OCT 2019

FREE
FALL
LAB
REPORT
Prepared by
Shaynisa Siriwongsilp
Sarisa Ovararint
Klao Kanittanon
Phimchanok Eakkaparksawat
Sirapat Suriyawanakul
1108
 contents
1. Introduction
2. Objective
3. Material
4. Set-up
5. Procedure
6. Data and results
7. Calculations
8. Analysis and results
9. Conclusion
10. Recommendation
11. Work log
12. Reference
FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

01:INTRODUCTION
When the resistance of air is ignored, an object
can freely fall and accelerates in constant rate
of gravity. This is called free falling. A free-
falling object accelerates at the rate of 9.8
meter per second square when moving towards
the ground, reaching its terminal velocity
(maximum speed). The value of gravity is
constant, meaning that no matter how heavy
the object is, it will always increase in this
number. Take the moon for an example, it is
considered a type of free fall as the moon itself
is being pulled by the gravitational force of
Earth. Skydiving and bungee jumping are also
another real-life example of this type of
falling.To further explain the case of free
falling, we will perform an experiment that
will mainly focus on how to calculate the
distance as well as instantaneous velocity of
heavy and light objects when dropped from the
fourth floor.
FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

02:OBJECTIVES
As physics students, we acknowledge the significance of
applying the lessons we learned into situations in real life.
We realize that studying only about the laws and equations
are not as effective as experimenting them on our own. By
conducting the experiment, we will be able to better
understand the concept of free fall and thus calculate the
results appropriately. This experiment will prove whether or
not the objects react differently despite the differences in
their mass.

03:MATERIALS
Measuring tape
Timer x 3 
Tennis ball x 3
Ping pong ball x 3
Worksheet
pen/pencil
FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

04:SET-UP
In this experiment, we set up the experiment
by preparing 6 balls (3 tennis balls and 3 ping
pong balls), measuring tape, 2 stopwatches,
worksheet and pen.We divided the roles to
each member. Three people stood by at the
fourth floor to drop the balls, to take notes
and to measure the height. Other two people
would station at the second floor to record
the time when the balls hit the ground.

05:PROCEDURES
Firstly we seperate each other into two different groups.
Group A would be the one who stands by at the second
floor which have the role of recording the time taken for
each fall and also incharge of sending signals for both
time and height measurement. Group B on the fourth floor
with a measuring tape, tennis ball and ping pong ball
with the role of recording and measuring the distance
measurement and free falling the balls.
We assigned each person with their own specific roles in
order to make the process more efficient and professional.
FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

The first action we took is to measure the height starting

from the banister down straight on to the floor of the
second floor by using measuring tape and pulls it down
until the tip of the tape touches the floor knowing by
receiving the signals from group A. Then group B would
read and record the results onto their given worksheet. 
One of group’s B members will then hold the ping pong ball
which is the lightest ball on the point where we read out
the height measurement then started to drop the ping pong
ball down after signalling to the group A member with the
stopwatch to start timing. Dropping the ball without putting
any force on it. When the ball touches the floor one of the
members in group A would stop the watch then read out the
measurement allowing the other member to write down the
result. The ping pong balls were dropped down two more
times with the exact same procedure mentioned in order to
find out the average of the fall. 
Secondly, the same procedure will be repeated but with the
use of tennis ball instead, which is the heaviest ball in the
experiment. Group B’s member will hold on to the ball on
the point height measurements were read out and send
signal to the person with stop stopwatch in group A to start
timing. The ball will be drop down without  being thrown or
pushed down so that there wouldn’t have much of an error
in an experiment for the free fall. 
When the ball touches the ground, person who times will
stop the watch and ready out the result in order to let
another member in group A jot down the result. This
procedure will then be repeated two more times which adds
up as a total of three per each type of ball. This is to ensure
about the measurement by gathering up all the results and
calculate the average of the fall for each ball type.
FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

06:DATA & RESULTS

A. Height of 4th floor balcony using heavy objectMeasured
height = 9 meters

B.Height of 4th floor balcony using light objectMeasured

height = 9 meters
FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

07:CALCULATIONS
A. Tennis Ball

B. Ping pong ball

FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

C. The instantaneous velocity (V) from both objects

FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

08:ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
According to the data above we recorded heavy object
(tennis ball) and light object (ping pong ball) by drop the
ball from the 4th floor. The average time taken for heavy
object is 1.4 seconds and light object is 1.35 seconds. The
distance of heavy object and a light object is 9.94meters and
11.87meters respectively. The difference between heavy and
light objects is 28.87% and 26.55%. According to the result,
heavy objects take more time to hit the ground than light
objects. Some of the errors are timing and air resistance.
However, both objects will fall at the same time if we don’t
have any errors, causing them to have the same
instantaneous velocity and rate of average.
FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

09:CONCLUSIONS
This experiment’s objective is to
investigate and understand the concept
of how free fall work. According to the
experiment and the result we received, it
could be concluded that the mass of an
object does not create a change in the
velocity of each fall of any object. The
object will have the same velocity when
falling from the same height and is free
fall. This is due to the earth gravity that
acted on it when air resistance does not
come into consideration. Though results
may have some errors due to a miss in
accuracy and human errors causing a
slight change in measurement and time.

10:RECOMMENDATIONS
According to the experiment, this activity allowed us to see
the picture of how acceleration and gravity work. We also
knew how to calculate acceleration by using data that we
collected by ourselves. In the measurement session, we used
measurement tape to measure the height from the balcony of
the fourth floor to the ground of the second floor. The
measurement tape can affect the precision of the data
because it was hard to measure the height in accurate angle
and position. If we had a chance to improve this experiment,
we would measure by using more accurate material in order
to improve accuracy of the results.
FREE-FALLING LAB REPORT

11:WORK LOG
introduction
Objective
Shaynisa
Material
Work log

Set up
Klao
Recommendation

Procedure
Phimchanok
Conclusion
Reference

Data and results

Sarisa & Sirapat
Calculations
Analysis of results

12:REFERENCES
Stadsvold, J. (2017, April 20). What is Free Fall? A Quick
Lesson in Physics. Retrieved from
https://headrushtech.com/blogs/what-is-free-fall/.
Britannica, T. E. of E. (n.d.). Free-fall. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/science/free-fall-physics.
Freefall review. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-physics-1/ap-
one-dimensional-motion/falling-objects-ap-
physics/a/freefall-ap1.