Physics (Mechanics) Labs from 8.01X
This section contains documents created from scanned original files and other
documents that could not be made accessible to screen reader software. A "#"
symbol is used to denote such documents.
WARNING NOTICE
The experiments described in these materials are potentially hazardous and require a high level of safety training, special facilities and equipment, and supervision by appropriate individuals. You bear the sole responsibility, liability, and risk for the implementation of such safety procedures and measures. MIT shall have no responsibility, liability, or risk for the content or implementation of any of the material presented.
Legal Notice
PDF
Goal: Before measuring and calculating comes estimation; a chance to exercise ingenuity. Often it's a matter of organizing your rough knowledge and experience in quantitative form, or making a simplified model so as to answer questions about numbers, such as: How many hairs are on your head? how much energy does an AA cell store? how many gallons of gasoline are burnt annually in the US? How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?
Instructors: Dr. Peter Dourmashkin, Prof. Kate Scholberg
PDF
Goal: One of the simplest ways is to let the current flow through a coil of wire that is in a magnetic field and to measure the resulting torque on the coil by observing the deflection of a torsion spring. This is how your multimeter, the focus of this experiement, works.
Instructors: Dr. Peter Dourmashkin, Prof. Kate Scholberg
PDF
Goal: In this project, you'll build a power supply that takes power at 120V, 60hertz [Hz]ac from a wall outlet and converts it to dc. The power supply is adjustable between 2V to 12V and can supply currents up to 1 ampere (A).
Instructors: Dr. Peter Dourmashkin, Prof. Kate Scholberg
PDF
Goal: In this experiment you'll time the free fall of a plastic wire nut by measuring the voltage across a capacitor in an RC charging circuit. The goal is to measure the time of fall of a wire nut as a function of the distance of fall.
Instructors: Dr. Peter Dourmashkin, Prof. Kate Scholberg
PDF
Goal: In this experiment, the centripetal force is the restoring force of a stretched rubber band with one end attached to the shaft of a dc permanent-magnet motor.
Instructors: Dr. Peter Dourmashkin, Prof. Kate Scholberg
PDF
Goal: In the Part I of the experiment you will calibrate an electrical temperature sensor, called a "thermistor" by immersing it in water whose temperature is measured with a glass thermometer. The thermistor (smaller and faster in response than the glass thermometer) is a compressed pellet of semi-conducting metal oxides whose resistance depends on temperature. Calibrating the thermistor means finding a relation between its electrical resistance and the temperature.
In the Part II of the experiment, electrical energy will be transformed into thermal energy resulting in the heating up of a sample of water. You will thus be able to find the specific heat, cw, of water. The specific heat is the energy it takes to heat one kilogram one degree Kelvin (or equivalently one degree Celsius).
In the Part II of the experiment, electrical energy will be transformed into thermal energy resulting in the heating up of a sample of water. You will thus be able to find the specific heat, cw, of water. The specific heat is the energy it takes to heat one kilogram one degree Kelvin (or equivalently one degree Celsius).
Instructors: Dr. Peter Dourmashkin, Prof. Kate Scholberg
PDF
Goal: In this experiment you'll investigate the properties of four mechanical oscillating systems, simple pendulum with two strings, simple pendulum with one string, mass/spring oscillator, and cantilevered beam. All these systems have nearly linear restoring forces.
Instructors: Dr. Peter Dourmashkin, Prof. Kate Scholberg
PDF
Goal: In this lab, you'll investigate two kinds of rotational phenomenon using a motor and a hub as a fixed axis of rotation.
In the first experiment you will measure the total frictional torque responsible for the slowing down of a rotating washer. You will place a washer on the hub. When the motor is turned on, the angular velocity of the shaft is increases. When the motor is turned off, the total frictional torque decreases the angular velocity until the assembly comes to a stop. During the deceleration,the motor will act as a generator providing a voltage that is a measure of the instantaneous angular velocity.
In the second experiment, you will measure the change in angular momentum due to an inelastic rotational collision in which a stationary washer is dropped on a spinning washer. During the collision there is a rotational frictional torque between the washers, slowing one washer down and speeding the other washer up until the washers are moving at the same angular velocity. The total angular momentum is nearly conserved during this collision. You will measure how closely angular momentum is conserved.
In the first experiment you will measure the total frictional torque responsible for the slowing down of a rotating washer. You will place a washer on the hub. When the motor is turned on, the angular velocity of the shaft is increases. When the motor is turned off, the total frictional torque decreases the angular velocity until the assembly comes to a stop. During the deceleration,the motor will act as a generator providing a voltage that is a measure of the instantaneous angular velocity.
In the second experiment, you will measure the change in angular momentum due to an inelastic rotational collision in which a stationary washer is dropped on a spinning washer. During the collision there is a rotational frictional torque between the washers, slowing one washer down and speeding the other washer up until the washers are moving at the same angular velocity. The total angular momentum is nearly conserved during this collision. You will measure how closely angular momentum is conserved.
Instructors: Dr. Peter Dourmashkin, Prof. Kate Scholberg
PDF - 2.5 MB
Goal: Steady flows are driven by forces that are balanced by resisting forces. For instance, the amount of water coming out of a shower depends on the water pressure as provided by private or municipal water systems, and the resistance of the many small holes in the shower head. Depending on the diameter of the holes and the velocity of the flow, the resistance can be due to viscosity (the friction of water against water when there are differences in velocity within the flow), momentum given to the fluid as it speeds up as it passes through the holes, and additional resistance when the flow becomes turbulent and there is vortex motion in the fluid.
You'll measure the rate at which water flows out of a container through a tube placed near the bottom. You'll do this for different length tubes. For each tube length you will calculate characteristic time constant for the flow rate. You will then compare these time constants as a function of the tube length. This experiment is primarily about taking data but later in the semester you will interpret your data to determine the viscosity of water.
You'll measure the rate at which water flows out of a container through a tube placed near the bottom. You'll do this for different length tubes. For each tube length you will calculate characteristic time constant for the flow rate. You will then compare these time constants as a function of the tube length. This experiment is primarily about taking data but later in the semester you will interpret your data to determine the viscosity of water.
Instructors: Dr. Peter Dourmashkin, Prof. Kate Scholberg
Your use of the MIT OpenCourseWare site and course materials is subject to our Creative Commons License and other terms of use.
