USING EXCEL SPREADSHEETS IN THE STUDY OF MOTION ON AN INCLINED PLANE IN A RESISTIVE MEDIUM
USING EXCEL SPREADSHEETS IN THE STUDY OF MOTION ON AN INCLINED PLANE IN A RESISTIVE MEDIUM

Summary/Abstract: This paper demonstrates the fact that Excel spreadsheets can be successfully employed in the interactive approach of Physics lessons. It describes a didactic tool realized with spreadsheets to study the free descent of a body on an inclined plane with friction at sliding and in the presence of a resistive medium. The drag force is quadratic in the velocity. The tool allows the comparison between the motion on the inclined plane in vacuum and the motion on the inclined plane in air. This comparison is made both analytically and graphically. The time of descent on the inclined plane and the velocity at the base of the plane in the two cases are calculated. There are graphic representations of the dependence of velocity on time, the dependence of the coordinate on time and the dependence of the velocity on the coordinate. The velocity is calculated and graphically highlighted, limited at the descent on the inclined plane in air. Also, this didactic tool allows the calculation of the velocity and the coordinate of the body at any moment of time set in the input data. At the same moment of time, the values of the forces acting upon the body on the inclined plane are graphically rendered. By modifying the moment of time we can observe, step by step, how the value of the drag force correspondingly changes, comparatively to the other forces. Usually, air friction is neglected in the problems from the course books dealing with the inclined plane. Even if, for practical purposes, air friction can be neglected, we consider that by using the presented tool in the classroom, students can achieve a better grasp of the limits of a physical model. Taking into account the flexibility of the spreadsheet, the tool can be easily adapted to study motion at the ascent on an inclined plane in similar conditions. Moreover, the tool can be particularized to study the free fall in a gravitational field in a resistive medium.

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