PHY 2001 V.

Coronel

Experiment # 2: Acceleration in Free Fall

Object: To measure the acceleration of a particle on free-fall (i.e. neglecting air effects),
when released near the surface of the earth, and compare our measurement with the
accepted value of 980 cm/s2 or 9.80 m/s2 (Commonly referred as “g”).

Introduction: When an object is released or thrown vertically, up or down, near the

surface of the earth and the effects of air are negligible, the object follows a one-
dimensional motion with constant acceleration along a vertical line; near the surface of
the earth, this acceleration has a constant magnitude of 980 cm/s2 or 9.80 m/s2; this is
commonly known as the “acceleration of gravity” or simply g . To prove this, we will
measure the time it takes an object, released from rest, to fall a distance H . First, we will
make a rough measurement of the time it takes for an object to fall a known distance.
Using Audacity to record the exact moment when the object is released, as well as the
moment when it hits the ground, we will make a more accurate measurement of the
magnitude of this acceleration.

Procedure:

Part I: A rough measurement of ‘g’ the acceleration in free fall (Easier if a friend
assists you)

1. Using a meter stick, determine the location of a point that is 2.00 m above the floor in
room, call this H .
2. Practice releasing a ‘quarter’, a 25  coin, from 2.00 m above the ground, and
simultaneously, starting the stopwatch. When the coin hits the ground, you stop the
stopwatch. If you have a friend, he or she will release the coin and you will take care
of starting and stopping the stopwatch.
3. Do step 2 for a total of five times, find the average time for your five measurements,
tave.
4. Consider the origin of coordinates to be the location of the coin at the time stopwatch
is started, in other words the ceiling. We adopt the convention that points above the
origin have a negative y-value, and points below a positive y-value. We have that, for
t = 0, y = 0 , and for t = tave , y = H.
5. Using the equation for motion with constant acceleration, y = v0t + ½ a t2ave (1)
since v0 = 0 (object was released) , we get a = 2H/ t2ave . Calculate this
acceleration “a” and find its percent error with g = 9.80 m/s2 [ Note: Recall that
% error = ( | a – g | / g ) 100 ]. Don’t be alarmed if the % error is quite large.

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Question 1. For Part I, what is the largest source of error in the measurement of the
acceleration ?,

Part II: A more precise measurement of g.

Here we will measure the time of fall with greater accuracy. For this purpose we will use
Audacity, the software that allows us to record sounds in the audible range; the default
value for sampling is 44.1 kHz ( time between samples is about 22 s, microseconds ),
recording and play levels can be adjusted but I found them appropriate for my trials at
home (I am assuming a quiet environment).

6. Practice by recording a tapping sound, the clicking sound that you can make by
touching your palate with your tongue and releasing it (you can listen to this sound at
2’:50” to 3’:05” of this song ). Your Audacity screen, when you do the tapping sound
may look like Fig. 1 below, which shows bursts of decaying exponentials. This will be
similar to the screen when you hit the object, the first burst corresponding to your tongue
tapping palate for the first time, second burst is second tapping, etc.

Fig. 1.- Screen of Audacity recording of tapping sounds of tongue on upper palate.

7. The object that you are to drop should be six nickels glued one on top of the other
making a small cylinder.

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8. Place the small cylinder with the round surface of cylinder in contact with and at the
edge of a flat surface (a desk, dinner table, that is a distance H ( suggested values in the
range 0.60 m to 1.50 m ) from the floor (floor with no carpeting ,surface of floor can be
wood, metal, ceramic, hard plastic) so the sound of cylinder hitting the floor is clearly
heard.
9. Using Audacity, start to record the sound that you are about to produce as you hit the
object and as it hits the floor. Use a hard stick or bar (the flat part of a screwdriver, edge
of plastic ruler, metal part of flat knife, …) to hit the object at the edge of table and, after
object hits the floor, stop recording.

10. In Audacity your screen will look like Fig. 2 below. The beginning of the first burst
corresponds to the cylinder being hit and the start of dropping (actually the dropping
starts a few milliseconds later). The start of the second burst corresponds to the cylinder
hitting the floor, the rest are just bounces of cylinder on floor and should be ignored.

Fig. 2 .- Audacity recording of cylinder fall.

11. Enlargement of the Audacity portion of interest and marking of times of interest, see
Fig. 3, will allow you to measure the time of fall, t . You can now calculate the
experimental value for the acceleration of gravity, gexp .

gexp = 2 H / ( t2 )

Find the error for your measurement if the accepted value for the acceleration of gravity
near surface of earth, gacc is 9.80 m/s2

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12. Repeat steps 7 to 11 for the same cylinder, six pennies, but this time you hit it harder;
making the object travel a larger horizontal distance.

Question 2. Does the time to fall from the same height depend on the horizontal distance
traveled? Briefly explain.

Fig. 3.- Selecting duration of fall. In this example, fall starts at 1.107 s , ends at 1.485 s. Time of fall is
0.378 s.

13. Repeat steps 7 to 12 for an object consisting of ten nickels.

Question 3.- Does the time of fall depend on the weight of the object? Briefly explain.

Question 4. Give two examples of falling objects that are not free fall.