Motion Analysis of Slow Motion Videos

James M. Hill

Posted: February 29, 2016

Throughout physics courses this year students are working on various projects that require a scientific experiment or invetigation.  Many students chose to perform a motion analysis of one or more objects.  Objects varied from hitting a golfball, throwing a pitch, kicking a soccerball, shooting a basketball or dropping a ball from various heights.  Students had to record this motion, some chose to use their own smartphones, while others made use of the Edgertronic Slow Motion Camera.  To record the motion of an object students had to consider and problem solve many factors such as lighting, focus, timing, angles and location.  Images can be found here: http://stemnorth.nbed.nb.ca/james-m-hill/gallery/motion-analysis-slow-mo...

Once recorded students used the Tracker Video Analysis and Modelling Tool to track the motion of the object in the video.  That process required students to learn and review concepts like frame of reference, coordinate systems, scale ratios and mathematical modeling.  Once tracked the program allows for many variables to be analyzed graphically through a mathematical fit.  The entire process was repeated so there were at least four separate analyses.  That purpose was to provide students with an opportunity to learn and review a relevant statistical analysis that used means, standard deviations, and percent errors.  Students had to know whether their findings were precise, accurate, neither or both through a quantitative means.

All of this had to be formally written in a final report that included an abstract, images, graphs and tables of results.  Students had to reflect upon their investigation for an error an analysis and the significance of their work in their conclusion.

The Edgertronic Slow Motion Camera was generously provided through a Brilliant Labs project and has allowed for high definition recordings of nature and without it much of this project would be of lower quality.  Students have an oppotunity to slow down events that occur very quickly and put them under a scientific lens.

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