Free Fall Lab
Free Fall Lab
Natalie Soria
Lab Partners:
Ryan Michaely
Iqra Haji
Yan Huang
1. Purpose:
The purpose of this experiment is to determine the acceleration due to gravity by observing the motion of a free falling object. 2. Equipment Used: A. Timer Switch B. Time-of-Flight Accessory C. Control Box D. AC adapter E. Drop Box F. Steel ball G. Solid gold ball H. Big plastic ball 3. Method Used: 1) Place the steel ball on the drop box. 2) Set the timer to “Time: Two Gates” mode. 3) Measure the distance between the bottom of the ball and the plate and record in table 4) Release the ball using the timer switch and record the time it takes to fall. …show more content…
Calculations:
Determining Avg. Time for each trial
With formulas: With numbers:
T1+T2+T3 = Avg. T (S) (.4072s) + (.4078s) + (.4073s) = Avg. T(S) 3 3 .4074s = Avg. T (S)
Determining T2
With formulas: With numbers:
T = S2 T = (0.4111s)2 T = 0.169s2 7. Conclusions:
The objective was to determine acceleration due to the effects of gravity. Gravity stayed constant through the whole experiment.
Source of error could be due to measuring between ball and mat inaccurately.
Answers to …show more content…
What should the theoretical values for the slope and y-intercept be for this graph?
(2) What are the actual values of the slope and y-intercept for the three graphs. Compare these to the theoretical values. Calculate the gravitational acceleration for all three balls from this information.
(3) Comment on why the acceleration due to gravity is less for the plastic ball than the others. Give some ideas why you think this particular ball would behave like this and the other balls would not.
The gravitational acceleration due to gravity is the same for every object, the total acceleration is not. Acceleration is reduced a bit by the particular mass of the ball. In cases where “m” is large (like the steel ball and golf ball), the factor will be small and therefore falling at almost the same acceleration. But in the case where “m” is small (like the plastic hallow ball) the factor could be large, and therefore the balls acceleration could be significantly less due to the hollowness of the ball. Although the plastic ball is bigger in size, its mass is
Natalie Soria
Lab Partners:
Ryan Michaely
Iqra Haji
Yan Huang
1. Purpose:
The purpose of this experiment is to determine the acceleration due to gravity by observing the motion of a free falling object. 2. Equipment Used: A. Timer Switch B. Time-of-Flight Accessory C. Control Box D. AC adapter E. Drop Box F. Steel ball G. Solid gold ball H. Big plastic ball 3. Method Used: 1) Place the steel ball on the drop box. 2) Set the timer to “Time: Two Gates” mode. 3) Measure the distance between the bottom of the ball and the plate and record in table 4) Release the ball using the timer switch and record the time it takes to fall. …show more content…
Calculations:
Determining Avg. Time for each trial
With formulas: With numbers:
T1+T2+T3 = Avg. T (S) (.4072s) + (.4078s) + (.4073s) = Avg. T(S) 3 3 .4074s = Avg. T (S)
Determining T2
With formulas: With numbers:
T = S2 T = (0.4111s)2 T = 0.169s2 7. Conclusions:
The objective was to determine acceleration due to the effects of gravity. Gravity stayed constant through the whole experiment.
Source of error could be due to measuring between ball and mat inaccurately.
Answers to …show more content…
What should the theoretical values for the slope and y-intercept be for this graph?
(2) What are the actual values of the slope and y-intercept for the three graphs. Compare these to the theoretical values. Calculate the gravitational acceleration for all three balls from this information.
(3) Comment on why the acceleration due to gravity is less for the plastic ball than the others. Give some ideas why you think this particular ball would behave like this and the other balls would not.
The gravitational acceleration due to gravity is the same for every object, the total acceleration is not. Acceleration is reduced a bit by the particular mass of the ball. In cases where “m” is large (like the steel ball and golf ball), the factor will be small and therefore falling at almost the same acceleration. But in the case where “m” is small (like the plastic hallow ball) the factor could be large, and therefore the balls acceleration could be significantly less due to the hollowness of the ball. Although the plastic ball is bigger in size, its mass is