Hanging Bridge Lab

 

Where do the two curves match? Where do the two curves start to diverge from each other? What does this tell you about the system? What are the limitations on the accuracy of your measurements and analysis?

The two curves seem to intersect at (0.155,14), and seems to diverge at around (0.16,16.2). This tells us that the system seems to diverge more and more over time, being closer at the beginning and going farther apart over time. Some limitations of our measurements and analysis is perfectly accurate data points for the change in y, the mass staying in the middle of the string, and determining if the change in y is accurate to what we saw. 

What will you report to your supervisor? How does the vertical displacement of an object suspended on a string between two pulleys depend on the mass of the object?

We will report to out supervisor that the displacement seems to grow farther and farther apart as the mass increased, not being linear. The amount of displacement seems to grow exponentially as the mass also grows exponentially. If the mass is large, the displacement between the two points will be larger than if the mass was small.

Did your measurements of the vertical displacement of object B agree with your initial predictions? If not, why? State your result in the most general terms supported by your analysis.

Our initial predictions did not agree with the actual displacement of B. I believe there are a few factors to our predictions being inaccurate. One is external factors that are hard to account for, like actual weight of the weights. Although the weights are probably very similar to the weight it says, it is never perfect. Another factor is accurately viewing what the displacement is. To the naked eye, seeing where the string goes down to is hard and often not technically correct. These two factors can lead to inaccurate data being plotted. Our analysis doesn't take into account human error, so it will be far more accurate.

Do the pulleys behave in a frictionless way for the entire range of weights you will use? How can you determine if the assumption of frictionless pulleys is a good one? 

Pulleys behave in an almost frictionless way when the weight is low. When the weight is low, the tension is low. This leads to the friction of the pulleys to be minimal, meaning the friction will have little effect on the data. However, as the weight increases, the tension also increases. This leads to the friction of the pulleys playing a big part in the change in displacement, as we aren't accounting for it. We can determine if the frictionless pulleys is a good test plotting points into a more advanced software to get more accurate data that accounts for the friction. We can then compare our data points that we took and see how different it is. We can then account for friction into our points depending on the weight and differences between both sets of data.

What information would you need to apply to your calculation to the walkway through the rainforest?

Length of walkway, weather (heavy rain, light rain, wind, heat), height of walkway, materials of walkway used, friction of the pulley systems, different points at which weight will be held, tests of masses being held on walkway without strain, and tensions on each end of the walkway.