My friend, Mac, and I were late this meeting because we finished the technical paper on the determination of g which, to our surprise, was not really due this meeting. It was sort of a relief because this allowed us to do some revisions.
When we entered, an experiment was already on its way. It involved a pump that was set to a variable angle and a metal ball was placed on the receiving end. When the pump was released, the ball would be flung and the distance it traveled was measured using a sheet of carbon paper.
The experiment was a display of projectile motion, which is the superposition of x and y motion. This two dimensional motion could be split up into its x and y components since the two are independent of each other. There is no x-acceleration while g is the y-acceleration.
The range (the x-distance) is computed as
X=Vi*cosA*t, where A is the angle of inclination
while the height (the y-distance) is computed as
Y=Vi*sinA-0.5g*t^2, where A is the angle of inclination
Rearranging the terms in the first equation, we can find t and plug it into the second equation
Y=X*tanA-0.5g*(X/(Vi*cosA))^2
The values that we know are X and A, we do not know Y and Vi. We have to perform another experiment to find the value of Y or Vi to completely describe the system.
I was unfortunately separated from my group and was put into another. I really felt uncomfortable with my new group mates because I didn't know them.To add to that, I was not in my optimal setting because I didn't sleep that well the night before. Thereby, I wasn't really functioning that well and just became a pawn for them. I hope that I would be reunited with my old group the next meeting.
I realized this meeting that it is very difficult for me to work with people I barely know.
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