Sonic+Ranger+Lab+1+Position+vs.+Time+Graphs

= Lab Title: Sonic Ranger Lab 1: Position vs. Time Graphs =

Primary Authors: Ali, Branden, Rebekah, Alex


 * Goal:** To connect motion in the real world to position-time graphs.


 * Background Information:** The Sonic Ranger emits sound pulses which reflect off of objects and travel back to it. The computer program Logger Pro uses the time it takes the sound to travel to the object and back in order to determine the distance to the object. This information can be displayed in a variety of ways. For today, you only need to look at the position-time graph. You’ll probably want to delete the velocity-time graph and then make the position-time graph nice and large. If at any time you want the detector to collect data for a longer time period, choose “extend collection” under the experiment menu.


 * Results:**


 * Rebekah**


 * Graph A [[image:Screen_shot_2010-09-01_at_11.46.12_PM.png]]**

Motion: Start at motion detector and walk away at a slow, constant pace.


 * Graph B [[image:Screen_shot_2010-09-01_at_11.48.28_PM.png]]**

Motion: Start at motion detector and walk away from it at a fast, constant pace.


 * Graph C [[image:Screen_shot_2010-09-01_at_11.49.30_PM.png]]**

Motion: Start away from motion detector and walk at a slow, constant pace towards it.

Motion: Start farther away from the detector than in motion C, and walk towards the detector at a constant speed.
 * Graph D** [[image:Screen_shot_2010-09-01_at_11.50.10_PM.png]]

Motion: Stand away from the detector without movement.
 * Graph E [[image:Screen_shot_2010-09-01_at_11.50.37_PM.png]]**

Motion: Stand close to the detector and walk away while gradually increasing speed.
 * Graph F [[image:Screen_shot_2010-09-01_at_11.51.32_PM.png]]**


 * Grap G [[image:Screen_shot_2010-09-01_at_11.22.13_PM.png]]**

Motion: Start at the detector walking very fast at first and gradually decreasing speed to almost a standstill.


 * Graph H [[image:Screen_shot_2010-09-01_at_11.23.35_PM.png]]**

Motion: Start away from the detector walking slowly and then gradually increasing speed until reaching the detector.


 * Graph I [[image:Screen_shot_2010-09-01_at_11.24.08_PM.png]]**

Motion: Start away from the detector walking quickly and gradually slow down until you reach the detector.


 * Part 2:**

To determine the velocity while jogging, you look at the graph and determine that in one second the jogger jogged from position 0 to position 1.25. Velocity is calculated the same was as slope, So The velocity while jogging is 1.25 meters/second because he traveled 1.25m in 1 second. The velocity he traveled at while walking backwards is calculated the same way, change in position/time. So he moved .75 meters backward in one second giving him a walking velocity of -.75 meters/second.


 * Methods:**

For each graph, we all had to move away from the monitor and towards the monitor in different ways to get the appropriate results. For a graph where the line curves, we had to increase or decrease our speeds as we moved.


 * Conclusion:**

After reviewing and analyzing all of the graphs, we can make multiple conclusions using our data. First of all, when viewing at the graph one notice that moving away from the detector (starting point, point 0) will give you a higher position value while moving towards the detector will lower your P level. This is due to the fact that the detector is considered point 0, and going away from it is like changing position. The closer to point 0 you are the lower your position level is, and vice versa. This is why, when the object starts away from the graph, the position level begins very high and decreases as it's moving toward the graph. From Next, we learned that at higher speeds, the slope of the line is much higher compared to lower speeds. This can be attributed to the fact that when an object is moving quicker it covers more distance in less time and vice versa. Also, we noticed a couple other trends while reviewing the P/T graph. Firstly, when standing still the line remains straight and nothing changes. This is because the graph isn't moving over time. Also, we noticed that when a graph has a curvature, instead of a perfect slope, the speed of the object is either increasing or decreasing. The reason this graph ends up curved is because the position change isn't gradual, but instead going from slow to fast or fast to slow.

1. How is moving away from the detector distinguished from moving toward the detector on a position-time graph? Moving away from the detector makes the Y value increase, and moving towards it makes the Y value decrease
 * Folllow Up Questions:**

2. How is a high speed distinguished from a low speed? A high speed will cause a bigger slope in the graph, and a low speed will cause a smaller slope.

3. What other interesting connections can you make between your motion and he position-time graph? Position can not be negative on the graph when using this detector because it can only sense when something is in front of it.