Question

Question 1)

What are the possible errors that can occur in a One-Dimensional Motion: Inclined Plane experiment?(Explain in 500 Words or more)

Answer 1

The errors that can be occurred in inclined plane experiment are explained as follows:

1. The value of acceleration due to gravity , 'g' is sometimes taken to be 10 m/s² , and sometimes taken to be 9.8 m/s² . This confusion in the value of this constant can cause an erroneous result in final answer of the experiment. For more precise answer , the exact value of 9.81 m/s² can be taken .
2. Errors in mechanical instruments used - For ex - The instrument used to measure the angle of inclination may show different values due to following errors
   • Gross errors = errors caused by mistake inn using the instrument. For ex - reading a value for angle of inclination of 9.50 deg as 9.05 deg may again give an erroneous result in our final answer
   • Blunders = errors which are caused by faulty recording or misreading a scale or forgetting a digit while reading. Such error can occur in reading the values from the stopwatch or form recording the angle from the protractor
   • measurement error - It may occur due to fault in measuring device like foregoing zero error in spring balance that checks the force on the roller. It can be positive or negative in nature depending on the instrument
   • Observational error = This consists of errors due to parallax while taking the readings.
3. Errors in stopwatch to measure time. for ex- The partner calculating the time from stopwatch may respond to our call to stop the stopwatch a little later. Such a delay in noting down the time will give false values in our final result
4. The surface upon which the roller is to be moved for calculating the force may be wet or extremely dry. Thus the actual coefficient of friction may be lowered or increased respectively for wet and dry surface
5. Additionally the block which is moving may not be moving with constant velocity< it may be accelerating slightly, which may be not be susceptible to our naked eye
6. The roller which is falling down upon the inclined plane may not be moving in inclined plane at all, but in a straight vertical direction for some possible reasons like high tension in the thread connecting block , or the lack of sufficient tension in it , which brings us to the next point.
7. The thread connecting the block may not be parallel to the inclined plane. This will cause the tension ( ) component being not parallel to the surface and it affect our result.