FREE FALL LAB REPORT
Free fall
lab
report
BY
KRITSANAWIT BOONKERD
PHUTTINAN CHANTAPRAM
PRAPASSORN JAMPRASERT
YANIN GASEMSIN
1101
GENERAL PHYSICS 11
FREE FALL LAB REPORT
Introduction
This report will
discuss an experiment which
studies free fall. Freefall is
the motion of an object when
only significant gravity force
acting on it. The objective of
this experiment is to test the
free fall by dropping 3
basketballs and 3 golf balls
from the fourth floor of the
school building to test the
concept and measure the
time when it hits the first
floor in seconds for
calculating acceleration that
relates to free fall theory.
Objective
As freefall is the
motion of an object when the
gravity is the only force
acting on them, in this
experiment, we want to know
that the different masses will
effect to the falling velocity
or not.
FREE FALL LAB REPORT
Materials
(ONLINE WEB FONTS, 2018) (FLATICON, 2017)
3 GOLF BALLS 3 FUTSAL BALLS
(ICON-ICONS, 2016) (ICONSCOUT, 2018)
3 TIMERS MEASURING TAPE
(SIMPLE ICON, 2015) (PNGTREE, 2018)
PEN OR PENCIL WORKSHEET
FREE FALL LAB REPORT
set up
FREE FALL LAB REPORT
Procedure
ROLES :
- timer A - timer B
- timer C - ball collector
PROCESS :
1. Timer C drop measuring
tape to floor 1 to measure the
height of the building with
support from ball collector
who is waiting downstairs
and note the height in the
worksheet
2.All timers prepare to record
the time
3. Timer A drop the
basketball and give a signal
to start time recording to
timer B and C until the ball
hit the ground
4.Repeat these for 3 times
5. Then change the objects
from basketball to golf ball
in step 3 and repeat these for
3 times
6. Ball collector take the
balls back to the lab
FREE FALL LAB REPORT
analysis
From the data collected and the result, both
heavy and light objects result in very close results. For
the heavy objects, the average time was 1.845 seconds,
the average distance calculated is 17.06 meters, and the
percentage difference from the real value was 14.21%.
For the light object, the average time was 1.797 seconds,
the average distance calculated is 16.15 meters, and the
percentage difference from the real value was 9.14%.
We can see that the result of the light object is
more accurate compared to the real height of the
building. As the heavy objects have more surface area,
the air resistance of the heavy objects is higher which
result in which the heavier objects' result is farther from
the real value than the light objects'. In addition, our
time taking is not very accurate because we are at the
top of the building, so hearing the sound of the
dropped objects might be inexact. That may also affect
our results. If there is no air resistance and no error in
our measurement, the objects would fall at the exact
same velocity and acceleration.
According to Galileo's experiment in 1589, it is
stated that objects of different mass fall at the same
rate. Therefore, the velocities of the objects should be
the same, so we calculated the velocity using the
measured height. Using the measured height which is
14.72 meter, both heavy and light objects have the same
instantaneous and average velocity.
FREE FALL LAB REPORT
Conclusion
From the experiment, we can conclude that
objects with different masses fall at the same rate of
velocity according to the gravity when the air resistance
is negligible. The slight differences in the experiment
are due to human errors which are parallax and inexact
measurement of time and height.
recommendation
In this experiment, the errors including the accuracy in
time and height measurement are created by us are mainly
created by us. Next time, we should be more accurate in
measuring the height by measuring it two or three times to
be sure that our measurement is accurate, so we can be sure
that we can use the data to calculate the velocity.
For time taking, we should be more accurate when we
start and stop the time. Because only one person is dropping
the object each time, so others might not be as accurate as
the person who released the object. Also, when the ball drops
to the ground, we did not know exactly when it hits the
ground. We just listened to the sound because we cannot see
the object clearly when we standing vertically with the
object. For improvement, there should be one or more people
at the ground so that they can give us a signal that the object
hits the ground.
Lastly, if possible, we should use the object with
different mass but the same surface area, so that the air
resistance would be negligible. Therefore, it would not affect
our calculations and experiment.
F R E EF R
FAEL
ELFLAALB
L R
LAEB
P ORRETP O R T
FREE FALL LAB REPORT
