Physics 4AL Lab for Science and Engineering Mechanics Homework 0: Sensor Calibration and Linear Regression Name:

Adam Garcia Date of Experiment: 10/2/13 Lab Section: Wednesday 3 pm TA Name: Rhyan Ghosh Lab Partners Name: Rodolfo Barranco

Problem 2 In order to calculate the uncertainty in the measured acceleration, the following formula is given, where . Since both the measured quantities on the RHS are calculated via independent mechanical systems, the following uncertainty for the LHS can be written as follows (Eq. 2.14 from lab manual):

(Eq. 2.1) After taking the partial derivatives located on the RHS of Eq. 2.1, the expression can be reduced to:

Further simplification and evaluation at

reveals (insight into simplification is listed on page 16 of the lab manual):

(Eq. 2.2)

Using Eq. 2.2, given the initial measurements specified in the problem, one can calculate the uncertainty in the measured acceleration.

Problem 3 Week 0s experiment was to calibrate a force sensor. A characterization study was done on the force sensor by finding the sensors voltage response as the force applied at the tip was var ied. The chart below shows the results.

Force Sensor Calibration

0.1 0 0 -0.1 Sensor Voltage (V) -0.2 -0.3 -0.4 -0.5 -0.6 -0.7 Linear (Force Sensor Calibration) Force Sensor Calibration 0.5 1 1.5 2 V = -(0.1578V/N)F + 0.0356 R = 1 2.5 3 3.5 4

Applied Force to Force Sensor (N)

Figure 3.1 The voltage output from the Force sensor over a variety of applied forces is shown, and appears to have a linear response.

Problem 4 The calibration study performed on the force sensor reveals a very linear response in its output. By first approximation, the linear coefficient as displayed in the trendline equation in Figure 3.1 is (0.1578) V/N while the y-intercept is .0356 V.

However, this does not account for the uncertainty in the fitting function. To extrapolate this data, a linear regression analysis was done. Linear Coefficient (Slope of line) A= (-.1578 0.0001) Chart 3.1 Zeroing Offset (y-intercept of line) B= (.0356 0.0003)V

The non-zero value for the y-intercept (B) in Chart 3.1 accounts for the non-zero Voltage when no force was applied to the end of the force sensor. This reveals that the effectiveness of the taring procedure is not perfect. If one desired to eliminate this source of taring error, a simple subtraction of the signal from its non-zero taring voltage would both shift the y-intercept to zero as well as correct for the drift of the taring voltage over repeated tests.

Problem 5 When using the force sensor, often times it is more useful to collect Voltage data and find the corresponding Force. Using the measured values from Week 0s experiment, we can rewrite the calibration curve into the form F= cV+d. Using the notation from Problem 4, where a was the slope and b was the y-intercept, we can rewrite the force equation as follows:

Where:

To calculate the uncertainties of the c value, we simply apply Eq. 2.1 to the equation for c:

Evaluating the derivative and plugging in the values obtained from Problem 4, we get: ( )

______________________________________________ The process for evaluating d is identical:

Taking the derivative and plugging in the corresponding values, we get:

Thus, our equation rewritten in terms of F follows the form: ( ) ( )

Problem 6 The additional problem assigned by the TA asks for the at a given Force of .98 Newtons. (uncertainty in F) of the ten measurements of taken

The voltage values taken from the experiment are going to be fitted to the equation:

Since the only measured values (for the sake of this problem) are the voltage values, both a and b are held constant, being previously determined in Problem 5 as constants. Since the only measured value in this experiment is , the equation to evaluate is as follows: ( )

is known as the weighted average deviation of measured Voltage values from its mean. The equation for such deviation is used below:

( (

) ) and a, we can calculate , the uncertainty in F:

Having both the values for