Freely Falling Body Lab

Section 3B

12/6/16

Justin Graff (Coordinator & Laureate)

Kevin Cayo (Statistician & Visionary)

Purpose:

This lab was created to determine the acceleration due to gravity through the use of

graphical analysis.

Materials List:

1 m Ticker Tape

Ball

Golf Ball

Ticker Machine

Stand

Tape

Procedure:

This lab, was constructed to determine the acceleration due to gravity. This was achieved

through the use of graphical analysis. To start off, gather all of the necessary materials (These

include all of the materials listed above) and place them upon the lab table. Then, Attach the

ticker machine to the stand, clamped to lab table. Clamping to the device to the lab table will

secure from falling over.

In order to determine the acceleration due to gravity, attach the 1 meter of ticker tape to

either the golf ball or the bouncy ball. Use masking tape or scotch tape to connect the ticker tape

to the freely falling body. After, take the piece of ticker tape and run it all the way through the top

of the ticker machine. Make sure that the ticker tape is under the carbon disk, so the dots are

visible to see. Once this is done, turn on the ticker machine and at the same time release the

object you have attached to the ticker tape. This will allow the weight to drop freely and ticker to

mark the tape.

 After the experiment is performed, turn off the machine and analyze the data recorded on

the ticker tape. Draw vertical line through the dot at the beginning of the tape. In addition, circle

every third dot and number the circled consecutively. Using every third dot -- will give us a

computer friendly 1/20th of a second (1/20th = 0.05). Finally, measure and record the position (in

cm) of each numbered dot on the stick. You will have to repeat this process three times for each

ball and record your data. Make sure that all of your data was recorded properly and put away all

lab materials.

Computation:

Bouncy Ball Trail I: 94.7grams

Point Number Distance (cm)

1 0.5
2 1
3 6.7
4 8.2
5 8.7
6 11.6
7 13
8 14.9
9 17.2

Pair Number Distance (cm) Average Velocity (cm/s) Time(s) = Average Velocity/ Gravity
1-2 0.5 10 0.0102
2-3 5.7 114 0.1163
3-4 1.5 30 0.0306
4-5 0.5 10 0.0102
5-6 2.9 58 0.0592
6-7 1.4 28 0.0286
7-8 1.9 38 0.0388
8-9 2.3 26 0.0265
 Bouncy Ball Trail II

Point Number Distance (cm)

1 0.2
2 0.3
3 0.5
4 0.6
 5 0.8
6 2
7 3.8
8 5.4
9 7.8
10 10
11 12.5
12 14.1
13 16.1

Pair Number Distance (cm) Average Velocity (cm/s) Time(s) = Average Velocity/ Gravity
1-2 0.1 2 0.00204
2-3 0.2 4 0.00408
3-4 0.1 2 0.00204
4-5 0.2 4 0.00408
5-6 1.2 24 0.02449
6-7 1.8 36 0.03673
7-8 1.6 32 0.03265
8-9 2.4 48 0.04898
9-10 2.2 44 0.0449
10-11 2.5 50 0.05102
11-12 1.6 32 0.03265
12-13 2 40 0.04082
Bouncy Ball Trail III
Point Number Distance (cm)
1 0.6
2 3.1
3 4.5
4 9.4
5 9.9
6 11.7
7 14.5
8 16.2
9 18.5

Pair Number Distance (cm) Average Velocity (cm/s) Time(s) = Average Velocity/ Gravity
1-2 2.5 50 0.05102
2-3 1.4 28 0.02857
3-4 4.9 98 0.1
4-5 0.5 10 0.0102
5-6 1.8 36 0.03673
6-7 2.8 56 0.05714
7-8 1.7 34 0.03469
8-9 2.3 46 0.04694
Golf Ball Trail I: 47.8 grams
Point Number Distance (cm)
1 1
2 2.3
3 4.5
4 6.5
5 8.5
6 14.3
7 14.5
8 14.7
9 15.7

Pair Number Distance (cm) Average Velocity (cm/s) Time(s) = Average Velocity/ Gravity
1-2 1.3 26 0.02653
2-3 2.2 44 0.0449
3-4 2 40 0.04082
4-5 2 40 0.04082
5-6 5.8 116 0.11837
6-7 0.2 4 0.00408
7-8 0.2 4 0.00408
8-9 1 20 0.02041
Golf Ball Trail II
Point Number Distance (cm)
1 1
2 2.2
3 4.5
4 9.3
5 9.5
6 11.5
7 13
8 15
9 17

Pair Number Distance (cm) Average Velocity (cm/s) Time(s) = Average Velocity/ Gravity
1-2 1.2 24 0.02449
2-3 2.3 46 0.04694
3-4 4.8 96 0.09796
4-5 0.2 4 0.00408
5-6 2 40 0.04082
6-7 1.5 30 0.03061
7-8 2 40 0.04082
8-9 2 40 0.04082
Golf Ball Trail III
Point Number Distance (cm)
1 0.5
2 2.2
3 4
4 6
5 7.7
6 9.7
7 12
8 13.6
9 15.5
10 17.4

Pair Number Distance (cm) Average Velocity (cm/s) Time(s) = Average Velocity/ Gravity
1-2 1.7 34 0.03469
2-3 1.8 36 0.03673
3-4 2 40 0.04082
4-5 1.7 34 0.03469
5-6 2 40 0.04082
6-7 2.3 46 0.04694
7-8 1.6 32 0.03265
8-9 1.9 38 0.03878
9-10 1.9 38 0.03878
Equation:
 Velocity =Distance between dotsTime
av

Gravity= acceleration due to gravity

= 9.8 ms2
= 980cms2
Time =Velocity 980cms2
av

Distance = D - D2 1

Absolute deviation x = True value - measured value = x - x o

absolute error = |x - x | true used

relative error = |(x - x )/x |

true used true

percent error = |(x - x )/x | * 100

true used true

Conclusion:

In this lab, we learned how to properly determine the acceleration due to gravity through

the use of graphical analysis. My lab partner and I measured the acceleration due to gravity by

timing two freely falling balls consisting different mass. The first freely falling ball, was a green

bouncy ball with the mass of 94.7 grams. The second freely falling ball, was a golf ball with the

mass of 47.8 grams. By using a ticker machine we calculated average velocity, time and distance

between time intervals.

Next, we created two graphs of falling motion from the data collected. In one graph,

Distance vs. Time, and another graph, Average Velocity vs. Time. In the Distance vs. Time graph,

the line of best fit represent the velocity and has an equation of a parabola (exponential = 2).

With this graph we need to calculate the correlation coefficient ( r) --gives us a numerical

measurement of the strength of the relationship between the explanatory and response variables.

The correlation coefficient also gives the direction of the association, which was positive for

each graph. The correlation coefficient of these graphs was in the 75 or higher percentile. This

meant that the data was not that off from the line of best fit. In the Average Velocity vs. Time, the

slope represented acceleration and has a straight trendline (linear). We discovered that when an

object falls under the influence of gravity, its velocity increases at a regular pace and the average

of this pace is known as gravity = 9.8ms2= 980cms2.

 Absolute error is the amount of physical error in a measurement, period. The absolute

value for Average Velocity vs. Time is 980cms2- 102E-3cms2 which was equivalent to

979.998cms2. When determining the relative error we divided the absolute error by its value of

measurement, 979.998cms2/ 980cms2=0 .999. Then, calculating the percent error by multiply

our relative error by 100, 100 * 0.99 = 99.9%. When discussing the reason of high error, we

came to a conclusion that a couple factors could have played in. One big factor being, we must

have skipped over dots that we could not see when counting. Another factor was, measuring the

distance of time intervals in centimeter. We states this because since we already know we mess

some dots, the distances between time intervals are longer.