Measurements and Data Analysis

Instruction: You are allowed to use Excel to perform the computations. Submit your as-
signment (attached with necessary Excel spreadsheet printout) by 5p.m. on 31th January 2011
(Monday) to level 1 Physics laboratory (S12-04-02).

1. (a) The glider on a horizontal air track is attached to a spring that causes it to oscillate back
and forth. The total energy of the system is
1 1
E = mv2 + kx2 ,
2 2
where m is the glider’s mass, v is its velocity, k is the spring constant and x is the extension of
the spring from equilibrium. A student makes the following measurements:

m = 0.230 ± 0.001 kg , v = 0.89 ± 0.01 m/s ,

k = 1.03 ± 0.01 N/m , x = 0.551 ± 0.005 m .

What is her answer for the total energy E?

(b) She next measures the position xmax of the glider at the extreme end of its oscillation, where
v = 0, as
xmax = 0.698 ± 0.002 m
What is her value for the energy at the end point?

(c) Are her results consistent with conservation of energy, which requires that these two ener-
gies should be the same? Explain.

2. The spring constant k of a spring can be determined by timing the oscillations of a mass M
fixed to its end. The period of such oscillations T is given by
r
M
T = 2π
k
The table below shows measurements of period T for several different masses M with the same
spring.

Mass M (kg) 0.513 0.581 0.634 0.691 0.752 0.834 0.901 0.950
Period T (s) 1.24 1.33 1.36 1.44 1.50 1.59 1.65 1.69

Estimate the spring constant k and its associated uncertainty.

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National University of Singapore
Measurements and Data Analysis – Assignment Page 2 of 2

3. The magnification, m, of a refracting telescope is equal to the ratio of the focal length of the
lenses in the telescope:
fo
m=
fe
where fo is the focal length of the objective lens and fe is the focal length of the eyepiece lens.
Repeat measurements of the focal length of each lens are made and are given as follow:

fo (cm) 30.3 30.7 30.5 30.2 30.4

fe (cm) 5.6 5.5 5.2 5.5 5.4

Estimate the magnification of the refracting telescope with its uncertainty.

4. To find the spring constant of a spring, a student loafs it with various masses M and measures
the corresponding lengths `. Her results are as follow:

Load m (g) 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Length ` (cm) 5.1 5.5 5.9 6.8 7.4 7.5 8.6 9.4

Because the force mg = k(` − `0 ) where `0 is the unstretched length of the spring, these data
should fit a straight line ` = `0 + (g/k)m. Here, g is the acceleration due to gravity which
has a value of 980 cm/s2 . Make a least-squares fit to this line for the given data and find the
best estimates for the unstretched length `0 and the spring constant k with their corresponding
uncertainties.

5. In a decay process of radioactive material, the variation of the number of particles with time
is given by equation
N = N0 e−λt
where N0 is the number of particles present at initial time t = 0, N is the number of particles
remaining after a time t and λ is a constant.
In an experiment to determine λ and N0 for a certain radioactive material, the following values
for t and N were obtained.

t (s) 4000 8000 12000 16000 20000 24000 28000 32000

N 2310 1250 681 382 198 115 60 35

(a) Make a suitable linear least squares fits to the given data to find the best estimates for N0
and λ with their corresponding uncertainties.

(b) Plot a suitable linear graph for the given data . Also show on the graph the straight line
that was obtained by the linear least squares fits to the data as well as the error-bar of the data
points.

Last updated: Thursday 13th January, 2011 9:06pm (KHCM)

Physics Level 1 Laboratory Department of Physics

National University of Singapore