Creator: Douglas Brown | visit site
Grade Range: 8 - 11
So what can you do with a tool that is used for analysis of videos? How about tracking the motion of an object across frames, including data on position, velocity, and acceleration? Download this tool for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Start by obtaining a high speed video using YouTube, a portion of a taped movie on a DVR, or from other video footage. Open the Tracker software and import the video. Find the portion of the video you want to use (frame numbers are given). Click video properties in the lower right. If the video segment is large, change the step size (number of frames looked at each time) to more than one. Set the end frame number. In order to view speed, you need to create a scale for the video. For example, choose an object in the video that you can measure. (Make sure you know how big the object actually is.) Click the tape measure tool, then drag the blue arrow around to define the size of the object. Use the tutorials on the download page to learn to manipulate and analyze the position time graph. Be sure to check out the Tracker Video Tutorials for directions for using Tracker.
In the Classroom
Use this tool to get your student’s attention using a well known video. For example, analyze the speed of blasters in Star Wars or any other movie with awesome effects. Use this tool to track the position, velocity, and/or acceleration of sports, performance of magic tricks, etc. Use this tool for Physics experiments and analysis of the motion.
At Home
Is your student interested in Physics and motion? This tool would be a fantastic tool for analyzing the speed and motion from popular movies or backyard experiments.