Optimization of Rectilinear Motion Experiments using Tracker Application

Physics is one part of Natural Sciences which underlies the development of technology, so that the process of learning Physics should not only emphasize the mastery of the concept but also on aspects of the discovery as the scientist did. Therefore, experimental activities are considered very important in Physics learning. In the experimental activities, it is important to have appropriate tools and methods of measurement to obtain accurate findings. One of the experimental activities of physics which conducted in school is a uniformly acceleration rectilinear motion using a set of dynamics train experiment and Atwood experiment. The measurement methods of both experiments generally use conventional tools, i.e. ruler, stopwatch and ticker timer that are susceptible to interruptions and errors in the data acquisition process. One method of measuring and processing data that considered has more precision is to use the application tracker. In this research, a uniform rectilinear motion kinematics experiments have been done with two methods of measurement using conventional tools and compared with using the tracker by recording the movement of objects using high definition camera (HD) with 24 fps shooting speed. The results showed that the result using tracker to produce some acceleration data is more constant than the result using conventional methods. In addition, time-positions graphs (s = f (t)) are formed in the form of quadratic and time-velocity graphs (v = f (t)) are straight lines with a constant gradient corresponding to the rectilinear motion theory. Based on the results of the research, the use of tracker application in the experimental kinematics of rectilinear motion produces more accurate data so it can be used as an alternative to optimize the experiments of rectilinear motion.