Hanging Mass Lab

Brendan Cronan, Peter Wrobel

Abstract
Weight, in terms of physics, is the force acted upon an
object because of gravity, or F=mg, where m is mass, F is
weight, and g is gravitational acceleration. Because of the
formula, if you are given two of the measurements, the third
one can be found through algebra. In the experiment, we
did just that; we needed to find one of the factors through
measuring the others. The factor that needed to be found
was gravitational acceleration. To do so, the object of the
mass needed to be found and the weight force. Luckily,
masses with the amount of mass in grams were already
provided. For each of the 5 masses, the amount of weight
force was measured in Newtons by a force scale. Once the
force was recorded for each mass, the amount of force was
divided by the mass to find gravitational acceleration. The
results showed that every mass had the same gravitational
acceleration of -10 m/s2. The findings show that the g value
is a constant value that doesn't change when the mass
does, and the values found in the experiment provides
further evidence that the gravitational acceleration is
-9.81m/s/s, since the results were so close to it.
Objectives

The purpose of this lab is to determine the

gravitational acceleration acting upon an object.
The secondary purpose is to learn to use data
recording programs and present the data in an
easy to read manner. these skills, among other
skills improved by this lab will be essential for
future labs. However, finding the gravitational
acceleration by measuring force and mass, is
the primary goal for this lab. This number is
already widely known and accepted, however,
we confirmed this number through our own data
analysis and found the established number to be
correct by our data. This lab proved valuable in
the hands-on experience of finding out why
things fall back to earth at the same speed no
matter how heavy or light the object.

Methods

Our research was conducted in a way

where mass was the only
independent factor being
manipulated. The same room
temperature and pressure was kept,
all the masses were made of the
same metal, and the same
measuring device was used for all 5
measurements. For each
measurement, the data recording
program was reset and the scale
zeroed. A special device was used
for collecting the gravity in Newtons,
which recorded its data in a
computer program. Never used by
us before, the device allowed us to
practice with technology. For this
experiment, an acceleration monitor
and a data recording program were
implemented to record and measure
the forces acting upon the objects.
The data from this program was
then recorded in a table and then
put into calculations to determine
the acceleration of gravity.

Results

Conclusions

As the mass increased, the

force increased at the same
rate. However, all masses had
an equal gravitational
acceleration of -9.81.

It was found that gravitational

acceleration is not affected by
mass at all. The mass could be
manipulated, but the gravitational
acceleration stayed constant. The
experiment provided vital
information on calculating the
force of gravity; by knowing the
mass, one could find out the
amount of force simply by
multiplying the mass by the
gravitational acceleration constant:
9.81m/s/s. This information is very
helpful in calculating forces
because it saves time and moneywhich could be spent of forcecalculating machines-and helps
one understand the world around
us better.

Regardless of mass, gravity

exerts the same acceleration on
all objects.
Mass (kg)

Force (N)

Acceleration (M/S2)

.1 kg

1N

-9.81M/S2

.2kg

2N

-9.81M/S2

.3kg

3N

-9.81M/S2

Captions to be set in Times or Times New Roman or equivalent, italic, 16 to 18

points, to the length of
.4kg
4N

-9.81M/S2

.5kg

-9.81M/S2

the column in case a figure takes more than 2/3 of column width.

5N