Final project Instruction Slides

Previous Projects (with slides)

Only Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 were in-person in the last few years. The List of Projects links below contain projects done by various teams and the slides that they presented.

What is your own motion project? 

You have worked so hard for the first few weeks of 4AL. You have mastered three key ingredients, step by step.
  1. How to design your own experiment from scratch based on modern technology --  Arduino.
  2. How to analyze data using modern programming language -- Python. 
  3. How to apply fundamental physics laws such as Newton's law, and predict motion as a function of time. 
The last two weeks will be dedicated to your project. You have to design your experiment, and apply your working knowledge that you have developed. The projects can be based on the following topics.
  1. Projectile motion based projects
  2. Conservation of momentum/energy
  3. Oscillation based projects
  4. Biomechanics/Human body motion projects
  5. Friction
  6. Rotation based projects
Please come up with your own creative, innovative project, and try to prove that your predictions agree with observations.  If you need more advice, please free to contact the instructor and/or TA.  You are going to make an oral presentation during Week 6.

Examples of Possible Projects

  1. Projectile motion based projects
    1. Projectile motion of basketball. (Slides)​
    2. Catapult launch projectile. (Slides)
    3. Parachutes - Terminal velocity. (Slides)
  2. Conservation of momentum/energy
    1. Cart-pendulum system. (Slides)
    2. Number of collisions in a two cart system. (Slides)
    3. Kinematics of bouncing balls. (Slides)
  3. Oscillation based projects
    1. Spring mass oscillations with air drag. (Slides)
    2. Driven harmonic motion. (Slides)
    3. Torsion pendulum. (Slides)
    4. Oscillations in liquids. (Slides)
    5. Coupled oscillations. (Slides)
  4. Human Body motion projects
    1. Mechanics of a backflip - Conservation of angular momentum. (Slides) 
    2. Human body motion analysis in sports. (Slides)
  5. Friction
    1. ​Identify friction coefficient for unknown surfaces. (Slides)
  6. Rotation based projects
    1. ​Moment of inertia and friction of flywheel. (Slides)
    2. Moment of inertia in a pulley system. (Slides)

Oral Presentations

You are going to make an oral presentation on Week 6.
Please post your google Slides by the midnight before your presentation day below, under the appropriate lab session. ​​
  • Please refer some of the slides in the "Examples of possible projects" or "Previous Projects" to plan how your presentation should be organized.
Please read the instruction below to prepare your presentation slides.
  • Each group will have around 10 slides that should contain the following information
    • Title/Authors (with majors and pictures)
    • Introduction: Motivation/Hypothesis
    • Methods that includes
      • Experimental setup with pictures
      • Data taking protocols
      • Data analysis
    • Discussion and Conclusions
      • Evaluation of significance
      • Conclusions
      • Future prospects
    • Acknowledgements
    • References
  • The entire presentation should be 10-15 minutes long.
  • Your presentation will be followed by a 5 minute Q&A session.
  • The file name of your Google slide should be like
    • ​Group#_ShortTitle.gslide
    • ​For example:  Group3_Momentum_Conservation.glide.

Presentation Evaluation

  • Each student will be evaluating the presentations from other groups. Download and complete the slides below and submit on Gradescope by Friday of Week 6. 
  • Presentation Evaluation (individual assignment)
  • Check Gradescope for deadline.

Final Report

The due day of final report (which is a group report) can be seen on Gradescope.
  • You are welcome to share the data and analysis with your group members.
  • There will be another document each person must submit individually telling your TA what each person did to ensure that every member of the group contributed properly.
  • Use an Appendix section to describe your contributions by each team member. 
  • [OPTIONAL - no extra points] To make your report look more professional, here is a link to a template. This template is written in LaTeX, which is the documentation method used in professional physics review letters. It may be recommended by your TA to write your report in LaTeX, otherwise write it in MS Word or Google Docs (or equivalent), single-space is OK.
  • LaTeX Template
  • Convert it to PDF file, and upload to Gradescope.
​Group Participation Self-Evaluation
  • We want to ensure that all group members participated within the project. Complete the following evaluation of your group individually.
  • Final report team Participation (individual assignment)
  • Convert it to PDF file, and upload to Gradescope. 
edited Jan 19, 2023 by Javier Carmona