Free Fall: Ball and Picket-fence Experiment

This activity is the most fun so far! I felt the "scientist feel" because of the digital tool that we used- LabQuest

LabQuest with motion sensor and a ball

Basically, the motion sensor (the dark green one) detects the ball's movement and the lab quest will do the analysis. We determined its linear and quadratic fit to get the value of g. This was done 10 times.

Detection of ball's motion

After the ball experiment, we proceeded with the Picket- fence experiment. Below is the image:

Picket- Fence with Photogate Sensor

The picket-fence (with dark bands) was let to fall near the Photogate sensor to detect motion as shown below:

Finding g in Picket-Fence Experiment

Still, the tool that we used to analyzed the data is LabQuest. Same method- determination of linear and quadratic fit to find g.

After all the experiment, our value of g is

9.35749±0.387 m/s2

The standard value is

9.8 m/s2

The difference is due to the fact that different places on earth have different acceleration due to gravity and the small experimental errors.

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Lab Tour

There are lots of 'cool' things in the lab. By cool I mean, things I don't understand (as of now).

Superconductor Lab:
The first lab we went through and so far the most interesting to me. I read a little about supercons bak in high school but it's really a different thing to see one (though it was only on a video). The thing that struck me most was the application of levitation. Yeah, I'm thinking about MagLev trains, etc. They say it's about magnetic properties and the only thing I could remember is that if you put a substance in liquid nitrogen, there's something strange that will happen in its magnetic field causing levitation.

Photonics:
I was kinda dismayed when we went in this lab. We weren't shown a hologram :'( But there's learning in here. Like altering laser light to create different figures. And that's the start of remolding light to create the future of movies XD

Theoretical:
Nerd alert. Haha. I still remember I wanted first to be in this lab but when I saw all the equations, oops time to find another one. This lab is for people who are so good in math and wants to discover new theories, equations, etc.

Structure and Dynamics:
Simulations- this is the main thing here. The computers are so sophisticated (mabe because they're really for simulation). I guess there'll be a lot to learn about programming here. So if you're not the computer-type, maybe find another lab XD

Instrumentation:
VISSER, 3D printer, what else there is that interests me. I like the ambience in this lab maybe because they have personnel here who are close to me and I have the same first name with Sir Ganni (I know, no sense at all). This feels like invent things. Recommended if your tinker.

Plasma:
I have a schoolmate who's now in here. A lot of people also like this lab. They utilize plasma to "power-up" things. And there's wifi in this lab (for research of course).

In finding lab, find the one that interests you not the one you think will make you look smart or reputed. But before finding your one "lab", aral po muna. Good luck to all!

On the different densities of Philippine coins

Different Philippine coins

Source: https://bryologue.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/a-handful-of-philippine-coins.jpg

This lab activity's purpose was to determine the densities of different Philippine coins namely: 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 1 peso, 5 peso, and 10 peso. The density (generally) is given by: 

                                                                                 ρ=mV

The trick in the 5 centavo coin is that it has a hole in between. To determine its density we just need to subtract the diameter of the hole from the diameter of the coin. Then we use the equation given that 

V=πr2h

Below are our data:

5¢ D = 15.46 ± 0.02 mm 

d = 3.68 ± 0.02 mm 

h = 1.44 ± 0.02 mm 

m = 1.9 ± 0.05 mm

ρ5cρ5cρ5c==≈4mπh(D2−d2)4(1.9 g)π(1.44 mm)((15.46 mm)2−(3.68 mm)2)=7.45×10−3 g/mm37.45 mg/mm3

10¢ d = 11.88 ± 0.02 mm 

h = 1.54 ± 0.02 mm 

m = 2.5 ± 0.05 g

ρ10cρ10cρ10c==≈4mπd2h4(2.5 g)π(16.88 mm)2(1.54 mm)=7.25×10−3g/mm37.25 mg/mm3

And solving in the same way how we solved the density of 10 cents, the densities of other coins are:

25¢ d = 19.92 ± 0.02 mm 

h = 1.72 ± 0.02 mm 

m = 3.6 ± 0.05 g

density = 

6.72±0.172 mg/mm3

PHP 1 d = 23.84 ± 0.02 mm 

h = 1.86 ± 0.02 mm 

m = 5.3 ± 0.05 g

density =

6.38±0.129 mg/mm3

PHP 5 d = 26.78 ± 0.02 mm 

h = 1.88 ± 0.02 mm 

m = 7.7 ± 0.05 g 

density = 

7.27±0.125 mg/mm3