Lab 3- Gravity and Acceleration

Gryffin Jones
Mr. Pappas
E3 Civic High
September 21, 2017

Abstract
The purpose of this lab was to learn about acceleration through an experiment using gravity. By
finding that the average acceleration matches the pull of gravity, we will further understand the
concept of acceleration.

Introduction
The Earths gravity has an of acceleration of -9.8 meters per second. By getting on top of a
ladder and dropping a ball, recording the time as the ball passes 30 cm intervals (each rung of the
ladder is about 30 cm apart), calculating displacement over time (velocity), and velocity over
time (acceleration). After gathering the data, we took the average of all the acceleration values.

Data and Observations

Distance (m) Time (s) Velocity (m/s) Accel (m/s^2) Average Velocity Average Accel
0.0 0.00 0.00 0.00 -3.90 -9.72
-0.3 0.25 -1.20 -4.84
-0.6 0.32 -4.00 -37.27
-0.9 0.39 -4.55 -8.26
-1.2 0.51 -2.54 16.98
-1.5 0.57 -4.84 -37.04
-2.1 0.63 -9.37 -70.88
-2.4 0.70 -4.69 73.24
Analysis and Results
The ball was dropped from about 2 meters off the ground. Each rung of the ladder was about 30
cm apart, and we recorded John dropping the ball (we converted the centimeters to meters after
recording data). We put a stopwatch going by milliseconds in order to accurately record when
the ball passed each rung. We played the video in slow motion to even further record accurate
results. We found the velocity by taking the change in displacement over change in time and we
also found the acceleration by taking the change in velocity over the change in time. Earths
gravity has an acceleration of -9.8 meters per second. Our findings have shown that the average
acceleration of the ball falling was -9.72 meters per second, which is very close to the actual
acceleration of gravity.

Conclusion
One of the ways we could have improved the experiment was to take more accurate
measurements of the intervals because the 30 cm intervals were approximations and were hard to
see on the video. Another improvement to the experiment could be the position of where the
ladder was when we were recording because the ladder was against the light and the ball was
hard to see in the video. Acceleration proven through gravity is very important in the world
because its the force that keeps us on the ground.