The Caliper

Logger Pro^® 3

We have continued to improve Logger Pro, our all-in-one, award-winning data collection application. Logger Pro now integrates all of the features of Graphical Analysis 3, while offering greatly improved data collection capabilities using LabPro.

Connect a sensor (or four or five) to your Vernier LabPro^® and start Logger Pro. The powerful automatic setup features mean that it doesn’t matter where you connect the sensors. Click collect, and you’ve got data! Do some analysis such as curve fitting, statistics, integrals, and more.

• Use the mouse to draw predictions on graphs before taking data.
• Insert movies of experiments and synchronize them to the acquired data.
• Support for the new Vernier Drop Counter. No more tedious titrations!
• Save custom calibrations to your sensors for later automatic use.
• Use the built-in function generator feature of LabPro, controlling it from Logger Pro.
• Use the Vernier Digital Control Unit with Logger Pro.
• Collect simultaneous analog and rotary motion data.
• Collect Motion Detector data simultaneously with higher speed force data.
• Import data from Texas Instruments and Palm OS^® handhelds.
• Do curve fits and modeling with user-entered functions.
• Spread out your graphs, tables, and text using multiple pages.
• Macintosh OS X native version, as well as OS 9.2.
• Improved USB support for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Check out the free downloadable demo of Logger Pro. Our generous site license includes the home computers of both teachers and students. One copy does it all.

10 Great Labs Using Logger Pro 3

These are all labs that can be done using Logger Pro 3 and LabPro.

• Power a small lamp (like the one on the Vernier Circuit Board) with a triangular wave output from the function generator built into LabPro. Place a current probe in series with the lamp. Monitor the voltage applied to the lamp and the current that flows, showing the change in resistance of the filament of the lamp as it heats up on each cycle.
• Set up a buzzer connected to a Digital Control Unit (DCU) and a LabPro to turn on when the temperature of your tea is cool enough to drink.
• Measure the speed of a moving cart using photogates and, on the same run, the impact forces during a collision.
• Power a small motor with the analog output lines of LabPro and measure the motor speed with a photogate and torque with a Dual-Range Force Sensor.
• Do Hooke’s law, using a Rotary Motion Sensor to measure position, as you measure Force with a Dual-Range Force Sensor.
• Have students draw a prediction on screen of what they think the temperature vs. time graphs will look like when they cool and freeze water. Then have them do the experiment and see the resulting data.
• Use the LabPro built-in function generator to vibrate a stretched string. Investigate standing waves and harmonics.
• Use the function generator built into LabPro to vibrate a small speaker with a hook glued to it. Hang a spring and a mass from the hook and investigate this driven harmonic oscillator. See what happens at frequencies near resonance.
• Take acceleration data on an amusement park ride and have someone else take a movie of the same ride. Import the movie into the Logger Pro experiment file and synchronize the data and the movie.
• Study a collision taking hundreds of points a second with a Dual-Range Force Sensor while you use a Motion Detector sampling at a much slower rate.