Begin by double clicking on Logger Pro. (Close Tip of the Day.) You'll see a blank graph and a blank table.

Click on the blue icon (top, left), which says "Set up sensors". Check whether you are using Dig/Sonic 1 or Dig/Sonic 2 (digital sonic detector - i.e. using sound waves), and click on it. Select Motion Detector. Close the window.

Now your screen shows two blank graphs (position vs. time and velocity vs. time), and a blank table (time, position, velocity, acceleration).

Turn on the air pump (switch below the table).

When you are ready to release the glider, first click Collect (icon, top right). Then start the motion. Click Stop when the motion you want to study is over (or the data collection will automatically stop). Now the graphs of x and v, and the table, are filled out.

Analysis is more or less the same as in the Air Table experiment. Click on the graph you wish to analyze. Drag the cursor from some position on the left of the graph to the right, to select the portion of the graph you want. There may be spurious motions at the beginning or end that you can eliminate.

Go to the menu Analyze at the top of the screen. You can select Linear Fit, which gives you the best straight line fit to the data. This will appear as a line on the graph, and as slope (m) and y-intercept (b), in y = mx + b. [Remember, "x" in the Analyze program means the horizontal axis in your graph, which is "time" in your experiment, and "y" means the vertical axis, which may be x or v.] You can also select other fits to the data, such as a polynomial fit of power 2. In this case the polynomial will be written: ax**2 + bx + c. The quantities a, b, c are the coefficients of (time)², (time)¹, and the constant, respectively.

You can Print a copy of the graphs or the table, one for each member of the lab group.