Exploring Acceleration: Activity 1
Introduction to Acceleration and Measurement using an Accelerometer
Name:______________________ Date:____________ Period:_____
Hypothesis: The ability to accurately measure acceleration in three dimensions with a very
small microfabricated sensor opens the door to an amazing number of applications.
Guiding Questions:
Introduction: Velocity is defined as the rate of change in position with respect to time. We are
often are interested in how fast velocity is changing. Acceleration is defined as the rate of
change of velocity with respect to time. As you can see below, acceleration is a rate of change
of a rate – a concept that is very common and important in physics.
change∈ velocity (change∈displacement )/(change ∈time)
acceleration= =
change ∈time change ∈time
Any time an object slows down, speeds up, or changes direction it is accelerating. It takes a
force to cause an acceleration. When an object falls, it travels faster and faster as it falls
because the object is being accelerated by the force of gravity.
1. If a car is moving in the positive direction and speeds up, the acceleration is
a. 0 m/s2 b) positive c) negative
2. If a car is moving in the positive direction and slows down, the acceleration is
a. 0 m/s2 b) positive c) negative
3. If a car is traveling on the freeway at a constant 100 kilometers per hour, the
acceleration is
a. 0 m/s2 b) positive c) negative
4. What is the acceleration of a car that goes from rest to 100 kilometers/hour in 10
seconds? Provide the answer in units of (kilometers/hour)/s.
5. Scientists and engineers usually express acceleration using units of m/s2. Use dimensional
analysis to show that units of (kilometers/hour)/s can also be expressed as m/s2.
6. The acceleration due to the force of gravity is ~10 m/s2. If you drop a golf ball off the top
of a building, how fast is it going after 1 second? Hint: 10 m/s2 = (10 m/s)/s
1
Goals:
I. Introduce acceleration as the rate of change of velocity with respect to time.
II. Introduce the accelerometer sensor and phone coordinate system.
III. Begin to develop an appreciation for the sensitivity of the microfabricated sensors and
to explore the richness of how the data can be used to explore movement, such as the
vibrations of a table or an earthquake.
Instructions:
1. Explore the accelerometer on your phone and determine
the x, y, and z axes
a. Open the “accelerometer (without g)” in phyphox
b. Move the phone in quick simple movements directed
along the three axes of your phone. Observe how the
sensor reacts to the motion by observing the graphs of
x, y, and z acceleration.
c. Draw a diagram of your phone in the box and label
the x, y and z axes (including positive and negative
directions) based on your observations of
acceleration.
2. Investigate the acceleration of a table following a collision with your hand
a. Set you phone on a table. Record the response of the 3 accelerometers to a soft
“knock” on the table.
b. Take a screen shot of your data and include it below. Examine your data closely
by expanding the axes in phyphox.
c. Explain the details of your observation including the relative magnitudes of the x,
y, and z accelerations, the pattern that you observed, and the initial sign of the
acceleration following the impact. You may want to consider knocking on the
table from different directions to test your explanations. How might you expect
the pattern to change if you knocked on the table from the bottom?
2
3. Explore the sensitivity of the accelerometer
a. Use the Acceleration (without g) module in phyphox.
b. Set your phone on the table and start data collection.
c. Collect data for 10 seconds while you phone is at rest on the table.
d. Carefully pick up your phone trying to minimize the acceleration and hold it for 10
seconds while trying to minimize any movement.
e. Stop data collection.
f. Evaluate the average fluctuation of the acceleration of your data for the two
conditions. This can be estimated by determine the positive and negative values
of acceleration that bound about 70% of the measured values of acceleration (in
more formal statistical methods this is called the standard deviation). You may
do this analysis within the phyphox application or by exporting the data to a
spreadsheet. Paste graphs below to support the values you provide.
Average peak to peak value of acceleration when in hand: ____________
Average peak to peak value of acceleration when on table: ____________
4. Determine the maximum acceleration that can be measured by your sensor
a. Consider ways to determine the maximum value of acceleration you can
measure with your phone without risk of damaging you phone. (It should not
have to leave your hand.)
3
Maximum value of acceleration for sensor: ____________
Analysis and Discussion:
1) When you knocked on the table you created an initial displacement, which resulted in a
vibration that persisted for several oscillations. Do you think an accelerometer would be
a useful device to detect and characterize an earthquake? Explain. Your teacher can
share data taken with a phone accelerometer of a small (2.5M) earthquake.
2) Were you surprised by fluctuating acceleration the accelerometer was able to measure
when you were holding your phone? How much difference do you think there might be
between individuals? Compare the peak to peak fluctuations with other people in your
family or your classmates.
Peak to Peak Fluctuation Person #1 _____________
Peak to Peak Fluctuation Person #2 _____________
Peak to Peak Fluctuation Person #3 _____________
What other factors might impact how steady you can hold your phone?
3) How much greater was the acceleration when you were holding the phone relative to the
“noise” level of the sensor?
4) Discuss an application of measuring acceleration that you would find interesting.
4
Extension Questions:
1) Accelerometers are used to trigger the
deployment of airbags when a car undergoes
a collision. Discuss the factors that might be
important in determining at what acceleration
the airbag should be triggered. If you are a
passenger in a car, take some acceleration
measurements while driving. Take a guess at
what a reasonable trigger level might be and
then search for information on the range of
values used in modern vehicles. How close
did you get? Do you think that the algorithm
used to deploy the airbag might use the
information from different axes differently?
2) Another recent application of accelerometers is to monitor motion of a person when
moving and use that data to count steps for health applications. Investigate the how
acceleration changes as you walk and see if you are able to count the number of steps
you take from the accelerometer data.
