PHYSICS 7320 Experiment 1

Ticker Tape Tomatoes Free-Fall Acceleration Lab

Physics 7320 Section 4

TICKER TAPE TOMATOES FREE-FALL

ACCELERATION LAB
Aiden Brewer
Adam Stasko, Ryan Sieber
September 6, 2016
Mr. Voelker
Abstract
The purpose of this experiment is to calculate the acceleration due to gravity of a free falling
object. The acceleration was calculated by determining the rate of change of velocity with
respect to time. The experiment used a tomato as the free-falling object, and a high-speed
recording timer to determine the velocity of the tomato as it fell. The calculated average
acceleration from this experiment was 7.59m/s2, which is 23% lower than the actual value of
9.81m/s2. The difference is attributed to the error in the experimental setup and manual timing
methods.

1.0 Introduction:
The intent of this laboratory was to measure speed and acceleration of a falling object (a tomato
in this case) due to gravity. The tomato was attached to ticker tape and was dropped to the floor.
The distance travelled, time to reach the floor, and change in velocity over this time were
calculated based on the data collected from the experiment.
2.0 Background & Theory:
The motion of an object starting from rest and undergoing constant acceleration can be expressed
as:
d=at
where d is the distance the object has traveled from its starting point, a is the acceleration of the
object, and t is the time elapsed since the motion began.
Rearranging the above equation, the acceleration is equal to the following equation:
a=2d/t

In this experiment, the acceleration is a constant value due to gravity, and does not vary by mass,
size, or other properties of the object in free fall.
3.0 Experiment:
In this experiment, the time of travel and distance traveled was measured for a tomato in free fall
and subjected to the force of gravity. The apparatus shown in Figure 1 was used to measure the

distance travelled. A stopwatch was used to record the time that the tomato was in free fall.
Additionally, the frequency of timer was calculated. The equation for frequency is:
Frequency = cycles/time
By calculating the frequency of the timer, in units of dots per second, the time travelled during
the tomatoes free fall can be calculated. This frequency will be used to calculate both velocity
and acceleration.

4.0 Results:
The raw data from the measurements of the experiment are in Data Tables 1 and 2 as follows:
Data Table 1

Trial
1
2
3

Distance (m)
A-B
0.0062
0.003
0.0025

Distance (m)
C-D
0.0144
0.0136
0.0145

Distance (m)
E-F
0.0289
0.0269
0.0284

Distance (m)
G-H
0.0355
0.0406
0.0406

Data Table 2
Trial
1
2
3

Time (s)
3
3
3

Number of Dots
151
152
156

Data Table 3 (answers questions a and b from packet)

Period 1
Period 2
Period 3

50.3
50.7
52.0

dots/sec
dots/sec
dots/sec

Average frequency (Hz) (dots/sec)

51.0

Data Table 4 (answers question 1 from packet)

Trial

Vavg
(m/s)

Vavg
(m/s)

Vavg
(m/s)

Vavg
(m/s)

1
2
3

A-B
0.32
0.15
0.13

C-D
0.73
0.69
0.74

E-F
1.47
1.37
1.45

G-H
1.81
2.07
2.07

Data Table 5 (answers question 2 from packet)

Trial
1
2
3

aavg
(m/s2)

aavg
(m/s2)

aavg
(m/s2)

aavg
(m/s2)

A-B

C-D
5.33
6.89
7.80

E-F
9.43
8.65
9.04

G-H
4.29
8.91
7.93

Graphs (answers question 3 from packet)

Data Table 6 (answers question 4 from packet)

Trial
1
2
3
Averag
e

aavg
(m/s2)

aavg
(m/s2)

aavg
(m/s2)

aavg
(m/s2)

A-B

C-D
5.33
6.89
7.80

E-F
9.43
8.65
9.04

G-H
4.29
8.91
7.93

7.59

5.0 Discussion of Results:

Based on the frequency in dots/second, and the distance measured between the same number of
dots for distances A B, C D, E F, and G H, the velocity between these points along the
tape can be calculated. The change in velocity during the free fall of the tomato, as calculated by
the change in distance over time squared, is the resulting acceleration.
As can be seen from Data Table 6, the average calculated acceleration from the experiment was
7.59m/s2. The accepted value for acceleration is 9.81m/s2 from literature. The absolute error of
the calculated value is as follow:
AE = ABS(experimental accepted) = ABS(7.59-9.81)m/s2 = 2.22m/s2
The relative error of the results can be calculated as follows:
RE = ABS((experimental-accepted)/accepted) = 0.226 x 100 = 22.6% error
Acceleration due to gravity acts as a constant on any objective, irrespective of mass. Therefore,
a 1000kg mass would take the same amount of time to fall to the floor if dropped from the same
height as the tomatoes in this experiment (approximately 0.35s).
The slope of the velocity vs. time graphs in the Data Results section above are 5.3, 6.6, and 6.7
m/s2 for Trial 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The average value for these three slopes is 6.2m/s2. The
slope of the velocity vs. time graph is in the units of m/s2, which is also acceleration. These
values are lower than the calculated average acceleration of 7.59m/s2 from Data Table 6.