PASCO SE-8747 User Manual

Instruction Manual and
Experiment Guide for
the SE-8747

Kinesthetics Cart

KINESTHESIA-1

A One-Dimensional Kinesthetic Apparatus to Teach Mechanics

012-05787C

3/96

© 1995 Hans Pfister, Dickinson College $10.00

012-05787C Kinesthetics Cart

T able of Contents

Section Page

Warranty, and Equipment Return ......................................................................ii

Introduction ......................................................................................................1

Equipment ........................................................................................................2

General Operation and Safety Precautions .........................................................3

Experiments:

Experiment 1: Newton’s First Law ..............................................................4

Experiment 2: A Special Case of Newton’s First Law..................................6

Experiment 3: Newton’s Second Law: The Human Slingshot ......................7

Experiment 4: Newton’s Second Law: The Bucket Accelerator ...................8

Experiment 5: Eradicating the Coin-Toss Misconception............................. 9

Experiment 6a: Independence of the X and Y Motion of a Projectile...........10

Experiment 6b: Independence of the X and Y Motion of a Projectile .......... 11

Experiment 7: Motion in 2-D: Uniform Motion vs. Accelerated Motion ..... 12

Experiment 8: Newton’s First Law .............................................................13

Experiment 9: Center of Mass / Conservation of Momentum ......................14

Experiment 10: The Simple Harmonic Oscillator........................................15

Experiment 11: The Human Oscilloscope...................................................15

Additional Experiments Possible with the Collision Attachment .......................16

Experiment 12: Newton’s Third Law: A Crashing Experience.................... 17

Experiment 13: Newton’s Third Law Misconception.................................. 18

Experiment 14: Another Newton’s Third Law Misconception .................... 18

Experiment 15: And another Newton’s Third Law Misconception .............. 19

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Kinesthetics Cart 012-05787C

Warranty and Equipment Return

Limited Warranty and Equipment Return

This product is warranted to be free from defects in
materials and workmanship for a period of one year from
the date of shipment to the customer.

Should you experience any problems with the equipment,
please contact PASCO scientific.

Address: PASCO scientific

10101 Foothills Blvd.
P.O. Box 619011

Roseville, CA 95678-9011
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
email: [e-mail]

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012-05787C Kinesthetics Cart

Introduction

The sensory experience that is “mediated by end organs
located in muscles, tendons, and joints and stimulated by
bodily movements and tensions is known as Kinesthesia
or Kinesthesis” 1 –derived from the Greek words kinein
(to move) and aisthesis (perception). There is good evi­dence that in certain contexts kinesthetic experience can
be more engaging and memorable than many other learn­ing experiences.

For example, video arcades feature games that incorpo­rate the entire body of the player into their video adven­tures. One player for example mounts a replica of a
Yamaha 750 and grips a mock handle bar as artificial
countryside and pieces of road pass in front of the cycle
on a 50” high screen. As the player turns the handle bars
the motorbike tilts through an angle to provide the player
with a kinesthetic experience of turning. An actor memo­rizing a script commonly recites lines aloud and uses
muscle memory to aid learning.

Many articles have been published to date that indicate
the importance of kinesthetic experiences in the learn­ing process and show how powerful they are in help­ing students to relate natural phenomena to the laws of
mechanics.

Seven years ago, the Physics Department of Dickinson
College converted their introductory physics courses into
a workshop format that places the experiments in the
hand of the students and affords them the possibility of
rediscovering fundamental laws of physics. More re­cently, we have started to introduce a series of kinesthetic
apparatus into our curriculum. This carries the Workshop
Physics idea even further: Instead of letting the students
perform the experiment, we now physically incorporate
students into the experiment. Several kinesthetic activities
have in the meantime been tested in the Workshop Phys­ics program. They also prove to be effective in more con­ventional lecture and laboratory settings.

Furthermore, kinesthetic experiences are helpful in elimi­nating some of the traditional student conceptions. Stu­dents usually have derived these non-Newtonian “com­mon sense conceptions” from everyday experiences. Of
course, the reason that these conceptions are non-Newtonian
comes from the fact that practically all motions we encounter
in our everyday life involve friction in one form or another.
One such student-conception is that one must apply a con­stant force to produce motion at a constant velocity.

Finally, kinesthetic experiences are also highly motivat­ing. Students enjoy riding on these kinesthetic carts and
delight in the experience which is retained as a muscle
memory.

The SF-8747 Kinesthetics Cart, a.k.a. Kinesthesia-1, af­fords students the opportunity to experience Newton’s
laws kinesthetically. Students can experience motions as­sociated with various forces including constant velocity,
constant acceleration and collisions. It also helps to eradi­cate some common misconceptions of beginning physics
students. This manual lists a series of experiments and
demonstrations that are possible with Kinesthesia-1. It
also provides examples of how Kinesthesia-1 can be used
to help enhance student understanding of both quantita­tive and qualitative aspects of Newton’s Laws.

➤ WARNING!

For all of the experiments and
demonstrations involving Kines­thesia-1 with the exception of Ex­periment 10, it is of paramount
importance that at no time a stu­dent should stand on the device!

1

Webster’s College Dictionary.

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Kinesthetics Cart 012-05787C

Equipment

The following is a description of the equipment that is
included with the SE-8747 Kinesthetics Cart:

• Lower cart of the Kinesthetics Cart

• Upper cart or the Kinesthetics Cart

• (1) Coupler

• Manual

Required for some experiments but not supplied:

• a block of 4”x4”x2” of wood that is to be screwed to
the floor for one of the experiments illustrating
Newton’s First Law.

• SE-8748 Collision Attachment (2 required for colli­sion experiments)

Please refer to each experiment to determine all the nec­essary equipment

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012-05787C Kinesthetics Cart

General Operation and Safety Precautions

The SE-8747 Kinesthetics Cart system consists of two
low friction carts that move along a straight line. Both
carts are supported by roller blade wheels. The two carts
are designed to ride “piggy-back-style” on top of each
other. Throughout this manual we will refer to the two
carts as the “lower cart” (this is the narrower cart) and the
“upper cart” (this is the wider cart). The two carts can be
interlocked or ridden separately. To interlock the two
carts, the upper cart is placed on top of the lower cart
so that the coupler holes of each cart line up. Then the
coupler is inserted through the two bores in the upper
cart into the two bores of the lower cart.

As long as the upper cart rides on top of the lower cart the
roller blade wheels of the upper cart are approximately
1/8” to 1/4” off the floor. The wheels of the upper cart
serve in this application as “landing gear” (e.g. Experi­ments 1 and 2).

For any experiment that requires removal of the coupler
during the experiment, it is advisable to have the student
rider try out its function prior to the experiment. Have the
student remove the coupler and insert it back through the
bores of the upper cart into the coupler holes of the lower
cart. The coupler is removed most easily by pulling it up
as vertically as possible.

Most experiments and demonstrations involving Kines­thesia-1 can be done in both qualitative and quantitative
fashions. The motion (distance, velocity and acceleration)
of the Kinesthetics Cart can be inferred with standard Mi­crocomputer Based Lab (MBL) apparatus. The position
can be recorded with either a motion detector or with
PASCO’s Smart Pulley. In the latter case, a sufficiently
long string is wrapped around the pulley which is station­ary near a computer. The free end of the string is attached
to the back of the moving Kinesthetics Cart. Also, a stan­dard accelerometer can be readily mounted on the cart.

All experiments and demonstrations with the Kinesthetics
Cart involve little or virtually no setup time.

➤

IMPORTANT!

STORE THE KINETHETICS CART IN A VER­TICAL POSITION WITH THE WHEELS UP.
IF THE UNIT IS STORED SITTING ON ITS
WHEELS, THEY MAY DEVELOP A FLAT
SPOT.

➤

CAUTION!

WHENEVER YOU PERFORM AN EXPERI­MENT DESCRIBED IN THIS MANUAL OR TRY
OUT NEW EXPERIMENTS INVOLVING THE
KINESTHETICS CART, BE SURE TO ELIMI­NATE ANY RISK OF POSSIBLE INJURY!

• While the cart is in motion at least one
hand of the student rider must main­tain a firm grip on the handle or hold
on to the cart itself. (Except for Experi­ment 10)

• It is highly recommended that the stu­dent rider wear a bicycle helmet while
riding the cart.

• AT NO TIME MAY A STUDENT RIDER
STAND ON THE UPPER OR LOWER
CART! (Except for Experiment 10)

When performing Experiment 10 it is im­perative that all necessary precautions be
observed to keep a student from injury:

• line both sides of the cart’s path with
foam mats

• place spotters along the cart’s path
to support the student’s ascent and
descent.

FOR COLLISION EXPERIMENTS: Student
must have feet against collision attachment
for additional support of the body. Student
body might move forward toward front of
cart. For this experiment it is particularly im­portant to hold on to the cart with both
hands. Keep body in as rigid a position as
possible.

• Only one rider should be on the cart when
riding “piggy-back-style”.

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Kinesthetics Cart 012-05787C

Experiment 1: Newton’s First

Most often we find Newton’s First Law paraphrased in a form like this: “A body will remain in its
state of motion unless acted upon by an external force.” We can paraphrase it even a little more to
accentuate the essence of the First Law for our students and word it something like this: “A body
moving at constant velocity vc will keep moving at this constant velocity vc, no matter what hap­pens to the world around this body, unless acted upon by an external force.” This of course contra­dicts our everyday experience: our car will not keep moving at a constant 55 mph unless we keep
applying a steady force. Here, Kinesthesia-1 affords a unique opportunity for students to experi­ence in the classroom that Newton is correct indeed.

At the center of the classroom (or any other convenient location of the lecture hall) a short
section (approx. 4”) of a two-by-four is attached to the floor. A student rider initially has both carts
coupled together and is accelerated to an initial velocity v
student rider has attained the constant velocity vc, (s)he separates the two carts by pulling the cou­pler straight up. Now, the student rider and the upper cart ride quasi friction-free, piggy-back-style
on top of the lower cart, approaching the two-by-four block in the center of the classroom. A few
seconds later, the worst case scenario happens. The two-by-four block abruptly stops the lower
cart, i.e., the world underneath our rider comes to a complete stop. But what will happen to the
upper cart and the rider? If Newton is right, the upper cart and the rider will, contrary to our every­day experience, continue to move at a constant velocity vc, since there is no force acting on them.
Indeed, this is what our rider experiences. As the top cart and the rider keep moving beyond the
limit of the lower cart, the “landing gear” (roller blade wheels on the upper cart) ensures a fairly
smooth landing. This kinesthetic experience not only verifies Newton’s First Law but with the
small jolt of the touchdown the First Law is ingrained in the students’ memory and will be remem­bered for a long time past this experience.

by his or her partner. As soon as the

c

Figure 1.1: A student rider is given a constant veloc­ity vc by her partner. The upper and lower cart are
coupled together.

Figure 1.2: The student rider removes the coupler
as she approaches the 4”x4”x2” block mounted to
the floor.

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