The
operation of the Pasco interface and Science Workshop program are very straight
forward. We will use these to take data
in most of the lab experiments during the semester. One can use the Pasco interface with a large number of devices including:
a photogate, a smart pulley, a sound sensor, and a motion sensor (Sonic
Ranger).
First
open up the Science Workshop software program on the desktop. The general use of
the sensors will first require plugging a sensor into either the digital or
analog inputs on the front of the black Pasco interface box. Match the
sensor plug to the type of plug in Science Workshop and then choose the
appropriate plug and device with the software.
The software is setup so that you can click and drag an icon which looks
like the actual object you are using.
If you want to know the properties or change the properties of the piece
of equipment, you can often just double-click on it with the mouse.
Once
you have the hardware settings correctly setup with the Science Workshop
program, you need to tell it what kind of data you want to take. Usually this will consist of a table of data
or a graph. Again, all you need to do
is to click and drag either the table or graph icon and drop it onto the
appropriate sensor. The program will
then ask you which variable you want to display, and you choose that which is
appropriate to the experiment.
Once
you are ready to take data, you can click the monitor (mon) or record (rec)
buttons. The monitor function will
monitor the inputs to your particular sensor without recording, while the record function will save the data in
a data file. Remember to click the stop button when you are finished taking
data.
Once
you take data in a table, you are going to want to copy it to the Excel
spreadsheet in order to do some analysis.
This is done by click-dragging the data in Science Workshop
(highlighting the data) then control-c to copy the data to the computer’s
clipboard. Open up Excel by double-clicking the icon on the desktop, and bring
it to the front by clicking the spreadsheet. Next control-v to paste the
data into your Excel spreadsheet.
If
you want to unplug sensors (within the software) or delete data files (which
you must do to unplug sensors), highlight the appropriate data file or sensor
by single clicking with the mouse, and hit the delete key.
Note:
if science Workshop is not quite doing the right thing, quit out of the program
and reopen it. Science Workshop is a bit buggy and can crash (sometimes big
crashes and sometimes small ones). To be safe, when not using Science Workshop,
quit out of the program.