Pasco Fan Cart with Motion Detector

A Pasco Car with a fan on top of it. Tis cart is on the Pasco track

PIRA 1C20.33

Materials: Pasco Track, Pasco Cart with Fan, Motion Sensor, Pasco 850 Universal Interface, Labtop with Capstone

The Pasco Fan Cart is designed to move with little friction on the Pasco Dynamics Track. The fan provides a constant force, and a constant acceleration. The cart has two fan speeds, and the angle of the fan post can be adjusted. By adjusting the fan speed and the fan post angle, a wide range of linear accelerations are available. The motion detector allows simultaneous, real-time measurements of position, velocity, and acceleration as functions of time. This requires the Pasco 750 Interface, and a computer with Pasco Science Workshop software.

Demonstrate the motion of the fan cart without the motion detector for a specific initial velocity and constant acceleration. Have students sketch graphs predicting the position, velocity, and acceleration for that motion. A classic example is to give the fan cart an initial velocity away from the motion detector, with the fan accelerating the cart towards the motion detector. Repeat the demonstration with the motion detector on, and the real-time position, velocity, and acceleration graphs projected onto a screen with an LCD projector connected to the computer.

The Capstone settings need to be set at 40 or 50 Hz. The acceleration graph may need to be smoothed out and if wanted the velocity graph as well. Higher than 50 Hz will make the cart not be found after about 1 meter. Make sure the motion detector is set to short range as there is a switch on the detector.