This 8 range sensor is a must for every Physics department. It is highly accurate and capable of measuring a variety of motions including:
 

• Linear displacement by using any of the pulley ranges or the linear rack attachment (from the Rotary Motion Accessory Pack (3288)
• Angular displacement using the angular position or pendulum range
• Angular velocity using either the revolutions or radians per second range.

When measuring linear displacement, the best results are obtained when used with the Dynamics System (3800) or Track (3802). See the Rotary Motion Accessory Pack (3288) which contains a linear rack attachment, pendulum rod with 2 masses and an angular motion disc set.

Activities

Physics:

• Motion with kinetics trolley
• Atwood's machine
• Conservation of mechanical energy
• The study of pendulums and simple harmonic motion
   

When used with the optional Rotary Motion Accessory pack (3288)

• Conservation of angular momentum
• Moments of inertia
• Pendulum investigations
• Gravitational rotational energy
• Frictional torque
• Rotational collisions
• Rotational inertia
• Newton's Second Law in its rotational form
• Tracking movement in a circle
• Linear displacement of an object or SmartQ Sensor

Biology and Chemistry - when used with the linear rack from the Accessory Pack:

• Linear movement of a gas syringe plunger

The Rotary Motion sensor is a low friction bi-directional position sensor, which can be used to perform a variety of investigations into rotational mechanics. It contains an optical encoder, which gives a maximum of 1,024 counters per revolution of the sensor's shaft.

The sensor can be used on its own or coupled with its Accessories and other SmartQ sensors e.g. use the linear rack accessory and a Light level sensor to investigate inverse square law.

A Spoked Pulley (3177) can be used with this sensor to convert movement from one angle to another.