Physics Lab Help

This lab involves a projectile being fired upward at an angle to the horizontal. You are to program the spreadsheet Excel (a similar substitute software program is permissible) to determine the maximum injection angle, that will result in the greatest downrange distance, R. Assume v = 10 m/s and g is approximated as g = 10 m/s2. Fill in the data table, and answers for the blanks and complete the graph (properly labeled and θmax annotated) in the Lab Answer Sheet at the end of this lab.

{Hint: watch out for conversion problems from radians to degrees in Excel}.

• Fill in the blanks in the Lab Answer Sheet at the end of this lab.
• Submit this Lab Answer Sheet at end of lab.
• These can be scanned and sent as pdf or picture files (e.g. tif, gif, etc.) or by any other method of your choice as long as the Answer Sheets are legible and translatable by Grantham University faculty.

Access Excel. Your data table will look similar to that found for Lab 2 below. The injection angle, θ will go from 0 degrees to 90 degrees in steps of two (2) degrees. Once you have the range formula programmed for θ =  use the “fill down” option in Excel to “distribute” the solutions to the other cells for the other angles. Include your completed full Excel data table with your Lab Answer Sheet. Then graph the data in order to construct a R. vs. θ graph. Denote on this graph, the maximum range, Rmax and the angle, θmax where this occurs. Be sure that your graph is properly labeled. For Lab 2 return your Lab Answer Sheet with: (1) completed Excel spreadsheet, and (2) graph of R vs. θ.

Week 2 material: Vectors, Projectile Motion, Newton’s Laws: In this week we explore the how to resolve a vector into components, how to find the resultant of several vectors. Last week you studied motion in 1D called Kinematics (motion without consideration of forces except gravity). This week you will expand your study of Kinematics in 2D or 3D, aka Projectile Motion, and finally take a look at Newton’s Laws.

Week 2 Problem Assignment notes: Problem 2 – Note the height of plane is 5000m!  Be careful not to write 50,000m! I have seen this error before on past classes. See the supplement folder for help in setting up this problem. It is called 3D vectors.

LAB #2 NOTES:  Projectile Motion In this lab you will use Excel alone and not the interactive Physics program you used in Lab #1. Besides the directions in the Lab section please take note of these directions as well: Make two columns, and label them angle (in degrees) and Range (in meters). Use the formula R= (((V0)^2)/g)*sin2θ to compute R for angles you input from 0 to 90 in steps of 2 degrees. You need to use small increments if you are to determine the maximum range. Use v0 = 10 m/s, and g=10m/s^2 for calculation ease. Remember Excel does not like degrees but radians. The relationship is 2*pi radian = 360 degrees. As far as using Excel goes, use “=10*(SIN(RADIANS(Ax*2)))”, where x would be the value of column A entry angle in degrees. I am assuming you have the angle in column A. Change accordingly if you have it say in column B or whatever. x is just the row in general. You need to put the actual row you use. This allows Excel to compute the Range correctly. (I give this additional information on how to proceed since the newest release of the APA 6th edition of higher does not cover how to plot, graph and tabularize data.) I would rather see you think about when maximum range is achieved then worry how to get Excel to compute what you seek. Know that you would be required in know how to do this in the future whether it be in this course or elsewhere. Plot the data. I would again consider a scatter plot should the x, y line plot not be working out for you. What should you see? A parabola is the goal. The apex of that curve should align perfectly where the range is a maximum.