Setup
In the image below we have our setup for the Potential and kinetic energy experiment on the airtrack. The setup will be similar to some of the other experiments with the airtrack with a few changes.
As you can see, after making sure the track is balanced, we have to tilt the track using a 500g weight. (point red A)
Then you should notice we have 2 photogates this time instead of one (points red B)
Then as you can see here we wont be using the picked fence for this experiment.
In this experiment we want to make sure we identify which photogate is connected to which port, we recommend having the first gate the glider meets going in channel 1.
We also need to know the height from the table top to the glider at each gate.
We also need to make sure that the glider can slide down the track without hitting the photogates and that photogates are reading when the glider passes through them.
Pasco Capstone Setup
Below you will see an image of the interface setup, but this time we will pick Photogate Single Flag instead of picket fence and we will need to do this for both channels that the photogates are plugged into.
Then we will need to click settings, point red A in the below image, and change the flag width to 0.128 m (point red B) as the photogate will be measuring the glider itself, since we wont be using the picket fence.
Remember to do this for both photogates.
Finally we will be using a table instead of a graph for this experiment. We will drag the table icon from menu an the far right of the screen into the blank space and a table should appear.
We will click “select measurement” and set one column to give us the recorded speed for each photogate.
The next 2 images show the second part of the experiment, “Vertical Tube”. The Pasco interface setup should be very similar with the only major change being the flag width which has to changed from the glider with 12.8 cm to the length of the cylinder (in meters).