Experiment 4: Work, Power and Energy

Laboratory Report

Dana Young, Dana Yu, Allen Zafra, Lloyd Pineda*

Department of Math and Physics

College of Science, University of Santo Tomas
Espana, Manila Philippines
Abstract
Equations for power and work were
used to determine that power output going
upstairs is higher than going downstairs. Kinetic
energy and potential energy are inversely
proportional in a free falling body. The
conservation of mechanical energy states that
the total sum of kinetic and potential energy
should be constant, however this experiment has
errors involving the total mechanical energy.
1. Introduction
Work, power, and energy, are concepts
that are present in our world. These concepts are
related to motion. Knowledge about these
concepts will help us understand how we can do
work more efficiently.
The objectives of this experiment are to
demonstrate the conservation of mechanical
energy, to measure change in kinetic and
potential energies as a ball moves in free fall,
and to determine power output when going up
and downstairs.
Pdown= -Wdown/tdown
Where Wup is the work done by gravity
going up, Wdown, by going down, Fg is the
weight of the person, h is the vertical distance,
Pup is the power output going up, Pdown, going
down, tup is the time it took going up, and tdown,
going down.
3. Methodology
For activity 1:
The vertical height of the 4th floor to the
5th floor of the central laboratory building was
taken by measuring a step using a meter stick
and then multiplying it by the number of total
steps, and the weight of each member was taken,
and the work going up and down was computed.
A timer was used to record the time it took for
each member to go up to the 5th floor from the
4th floor, and back down, and the power going
up and down were computed.
For activity 2:
Logger Pro and a sensor was used to
graph the kinetic, potential, and mechanical
energy of a ball, vertically tossed up.

2. Theory

In this experiment, the equations used

were equations for work going up and down, and
power going up and down. The equations are as
follows:
Wup= -|Fg|h
Wdown= +|Fg|h
Pup= -Wup/tup
 Figure 2: Graph showing the energy of the
ball as it is tossed vertically upward
Figure 1: Set-up for graphing the energy of a
tossed ball Figure 2 shows the graph of energy
versus time, recorded by the Logger Pro as the
4. Results and Discussion ball was tossed vertically upward above it. The
red line shows the values for potential energy,
Table 1 shows the results of the the blue line shows the values for kinetic energy,
computations for the work done by gravity going and the black line shows the values for the total
up and down, and power output going up and mechanical energy.
down. Note that the unit for power, W, is watt,
not to be confused with the unit for work, W. The part of the graph that is in between
0.2s and 0.3s is the part that most accurately
Student shows the energy levels of the ball. It shows us
Wup(J) Wdown(J) Pup(W) Pdown(W)
that as kinetic energy goes up, potential energy
Young -2639.88 2639.88 191.02 -190.33 goes down, and vice versa. Meanwhile, the total
energy is the sum of these two energies. The
Yu -3146.22 3146.22 222.82 -223.29
total mechanical energy of this object should be
-3808.36 3808.36 227.09 -263.16 constant, as dictated by the conservation of
Zafra
mechanical energy that states the the total
Pineda -2380.22 2380.22 141.93 -164.61 kinetic and potential energy must be constant,
Table 1: Work going up and down, and but the graph does not appear to show a constant
power going up and down value of total energy. This is likely because the
The work going up has negative values ball was not tossed perfectly for the sensor to
because the force of gravity is opposing the read optimum results.
force exerted going up the stairs. This means it
requires more work to go up the stairs than 5. Conclusion
down. The values for power going up is larger
than the values for power going down, so it Work and power equations were used to
takes more power to go up the stairs than down, determine the power output of going up and
this is in conjunction with the fact that it takes down stairs. The results indicate that the power
more work to go up than down. output going upstairs is higher than going
downstairs, due to the force of gravity acting on
the person climbing, therefore it is harder to go
upstairs than downstairs.
 Kinetic energy of a free falling object is
inversely proportional to its potential energy.
The conservation of mechanical energy was not
demonstrated very well in the results, possibly
due to errors in tossing the ball.
6. Applications
1.
The work done going up has a negative
value because the force of gravity is in
opposition to the persons force that is going up.
It is more difficult to go upstairs than downstairs
because as you go upstairs, the force of gravity,
which is pulling you down, is opposing your
force, which is going up. When going
downstairs, the direction of your motion is the
same as the direction of gravity, so it is easier.
2.
The work the professor does during his
movements towards the third floor is the same
because his displacement is the same. However,
the power exerted by the professor is not the
same because the time it takes to get there is
different. It is less exhausting for him to get to
the third floor by walking along a corridor
before ascending up another set of stairs again
because it the work was distributed along a
longer period of time, making it feel like less
energy was expended for his displacement.
b.) t=Fd/Pr
t=(750N)(12m)/(20 J/s)
t=450s
If I have 5 minutes or 300s before my
class, I will be late whether I run or walk.
However, running will get me to my class in
less time than walking, so running would be
the better choice.
4.
As the potential energy of the ball
changes, its kinetic energy also changes. As
the potential energy decreases the kinetic
energy increases. Thus, it can be said that
the balls potential energy is inversely
proportional to its kinetic energy as it is
thrown vertically up.
7. References
Cutnell, J.D., & Johnson, K.W. (2015).
Introduction to Physics and WilePlus Set. New
Jersey, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/py105/EnergyCons
ervation.html

3.
Given:
P for running=Pr=20 J/s
P for walking=Pw=15 J/s
d= 12 m
F= 750 N
t= Fd/P (derived from P= W/t)

a.) t=Fd/Pw
t=(750N)(12m)/(15 J/s)
t= 600s