Objective

To understand the basic concept of vector.

Be able to calculate equilibrium force.
Be able to demonstrate the force in graphical form.
Be able to define the percentage difference error of this ex-

Introduction
Vector is a concept used widely in the field of physics. A quantity such as
velocity, which has directions as well as magnitude, is a vector quantity. Other
quantities that are also vectors are displacement, force and momentum.
Vectors are fundamental in studying further in any topics in physics because
various ways of solving problems and quantities
Some basics knowledge of vectors applied in performing this experiment is the
addition, subtraction, in both graphical and analytical method. There are two
ways to do a graphical method: one is the tip to tail method in which we draw
a vector from the tip or head of the previous vector on paper and create a
scale relative to the magnitude of the vector, and the other is the
parallelogram method in which parallelogram is created to measure the
resultant vectors. In the analytical method, vectors are broken into their x and
y components and added correspondingly later to find the resultant vector.
Also, sine/cosine law can also be used to find the resultant vector.
In this experiment, vectors represent the force. Forces are vectors, therefore,
simply adding them as if they were scalars quantities will not give the correct
value of forces, it needs to be broken into components and added. Equilibrant
refers to the force that balances out the net force created by other forces
and create the state of equilibrium, meaning all the forces are cancelled out
and no acceleration is caused.
Materials Mass

Strings

Pin
Hook

Force table Pulley

Ring
Procedure
Procedure

Tips!
Experiment Set-up

2 forces

3 forces
 Calculation (2)
Analytical Method
2 Forces
3 Forces
Calculation
Graphical Method

Parallelogram Polygon Method

Percent Differences
 Based on the results of the experiment, the values of calculated
equilibrant force and the one obtained from the experiment differs in both
cases: Calculated with analytical method and graphical method. In analytical
method, the calculated equilibrant force for the two forces experiment was
0.84 N whereas the experimental values show 0.98 N. The calculated percent
difference was 15%. The graphical method, however, shows a lesser percent
difference from the results: 8.5 % difference, with the calculated force of 0.9N
and experimental values of 0.98N. Due to this, it can be inferred that the
experimental was performed with carelessness, resulting in a considerable large
errors. Experimental errors can be caused from human errors and lack of
practice with operating with laboratory equipment.
Similarly, for the three forces part, the calculated values differ to some
extent from the experimental values. In the analytical, the calculated
equilibrant force was 2.89 N whereas the experimental values show 3.332 N. The
percentage difference between two values was 14%. Again, the graphical
method shows lesser percent difference of only 5%. The values obtained were 3
N and 3.332N for graphical calculation and experiment respectively. Also, the
errors could be caused from human errors and lack of practice with laboratory
equipment.

In conclusion, the experiment demonstrates the incorporation of

different concepts in physics: Newtons law of motion, Vectors and forces.
The goal of this experiment was to prove the validity of the operation with
vectors in the real world. The results of the experiment, however, did not
completely support our expectations because the values obtained for the
equilibrant forces varied to a considerable amount. The causes of flaws in
the experiment was expected to be from human errors in observing the
values shown on the equipment and lack of practice with using laboratory
equipment.
 Recommendation
The experiment can be improved by using smaller scale of angle (on the
force table) and force in Graphical method in order to reduce the errors
and percentage different. Also, with more practice using laboratory
equipment in the future, the skills in operating these equipment can be
improved and less errors will occur.

References
Giancoli, D. C. (1998). Physics: Principles with applications (Global ed.). Up-
per Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.