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The Caliper
A Publication for Users of Vernier Products

Warren A. Turner and Glenn W. Ellis (Brunswick School, Greenwich, CT) describe a great mechanics experiment in the article “The Energetics of a Bouncing Ball” in the November, 1999 The Physics Teacher. They have the students take a complete look at the kinetic, potential, and total energy of a ball as it bounces. They used our ULI and Motion Detector.

Vector Lab
The March, 1999 issue of The Physics Teacher includes an article entitled “Measuring Equilibrants with a Bracket-Mounted Force Sensor” by Robert Kingman and David Maddox (Andrews University, MI). The article shows how to use our Dual-Range Force Sensor and a force table for vector resolution labs and get great results. The Force Sensor is clamped on the force table using our Force Table Adapter (order code FTA-DFS, $25).

Stomp Rockets
Tom Bird (Austin Community College) uses our Biology Gas Pressure Sensor to study the launches of Stomp Rockets. This is a light-weight, inexpensive toy rocket, powered by air that is compressed by stomping on a plastic air chamber. He drilled and tapped a threaded hole and installed a pressure tap, which he connected to a Biology Gas Pressure Sensor. He then uses a CBL™ to capture the pressure data as the rocket is launched, graphing the pressure vs. time. He computes the impulse and a theoretical launch velocity. In addition, he uses a photogate to get the actual launch velocity, and manually times the round trip back to earth to confirm the launch velocity. He says that most of the time the velocities match to within 10%.