Title Picket Fence Free Fall Name: Kelsey Phares Partners: Cassie Huye and Bailey MacMurdo Date:

September 12, 2012 Objective: To test and measure acceleration according to free fall of a free falling body to 0.5% precision of the known magnitude of g ~ 9.8 m/s2 Experimental Set-up - See labeled Figure 1 Preliminary Questions: 1. Inspect your Picket Fence. You will be dropping it through a Photogate to measure g. The distance, measured from one edge of a black band to the same edge of the next band, is 5.0cm. What additional information will you need to determine the average speed of the Picket Fence as it moves through the Photogate?
Photogat Ring stand

Flat elevated

One would need to determine the average amount of time it takes for the bands to be recorded by the photogate. Essentially, the amount of time it takes the picket fence to move over the given distance of 5 cm.

Figure 1

2. If an object is moving with constant acceleration, what is the shape of its velocity vs. time graph?

Velocity

Time

3.

Does the initial velocity of an object have anything to do with its acceleration? For example, compared to dropping an object, if you throw it downward would the acceleration be different after you released it?

The acceleration is not affected by the initial velocity. The initial velocity can affect the nal velocity or distance travelled, by acceleration is independent of velocity.

Data:
Acceleration of Photogate by Trial Trial Slope (m/s )
2

1 9.664

2 9.658

3 9.688

4 9.675

5 9.778

6 9.674

Average Acceleration of Photogate in Free Fall Minimum Acceleration (m/s2) 9.658 Maximum 9.778 Average 9.69

Precision of Determined Photogate in Free Fall Acceleration due to gravity, g Precision 9.8 m/s2

1.122% difference

Graphs:

Procedure: Briey summarize the procedure and answer any questions from the procedure section (labeled with the question number, in order and in complete sentences that give the essence of the question). 1. Fasten Photogate rigidly a ring stand so that is extends out over surface or oor which allows the Picket Fence fall completely through the arms without hitting another surface. Place a soft surface underneath Picket Fence in order to avoid damaging it. 2. Connect the Photogate to computer so that it may interact with Logger Pro. Open experiment le 05 Picket Fence in Logger Pro. Investigate how Photogate determines the difference between dark and light areas of Picket Fence by blocking Photogate with hand so that it reads blocked, and unblocked when hand it hand is removed because light produced from one arm may reach the sensor located directly across on the opposite arm. 3. Click collect to begin collecting data. Holding Picket Fence above and drop through the Photogate. 4. Using Logger Pro examine graphs that are created, determine the slope of a velocity vs. time graph to determine acceleration. Fit the line y = mt + b to the data. Record the slope in the data table. 5. To establish the reliability of your slope measurement, repeat Steps 5 and 6 ve more times. Do not use drops in which the Picket Fence hits or misses the Photogate. Record the slope values in the data table. Analysis: Briey discuss how the analysis is done. Include equations, sample calculations and answers to any questions from the analysis section of the lab instructions (labeled with the question number, in order and in complete sentences that give the essence of the question). 1. From trials determine the minimum, maximum, and average values (acceleration of each trial divided by number of trials) for the acceleration of the Picket Fence and record them. The average acceleration represents the best or average acceleration according to free fall of your trials. Compare this average to the known acceleration due to free fall, and determine the precision of the found acceleration. The precision can be determined by subtracted the actual from the theoretical and dividing by the theoretical. This decimal should be expressed as a percentage of acceleration. From there, compare the found acceleration to the theoretical acceleration and see if it falls within the generally Acceleration v. Time accepted values of g; if so, the experiment agrees with the accepted value. 2. The position vs. time graph for the free fall would look like a upward facing parabola; while 3. The shape of the velocity vs. time graph would be a linear graph, or a straight sloping line. The graph relates to the derivative or tangent of the position vs. time graph. 4. Because the velocity v. time graph is a linear graph, the acceleration v. time graph would be a non-zero straight line, as it is the graph of the derivative of the velocity v. time graph. 8. The slope of the velocity line gives the acceleration of the ball, therefore that value should be comparable to the found acceleration.

Additional Questions/Experiments 1. Use the distance vs. time graph and a parabolic t to determine g.

x = Vit +at2 Therefore, the A found by taking the parabolic t of distance vs. time graph is half of the value of g. A = 4.885 m/s2 g = 2(4.885 m/s2) g = 9.77 m/s2

2. Would dropping the Picket Fence from higher above the Photogate change any of the parameters you measured? Try it. 9.828 m/s2 was the found acceleration when dropping the Picket Fence from higher above the Photogate, so throwing it should not affect the parameters measured.

3. Would throwing the Picket Fence downward, but letting go before it enters the Photogate, change any of your measurements? How about throwing the Picket Fence upward? Try performing these experiments. 9.587 m/s2 was the found acceleration when the Picket Fence was thrust downward with an initial velocity, so throwing it should not affect the parameters measured. We were unable to do experiment when throwing Picket Fence upward, but it should not affect the acceleration either.

Conclusion: A free falling object is an object falls affected only by gravity. Therefore, objects that are in free fall do not encounter air resistance, or air resistance is negligible. The known acceleration of objects in free fall is 9.8 m/s/s or m/s2 downwards, towards the earth. The falling picket fence creates a sort of motion map of its fall where when the light shining from one photogate is able to reach the other, a dot would be plotted, and dots would not be plotted where the picket fence is darkened. The The equations for free fall are below:

where : y( t) is the change in height (displacement) of the object over a given time (in meters) g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s2) t is the time needed for the motion to occur V0 is the initial velocity in m/s y0 is the initial height above the origin (in meters) v is the vertical velocity with respect to time