Free fall- Measuring the value of g

AIM
Examining the laws of free fall; determining the acceleration of gravity.
Theory
An object acted on by the earth gravity alone is said to be in free fall motion (Young &
Freedman, 2020) . The attraction force due to earth gravity is nearly constant near the earth
surface . This means, following Newton’s second law, that the motion of falling object is
uniformly accelerated. The Kinematics of such motion is simple (Giancoli, 2013). Because the
acceleration, say , is constant, the speed of the object increases linearly with time. A common
problem is to determine the velocity of an object after any elapsed time when we are given the
object’s constant acceleration. We can solve such problems by using the following equation 1.

v=v 0 +¿ (1)

Next, let us see how to calculate the position h of an object after a time when it undergoes
constant acceleration. The definition of average velocity is v=(h−h¿ ¿ 0) /t ¿, which we can
rewrite by multiplying both side by t:

h=h0 + v t (2)
Because the velocity increases at a uniform rate, the average velocity, will be midway between
the initial and final velocities:

v 0 +v
v= (3)
2

Careful, equation 3 is not necessarily valid if the acceleration is not constant (Serway & Jewett,
2010; Young & Freedman, 2020). Substituting for v in equation 2 we get:

h=h0 + v t

¿ h0 + ( v 2+ v )t
0

¿ h0 + ( v + v2 + g t ) t
0 0

1 2
h=h0 + v 0 t + g t (4)
2

Where v 0 is the speed of the object at t=0 . The distance covered by the object in a time t is
obtained by Equation 4.

When the initial speed is 0 and h 0=0 ,the drop height h is with g being the acceleration of gravity
and t is time of flight is given by equation 5.

gt2
h= (5)
2

When h is plotted as a function of t2 , the result is a straight line. From the slope, g can be found.
The mass of the ball doesn’t occur in the formula at all. This expresses that heavy and light
object fall equally fast in the gravitational field (as long as air drag can be ignored).
Materials
The following are the apparatus used in this experiment. Please make sure that the
apparatus listed here are equal to the ones on your workstation.
Apparatus Unit
Retort stand 1m
Digital time 1
Magnetic coil 1
Metal gate/Strike plate 1
 Connecting wire 4
Ruler 1m
Metal bob 1
Procedure

Working principle of the free fall

1. The setup has been arranged for you as shown below in the schematic diagram and make
sure the digital time is working on your work bench.
 Figure 1

2. Turn the digital timer on by using the power button on it to see if it is working.
3. Use the magnetize button on the timer to give the coil some magnet and and attach the
metal ball underneath. (There is a magnet).
4. Measure a height [h] (distance) between the magnetic coil and the metal plate as shown on
figure 1. The height is measured from the lowest point of the ball to the strike plate. For
determining the position of the bottom of the ball, aim horizontally from
the ball to the meter scale.

Figure 2
5. Demagnetize the coil and the ball falls off to the strike plate.
6. Record the time the metal bob takes to hit the metal plate.
7. The reset the digital clock to zero.
8. Repeat the experiment on each height for 5 more trials and record the results. Identify 3
trials which are close to each other and discard any typically large or small results.
9. Take the average of the three measurements which are close to each on each height
10. Repeat steps 3-9 for the distances shown in the table below.
Results
Table 1: Results of the measurements in a table,
Height Time t (s ) Average
 t 1(s) t 2 (s) t 3 (s) Time
t m (s )
20
30
40
50
70

For every drop height, calculate t2 ,plot the measuring points in a coordinate system with t2 along
the x axis and h along the y axis. Draw the straight line that best fits the dataset. Find the slope of
the line. Use Microsoft excel to plot your graph.
Discussion
Compare your results with a standard of g from literature . Try to explain a possible deviation.
Reference
Giancoli, D. (2013). Physics: Principles with Applications (7th edition). Pearson.
Serway, R. ., & Jewett, J. . (2010). Physics for Scientists and Engineers (8th Editio).
Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
Young, H. ., & Freedman, R. . (2020). University Physics with Modern Physics (15th Editi).
Pearson Education Inc.