Acceleration Lab

Goal
Discover a way to amble, run, skip, and jog,
at a constant acceleration of 0.5 m /s2 for 16
meters. It is not allowed to use a stopwatch or
for you to count allowed for your athlete

Materials
Stopwatches (9 or more)
16 meters of linear space: Use tape to signify two meter
intervals. There should be 8 equidistant marks of tapes in
total.
Pencils and papers
3 athletes

Use the acceleration formula and distance formula to find a way

to walk or run a constant acceleration of 0.5 m/s2 for 16 meters.
The athlete will do the practice runs.

Graphs and Figures

Figures
Distance VS. Time
Figure 1

Distance vs. Time

16
14

Distance (Meters)

12
10
8
Scott

6
4
2
0
0

Time (seconds)

Distance vs Time
16
14

Distance (Meters)

12
10
8
Travis

6
4
2
0
0

Time (sec)

Distance vs. Time

16

Distance (Meters)

14
12
10
8
Alex

6
4
2
0
0

Time (sec)

Distance vs Time 2

y = 0.2418x + 0.6304
R = 0.9954

18

Distance (Meters)

16
14
12
10
8

Scott

Linear (Scott)

4
2
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Time2 (Sec2)

Distance vs Time2
18

y = 0.2395x + 0.6115
R = 0.9916

16
Distance (Meters)

14
12
10
8

Travis

Linear (Travis)

4
2
0
0

10

20

30
Time2

40
(Sec)

50

60

70

Distance vs Time2
18
y = 0.2653x - 0.4555
R = 0.9704

16

Distance (Meters)

14
12
10
8

Alex

Linear (Alex)

4
2
0
-2 0

20

40
Time2

(sec2)

60

80

Velocity VS. Time

2.5
y = 0.1576x + 0.7789
R = 0.9869

Velocity (m/s)

1.5
Scott

Linear (Scott)

0.5

0
0

Time (Seconds)

Velocity vs Time
2.5
y = 0.1385x + 0.8638
R = 0.9576

Velocity (m/s)

2
1.5

Travis

Linear (Travis)

0.5
0
0

Time (Seconds)

Velocity VS. Time

2.5

y = 0.1847x + 0.5492
R = 0.8811

Velocity (m/s)

2
1.5
Alex

Linear (Alex)

0.5
0
0

Time (Seconds)

Velocity vs Time
1.6

y = 0.0336x + 0.9783
R = 0.9559

1.4
1.2

Velocity

1
0.8

Scott

0.6

Linear (Scott)

0.4
0.2
0
0

8
Time (Seconds)

10

12

14

16

Velocity vs Time
y = 0.0309x + 0.9999
R = 0.9843

1.6
1.4

Vvelocity

1.2
1
0.8

Travis

0.6

Linear (Travis)

0.4
0.2
0
0

10

15

Time (Seconds)

Velocity vs Time
1.6

y = 0.0421x + 0.8898
R = 0.9835

1.4
1.2

Velocity

1
0.8

Alex

0.6

Linear (Alex)

0.4
0.2
0
0

10

Time (Seconds)

12

14

16

Distance
(Meters
Scott
Travis
Alex
Actual

Time
(Seconds

Time

Time

Time

Time

Time

Tim

0
0
0
0
0

2
2.35
2.1
2.8
2.828

4
3.7
3.43
4.05
4

6
4.54
4.89
5.02
4.898

8
5.42
5.4
6.25
5.65

10
6.2
6.37
6.56
6.324

12
6.7
6.9
6.8
6.92

Conclusion
The closest team that got near an acceleration of 0.5m/s2 was Scotts team. I figured
this about by graphing the data we collected during class. First, I made a distance vs.
graph to show the relationship of displacement vs. time. The slope I got for those
graphs is the speed of the athletes. Then, I made a velocity vs. time graph, and the
slope of the graphs should have been the acceleration. However, the acceleration of the
athletes was not constant, so I decided to create a graph that was straight or linear. I
figured this out by making a graph for distance vs. time2. The slopes of distance vs.
time2 graphs show the square root of the acceleration of the athletes. Because the
square root of the acceleration is 0.25m/s2, I had to look for a slope that is closest to
0.25 m/s2. I found that for Scotts group, they had a slope of 0.2418 m/s2. For Travis
group, their slope was at 0.2395 m/s2. And Alex groups slope was around 0.265 m/s2.
To accurately find out the winner, I subtracted 0.25 m/s2 from each groups slope. I
figured out that Scotts group won, and Travis group won barely over Alexs group. So,
Scott got 1st place, Travis got 2nd, and Alex got 3rd.