PHYS 1511 Physics I Lab Exam Study Guide

If you take measurements, why does it makes sense to get the data into a form so you can plot
them on a graph as a straight line? From the straight line graph, you can easily determine the
slope and the intercept. You should have a linear equation ( y = mx + b ) which you compare this
slope and intercept against. Say you measure the position vs time for a falling object. You know
that the equation of motion for this problem, x(t) = x0 + v0t + 1/2at2, is not linear, but you do know
that v(t) = v0 + at is linear. So, you can use the x(t) and t data to get v(t) so you can plot velocity vs
time as a straight line.

For example, say for a falling object on a strange planet you have a graph of v(t) vs t, which you
know has a slope of 2 and an intercept of 0.5, for a form like: y = 2x +0.5. You know that the
equation of motion for this problem is v(t) = v0 + at, which is linear. From the line, you know the
slope is the acceleration of gravity on the planet, a = gplanet, and the intercept is initial velocity, v0,
so in this case the acceleration would be 2 and the initial velocity would be 0.5 (in the same units
as v and t).

You can also make a linear equation out of a nonlinear one. Say you measured the period of a

spring, which follows the equation T = 2 M/k , and want to plot T vs M. Well, in order to get
this into a linear form, you would instead plot T2 vs M, which follows the linear equation:
T 2 = (4 2
/k)M , so the slope of your graph would give you (4 2
/k) . However, for a real
spring, your plot may also have an intercept and be of the form: y = m x + b, where b is non-zero!
You forget that the mass M is really made up of the mass of the ball, m, plus the mass of the pan,
mp, plus the mass of the spring, ms, and your plot is not really T2 vs M, but T2 vs m. In this case
the intercept, b, is the value of T2 when m=0, which is when M= mp + ms. The intercept tells you
the mass of the pan and spring!

Being able to read a graph is very important. For example, from the Boyle’s Law experiment, we
1
had a graph of y2 - y1 (in cm) vs (in cm-3). V in this case is the volume of the air in inner tube.
V

The data in the graph is fit to the equation y = A x + B. We know that the equation that relates the
height difference y2 - y1 to V is:
⇥
Pa V a 1 Pa
y2 y1 =
g V g
PHYS 1511 Physics I Lab Exam Study Guide

Where ρ is the density, g is the acceleration of gravity, Pa is the atmospheric pressure, and Va is
Pa V a
the volume of air in the inner tube at atmospheric pressure. Obviously we can relate A to g and

Pa
B to g . From these parameters (A and B), and knowledge of three of the four (ρ, Pa, Va, g) we

can determine the fourth (missing) parameter.

Sometimes you have to perform two experiments to measure a single parameter. For
example, take the spring again. You know that if a mass hangs from the spring, it stretch the
spring a distance x . How can you determine the value of x if you don’t know the value of
both the mass, m, and the spring constant, k? Well, first off, you know that F = k x and
F = mg , therefore, k x = mg or m/k = x/g . Now, you also know that if you pull the mass

down a bit and let go, it will oscillate with a period T = 2 m/k . You can now write this as

T =2 x/g or T 2 = (4 2
/g) x . So, measuring only the period and knowing g=9.8m/s2
you can predict the displacement, x.
Remember that energy and heat are conserved. For example, in the calorimetry experiment,
the heat lost (ΔQ) by one material(s) is equal to the heat gained by the other material(s) (ΔQ).
Since ΔQ = mcΔT, all we need to measure is the mass of the materials and the initial and final
temperatures. We either know or want to find out the specific heats (c) of the materials. Say we
have some material with mass, m1 and specific heat c1 initially at a temperature T1. We then put
this material into water (mass mw, specific hear cw) in a container (material mass m2 and specific
heat c2). After a while, the whole mixture comes to a temperature Tf. We write down the heat lost
by material 1 & heat gained by water plus material 2 as:

ΔQlost = ΔQgained

m1c1ΔTf1 = mwcwΔTfw + m2c2ΔTf2

m1c1(Tf-T1) = mwcw (Tf-Tw) + m2c2 (Tf-T2)

Since the container and water are initially at the same temperature, we can say Tw = T2, for

m1c1(Tf - T1) = { mwcw + m2c2 } (Tf - T2)

From this equation, we can solve for our quantity of interest. Say we know all the masses, initial
temperatures, and specific heats. We can then calculate the final temperature.