Sept-23-2014 Finding the relationship between alpha and omega on a spinning disk

Purpose:

The professor spins a disk with a measuring device attached to it that will measure the angular acceleration. The students will use this to calculate the angular velocity.

Lab:

The Professor sets up the lab by taping a measuring device to a disk that can spin. He then spins the disk at some speed with the device on. The device will measure the angular acceleration. The students then record the time it takes for the disk to complete 5 revolutions. This will provide the students with the period.

Spinning Disk:

The Professor then spins the disk at some speed with the device on. The device will measure the angular acceleration. The students then record the time it takes for the disk to complete 5 revolutions. This will provide the students with the period. The Professor spins the disk 5 times with different force. The students record the data each time.

Data:

The students then use the period to calculate angular velocity with the formula w=2pi/T.
Theoritically angular acceleration and angular velocity should have a linear relationship. The students tested this by graphing angular acceleration vs angular velocity.

Graph:

Conclusion:

As seen in the graph, the students found through the experiment that angular acceleration and angular velocity were shown to have a linear relationship in this case.