GENERAL PHYSICS LAB REPORT
FREE
FALL
PORAMIN
BOONSITA
KANOKNOP
GENERAL PHYSICS 1102
MS. SUSANA
INTRODUCTION
The movement always happens in our life. When any object
moves means there must be a force or forces acted on it.
According to Newton’s first law, an object with no force acting
on it will remain at rest. The movement can be called as motion
in physics. Motion means action that make an object change its
position. It can be only small movement such as blinking an eye
still the movement does happen and does change in position
then it is counted to be a motion. The position can be change in
several ways including straight line, a circle, and back/forth
vibration. An object that change position in a straight line is
considered as linear motion. Linear motion that has a constant
velocity is defined as uniform linear motion whereas when the
object that undergoes an acceleration is defined as non-uniform
linear motion. Linear motion can move either vertically or
horizontally. The example of horizontal linear motion would be
driving a car forward or backward. The example of vertical
linear motion would be tossing a ball upward or letting a ball
fall downward to the ground which are also known as free fall.
Free fall is a motion that has only one force acting on it which
is an earth’s gravity. Therefore, if it includes air resistance, then
it is not free fall. Because of the gravity, free fall has a constant
increasing of velocity a.k.a. constant acceleration. The generally
accepted value of gravity acceleration is 9.8 m/. In addition,
Galileo has determined that a mass of an object doesn’t affect
how fast it will fall and hit the ground.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this experiment is to indicate
and to differentiate the free fall acceleration
between golf balls and basketball balls.
METERIALS
3 basketball 3 golf balls
balls (light objects)
(heavy objects)
Timer Measuring tape
SET-UP AND PROCEDURE
1. Prepare all the materials including 3 basketballs,
3 golf balls, 3 timers and a measuring tape.
2. Measured the height from the releasing point to the
ground by using the measuring tape, then record the
results.
3. One of the member will release the object, either the
basketball or the golf-ball, one at the time.
4. Three of us will time the interval of the object from
the start, which is when it’s released, until the object hit
the ground.
5. Then collect data.
6. Repeat step 2-4 until we have all the results.
(To be precise, each of our member will release
1 basketball and 1 golf-ball, so that we can compare the
results.)
7. Calculate the average time, distance, percentage
differences and instantaneous velocity
ANALYSIS
According to the data that we got from the
experiment, the percentage difference between
the real measurement of the 4th floor measured
using the measuring tape and the height
measured by basketball is 7.55%. While the
percentage difference between the height of 4th
floor measured by the measuring tape and a golf
ball is 16.26%. We can analyse that measuring the
height of the 4th floor using a heavy object,
basketball is more accurate compare to the light
object, golf ball. Moreover, the velocity of both
objects during 1.212 second is approximately 12.12
m/s. The velocity of both the basketballs and golf
balls when it hits the ground at 1.714 second is
about 17.14 m/s.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, the instantaneous
velocity of both objects in the
same time has the same velocity
as shown in the report. So the
mass doesn’t affect the velocity
of the object.
RECOMMENDATION
After doing this experiment,
We have experienced that there
might be human errors while
doing experiments. Such as each
of us might drop the objects in
somewhat different length, also
pressing the timer in a slightly
different time.
REFERENCES
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the spectrum of mechanics[Online] / auth. The Physics
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https://physics.info/motion/.
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https://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/physics/vectors-and-
scalars-and-linear-motion/revise-it/the-basics-of-linear-
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What is Free Fall? A Quick Lesson in Physics[Online] /
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is-free-fall/.
What is linear motion?[Online] / auth. Runia KJ // Quora.
- Quora.com, 4 4, 2018. - 10 5, 2018. -
https://www.quora.com/What-is-linear-motion.
WORK-LOG
