading
of the spring balance is not in zero thats why we
have to adjust the values we recorded from the
spring balance. Second one is the horizontal
orientation of the force for the second part of the
experiment. Next are the inaccurate readings

from the protractor because the lines are not

clear anymore. Then, the measurements of the
ho and hf using the old meter stick are not precise.
Lastly, is the uneven surface of the floor where
we put the iron stand and the inconsistencies of
the photogates and fan cart.
For future Physics laboratory students and
instructors who will perform this laboratory
activity, we can suggest that they should add
more trials so that they will see and get accurate
values to support the theory behind the
experiment. They can adjust the weights that
they are going to use for the experiment. They
should try to ensure the instruments that they
are going to use have accurate readings so that
they will not encounter discrepancies on their
computations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT & REFERENCE
First of all, I would like to express my deepest
gratitude to our Creator who gave me the
opportunity to study in this institution. Second is
to my family who never stop supporting me.
They are my inspiration in making this laboratory
report a more comprehensive and beautiful one.
Third are my groupmates who answered all my
queries about the experiment. Fourth are our
laboratory assistants who explained to us how we
are going to handle the instruments with care
because it is quite expensive and fragile and last
but not the least is to our professor who
explained to us the instructions very well and
guided us on how to do the set-up of the
experiment and gave us tips and techniques on
how to finish our work early and accurately.
I would like to thank also the people who made
these websites which I used as my reference in
making this laboratory report.

http://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essayon/Relationship-Among-Force-Power-WorkEnergy/45525
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/calcpad/ene
rgy