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Lab Report 2

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6 views5 pages

Lab Report 2

Uploaded by

sfowler45
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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1

Fowler
Abstract

The purpose of this lab is to get student’s comfortable with measuring acceleration due to

gravity utilizing a given equation and a graph based upon the velocity. The measurements will be

calculated with Excel and by finding the slope from the velocity graph. This experiment verifies

the use of a kinematic equation in order to find an acceleration when already given the height

and the time-to-fall. This experiment also verifies the use of a tangent line and it’s slope in order

to find acceleration.

Description of Methods

Using a free fall adapter, Shae dropped a steel ball 30 cm from its holder five times. The

adapter measured the time-to-fall for each drop, in seconds. This was recorded into data Table 1.

The distance the ball fell, was converted into meters, and I calculated the acceleration due to

gravity for each fall using the kinematic equation: g=2H/T^2(squared). I took an average of

these numbers in order to get the average acceleration due to gravity. These calculations can be

found in Table 1. Finally using Excel, I found the standard deviation.

For the second part of the experiment, Lester dropped a steel ball from the free fall

adapter starting at 100cm. He decreased the height of the fall by 15 cm after each trial. The

adapter still measured the time to drop in seconds. This was recorded into Table 2. He

completed 7 trials, and I converted the distances from centimeters to meters. The final velocity

was measured using the height and time measured: average velocity= distance/time, final

velocity=2*(average velocity). These calculations can be found in Table 2.


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Fowler
Calculations

Table 1. The time spent for the steel ball to fall .30 meters.

TRIAL TIME(S ACCELERA


S EC) TION
(M/S^2)
1 0.3975 1.899
2 0.4007 1.868
3 0.4024 1.853
4 0.3859 2.014
5 0.3007 3.319
Distance the Ball fell: .3000 meters

Average acceleration: 4.386 m/s^2 (squared)

Standard deviation: 1.260

Sample attached.

Table 2. The time spent for the steel ball to fall at varying heights.

TRIAL DISTAN FINAL TIME


S CE (M) VELOCITY( (SEC)
M/S)
1 1.000 4.308 0.4643
2 .8500 5.472 0.3107
3 .7000 3.754 0.3729
4 .5500 3.296 0.3337
5 .4000 8.197 0.0976
6 .2500 2.208 0.3365
7 .1000 1.208 0.1655

Sample attached, and graphs below.


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Fowler

Figure 1. The Distance Vs. Time for the free-fall of the steel ball.

1.2

0.8
Distance (m)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0.4643 0.3107 0.3729 0.3337 0.0976 0.3365 0.1655
Time (sec)

distance (m)

Figure 2. The Final Velocity Vs. Time for the free-fall of the steel ball

6
Final Velocity

5 f(x) = − 0.406607142857143 x + 5.68971428571429


4

0
0.4643 0.3107 0.3729 0.3337 0.0976 0.3365 0.1655
Time (sec)
4
Fowler

Questions

1. What is the significance in the slope and y-intercept of the Final velocity v. Time graph?

There is no y-intercept. Y-int= 0. The significance of the slope is that is gives you the

acceleration. Slope= -58.139.

2. Are the graphs linear, parabolic or hyperbolic? A. vfinal vs time. B. Distance v. Time.

A. Hyperbolic

B. Linear.

3. Percent error of average acceleration?

When compared to the accepted value, the value is 5.414 below 9.8 m/s^2.

4. Percent error of slope?

When comparing it to the accepted value, this slope is -48.33 units below 9.8 m/s^2.

Exercise

Exercise attached.
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Fowler

Conclusion

In conclusion, the objective of this lab which was to get student’s comfortable with

measuring acceleration due to gravity utilizing a given equation and a graph based upon the

velocity was achieved. Through the use of free- fall adapters, kinematic equations, graphing

calculators and excel, we are able to calculate acceleration and velocity of the steel ball at any

point in time. One possible source of error could be the slope of the best fit line, I was given the

equation on Excel. Therefore, I calculated the actual slope on the Sample attached using two

points from this line. The slope was drastically below 9.8m/s^2, which is impossible. This error

could have come from the technology itself. In upcoming labs the group plans to utilize

kinematic equations in order to calculate the acceleration or the final velocity of any object. This

lab taught the group two different techniques to find the acceleration of an object in free-fall.

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