Vernier® 25 g Accelerometer

Great for studying large one-dimensional accelerations.

The Accelerometer senses acceleration using an integrated circuit (IC) originally designed to control the release of air bags in an automobile. This IC is micromachined with very thin “fingers” carved in silicon. These fingers flex when accelerated. They are arranged and connected like the plates of a capacitor. As the fingers flex, the capacitance changes, and a circuit included in the IC monitors the capacitance, converting it into a voltage. The op-amp circuit on our circuit board amplifies and filters this signal.
The Accelerometer measures acceleration along the line marked by the arrow on the sensor. Accelerations are normally measured in either meters per second per second (m/s2) or g’s. One g is the acceleration due to gravity at the Earth’s surface, or 9.8 m/s2. Our Accelerometer will measure accelerations in the range of –25 g (–250 m/s2) to +25 g (250 m/s2). Even though this is a fairly large acceleration, it is easy to produce accelerations larger than this in collisions. In fact, dropping the Accelerometer on a hard surface from even a few centimeters can produce accelerations of a hundred g’s. The Accelerometer will not be damaged by accelerations up to 500 g’s.
There is inherent noise in the sensing device inside the Accelerometer. This limits the use in low acceleration environments. The noise is typically on the order of 2.5 m/s2 peak to peak. Therefore, best results are achieved if the experiments are designed around magnitudes or changes exceeding 9.8 m/s2. The zero will drift with temperature.
For educational use only

Power: 30 mA at 5 VDC
Frequency Response: 0–100 Hz