Speaker
Description
We will demonstrate the Centripetal Force Experiment in which a mass is attached is rotated in a circle at different angular velocities. The mass is attached to a string that goes around a pulley and is attached a force sensor by a string over a pulley so that the length of the string to the pulley is the radius $R$ of the circular motion, and so the centripetal force is measured. In this experiment, that mass is assumed to be a point mass, but in reality, it is a disk whose radius some fraction of $R$, which introduces a systematic error. We will show the systematic difficulties in obtaining agreement between the experimental and theoretical results. We will consider the radius of the mass used and the stability of the entire apparatus. Data will be taken with a force sensor and a Pasco interface, which allows the data to be seen by a computer and displayed on the screen. We will demonstrate possible systematic measurements and improvements to eliminate some of them.
