Too bad these are difficult to obtain. However, regular pull-back cars have an interesting acceleration profile. I attached a phone to one and measured the acceleration. A simple numerical integration yields the velocity and position curves. Data File: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... #ITeachPhysics
Wait why haven't I done this yet
Did a quick trial and my corresponding v-t data looks a little funky (as in doesn't make sense w what aI saw) so I'll need to redo to check that it makes sense. Have some weird ringing in my a-t graph even with some smoothing. What kind of smoothing did you apply?
Probably just need to gather better data than I did in 45s of passing time.
The Goggle sheet I shared shows a graph of the raw accel and a running average accel. All of my equations are there. If I were to do this with students I would develop a sturdier way to attach the phone than rubber bands. the velocity and position still turn out great intergating the raw accel data.
Didn't notice the data file! Thanks