Photogate

=Vernier Photogate =



Description:
The traditional use of a photogate is to measure the speed of objects passing between/outside the arms of the gate. The Photogate can be used in various experiences, usually for physics and/or physical science classes. Some examples of experiments you can do are:
 * Measuring freefall acceleration
 * Studying the swing of a pendulum
 * Measuring the speed of a rolling object
 * Timing the period of a rotating object
 * Measuring the speed of objects undergoing collisions

Necessary Equipment:
It is important that you use the LabQuest because the other programs (Vernier LabPro, Universal Lab Interface, etc.) are not available to us at the moment.
 * Vernier Photogate
 * Vernier LabQuest
 * Object to pass through Photogate (such as a toy car)

Getting Started:
1) You will start off with the following items:
 * [[image:1.JPG]] || [[image:2.JPG]] || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[image:3.JPG]] ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Vernier LabQuest || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Vernier Photogate || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A rolling object (i.e. Lego car) ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> 2) Attach the white plug-in to the first port on the right side of the LabQuest, both highlighted in red. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> 3) After the port is connected to the LabQuest, press the button highlighted in red to turn on the power.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The screen should look like this when it is connected correctly:



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4) Take the stylus (highlighted in red in the left picture) and touch the first icon (highlighted in red in the right picture) on the LabQuest touchscreen. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> After pressing the icon on the touchscreen, your screen should now look like this:



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5) Press the play button on the LabQuest to start the recording.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> After pressing "play," a circle loading object should be rotating in the center of the screen. This means the LabQuest is now recording your experiment, so the object (i.e. Lego car) can be passed through the Photogate now.



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">6) Now push your Lego car though both of the Photogates, in order to record accurate results. After the car passes through both Photogates, press the play button on the LabQuest again to stop the recording. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Your screen should have a graph on it like the one below.

media type="youtube" key="LNz0uITbPiw?fs=1" height="385" width="480" align="center"