1. When the helicopter is moving at a constant velocity, is there a net force acting on it?
No, if it is moving at constant velocity, there is no acceleration and since force=mass times acceleration, the net force would be zero.
2. The helicopter first moves up, and then you caused it to hover (or attempted to cause it to hover). Did there have to be a negative net force acting on the craft at some point for this to occur? Why?
Yes. There has to be a positive net force in order to get the helicopter off of the ground and then negative forces must act on the craft in order to get the vertical velocity back to zero to cause the helicopter to hover.
|
|
Force |
Acceleration |
|
Data point 1 |
2000 N |
0.98 |
|
Data point 2 |
-1000 N |
-0.49 |
3. Does the acceleration change with the net force? What is the mathematical relationship of acceleration and net force?
Yes. Acceleration is the net force divided by the mass and Net force is mass times acceleration.
4. What is the mass of the helicopter? How did you determine it?
the helicopter's mass is 2040.8 kg. I determined this by manipulating the original formula for net force so that mass is net force divided by acceleration. The net force was 2000 N and the acceleration was 9.8 m/s^2 and 2000/.98 = 2040.8
5. What lift force was required to save the day?
32,000 N
|
|
Speed |
Force |
|
Data point 1 |
11.18 m/s |
1000 N |
|
Data point 2 |
15.85 m/s |
2000 N |
|
Data point 3 |
19.43 m/s |
3000 N |
|
Data point 4 |
23.81 m/s |
4500 N |
6. Look at your data. How does the force of air resistance vary with the speed of the helicopter? Does the force of air resistance increase as helicopter speed increases, decrease as helicopter speed increases, stay the same, or is there no relationship at all? Use your data to justify your answer.
The force of air resistence would increase as speed increases. This is shown in the differences between the speeds at different intervals. For instance, there is a greater speed increase from 1000 N to 2000 N than there is from 2000 N to 3000 N.
7. Using the guidelines above, is the relationship between air resistance force and helicopter speed a linear, inverse, or squared relationship? Or is there no relationship at all? Justify your answer using your data.
Squared. Because the distances between the speeds in relation to the air resistance changes, which would make a more curved shape graph.
8. What horizontal thrust force is required for the helicopter to have zero horizontal velocity? To be moving at a constant horizontal velocity?
Zero for both. If you apply any thrust power, the horizontal velocity will only continue to increase no matter what is done in the air.
9. What is the required lift force? Given this lift force, what are the net horizontal and vertical forces?
The required lift force is 25,500 N. The net horizontal force would be 4428.5 N The net vertical force would be 25112.5