Comparison of uniform and non-uniform motion with Cobra SMARTsense

Principle
The battery-operated measuring carriage travels at a constant speed over the carriageway. Accordingly, the speed is independent of location and the movement is described as uniform. The drive-free measuring carriage is accelerated up to the middle of the roadway so that the speed increases with the location. On the rear section of the carriageway the carriage decelerates by friction. The speed depends on the location and is therefore called non-uniform.
Benefits

• Especially understandable and didactically prepared description of the experiment (relevance to everyday life, etc.) including protocol questions.
• Future-oriented teaching: Integration into digital science lessons with tablets or smartphones.
• Increased motivation of students by using the intuitive measureAPP.
• Increased media competence.

Tasks

• In the first part of the experiment, a measuring carriage, accelerated by a weight via a deflection roller to the centre of the roadway, travels over the roadway without its own drive. In the second half of the roadway, the carriage continues to roll with its impulse, whereby it is braked by friction. With the help of the light barriers the speed is determined for the respective location.
• In the second part of the experiment, a battery-powered measuring carriage travels at constant speed over the roadway. For different positions of the light barrier at the edge of the roadway the pupils are to determine the speed again.

Learning objectives
In this experiment, the students should recognize that not the uniform motion, but the non-uniform motion of a body is the general case of a movement. Rather unconsciously, the students are given a feeling for momentary and average speed.