Picket Fence Free Fall Lab

Objectives: Use LabQuests to produce position vs time & velocity vs time graphs of
an object in free fall, so that we can obtain measured values of acceleration due to
gravity and compare those to the accepted value
Purposes: to investigate position vs time graphs and velocity vs time graphs of an
object in free fall in an e!ort to gain a better understanding of how free fall is
depicted in graph form" to practice determining uncertainty in a measurement, and
computing percent uncertainty & percent error based on an accepted value
Source of Error:
#he e!ects of air resistance on the falling picket fence meant that its rate of
acceleration should not have been e$actly e%ual to the accepted value of g
#he LabQuest does not show &ero place holders after the decimal in its
measurements, so it can be di'cult to know the proper number of signi(cant
(gures a measurement is supposed to have