Rentech Free Fall Experiment

FREE FALL EXPERIMENT

(Determination of Acceleration due to Gravity)

Student’s Guide

Laboratory Manual and Workbook

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(2014)
Rentech Free Fall Experiment

List of Equipment

Description Quantity

1. Free-Fall Apparatus 1

1.1. Photogates 2

1.2. Spherical Masses with Different Radius 3

1.3. Magnet Holder (Ball Release Mechanism) 1

1.4. Display Screen 1

1.5. Ball Catcher 1

2. Connection Cables 1 set

2.1. Power Cable for 12V (DC) 1

2.2. Magnet Holder Cables 2

2.3. Photogate Cables 2

3. Instructional Manuals (Teacher and Student Guides) 2

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Rentech Free Fall Experiment

Contents

1. Purpose .............................................................................. 4

2. Freely Falling Objects ................................................................... 4

3. Experimental Set-up ................................................................... 8

4. Experimental Procedures ................................................................. 9

5. Laboratory Report ...................................................................... 10

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Rentech Free Fall Experiment

1. Purpose

The objectives of this experiment are;

1. To study the motion of freely falling objects,

2. To determine the acceleration (g) due to gravity by using

the motion of a freely falling object.

2. Freely Falling Objects

Free fall is a case of motion with constant acceleration

and the most common example of motion with constant
acceleration is an object falling under the influence of
the gravity. We call this acceleration the acceleration
due to gravity on the surface of the Earth and we
denote its magnitude with the symbol “g”. Its
magnitude is approximately:

g  9.80m / s 2 (at surface of Earth) (1)

Figure-1: The falling time and distance of fall for an object
falling freely under the influence of gravity. The ball falls from
Acceleration due to gravity is a vector as is any acceleration
rest so its initial velocity is zero.
and its direction is downward, toward the center of Earth. If
we express velocity in meters per second (m/s), then we can
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write the unit for acceleration as m/s . In the vertical direction, the constant acceleration ( ) is
the acceleration due to gravity g. Hence, the
If an object moves in a straight line with constant
distance that the object falls in a time is given by:
acceleration, the position ( ) are related to the
acceleration ( ), the elapsed time ( ), the initial position 1 2
y  y 0  v0 t  gt (3)
( ) and the initial velocity ( ) by; 2

1 2 where,
x  x0  v0 t  at (2)
y:
2 The distance that the object falls in a time ,
y0 : Initial vertical position of the object,
v0 : Initial velocity.
When dealing with freely falling objects, we can make
use of the Equation-(2) where for we use the value
of g given above. Also, since the motion is vertical we When any object is dropped from rest ( ) and
can substitute in place of and in place of . We from an initial position at the initial time ( ), then,
take =0 ( as positive downward) unless otherwise the acceleration (g) due to gravity can be
specified. experimentally determined by measuring the time of
fall ( ) of the object from a constant height
“ ” as seen in the Figure-(1).

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Rentech Free Fall Experiment

The motion of freely falling objects is one dimensional

Figure-2: A ball freely falling from rest. The distance
fall is chosen to be positive in the downward direction.
motion with constant acceleration (g) if the air
resistance can be ignored. An object falling freely
(neglecting air resistance) will have a constant
acceleration of g due to gravity; therefore, as the object
falls, its velocity increases at a constant rate. Just as
velocity describes the rate of change of position with
time, acceleration describes the rate of change of
velocity with time. The velocity of an object falling
through the air does not increase indefinitely. If the
object falls far enough, it will reach a maximum velocity
of called thermal velocity due to the air resistance.
If we refer back to the Equation-(4), we can see that

Figure-(2) shows a ball freely falling from rest. If the the coefficient of is ( ⁄ )g, in other words, when is

object is dropped from rest ( at ) and plotted against , one would expect a straight line with

from the origin ( ) so that the positive a slope of “( ⁄ )g”. It means that, we can obtain the

direction is chosen to be downward (that is, the acceleration (g) experimentally by varying the distance

distance increases as the object falls) and of fall (height, ), recording the corresponding falling

g , then the Equation-(3) becomes: times ( ) and then plotting against graph. This
graph can be expressed as a linear function:

1 2 y  Ax (6)
y gt (Experimental) (4)
2
where,

y: The distance that the object falls in a time ,

This is the position, of a free-falling object dropped A: ⁄ g,
from rest after an elapsed time, when it undergoes x: Square of the fall time ( ).
constant acceleration. Remember that the constant
acceleration of a freely falling object is called the
It is obvious that if one plots the Fall Distance ( ) on
acceleration (g) due to gravity.
the -axis, as a function of Square of the Fall Time ( )

If the acceleration is constant, then the distance ( ) on the -axis, one obtains a straight line graph. The

the object falls will be proportional to the square of the slope (A) of this graph represents:

elapsed time ( ). This means that if one measures the

distance of fall ( ) and time of fall ( ) of the free 1
A g (Slope) (7)
fall for any object, then the acceleration due to gravity 2
can be easily calculated by the Equation-(4). If we
solve Equation-(4) for the acceleration (g) due to
gravity, then we obtain: As provided in the Equation-(7), we can find the acceleration
due to gravity experimentally by multiplying the slope by “2”.
Note that the accepted value of the acceleration due to
2y gravity (g
g 2 (Experimental) (5)
) varies slightly with location, but these
t variations are so small that we ignore them for the purposes of
this experiment.

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Rentech Free Fall Experiment

It is noticed that the acceleration ( ) in the Figure-(3c)

is constant (that is, it does not depend on time), which
requires that the velocity, in Figure-(3b) have a
constant slope.

If the acceleration of the object is constant (a

horizontal straight line because =constant) then we
see a linear plot of velocity ( ) versus time ( ). The
slope of the plot is the value of the acceleration while
the intercept represents the velocity of the object at
(a) time =0.

(b)

(c)

Figure-3: The position of an object moving with

constant acceleration (a), its velocity (b) and its constant
acceleration (c) which is equal to the slope of the
graph.

For an object moving with constant acceleration, the

graphs of the position, velocity (the rate at which its
displacement changes with time) and acceleration (the
rate at which the velocity changes) are given in the
Figure-(3). A position-time ( ) graph is always a
parabola as shown in the Figure-(3a).

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Rentech Free Fall Experiment

Figure-(4a) shows an example of the measured

relationship between the height of fall (the falling
distance) and the fall time. The distance is not
linearly proportional to the time taken to fall that
distance. The graph is a parabola for the motion
with constant acceleration.

An example of the distance plotted against the square

of time that the object takes to fall that distance , is
given in the Figure-(4b). As seen in this graph,
the distance of fall starting from rest is proportional to
the square of the time. Since the object is not moving
before it starts to fall at time =0 its initial position is
(a)
zero.

In this experiment;

1. You will carefully measure the time it takes a free

falling object to fall a known distance in order to
determine the acceleration due to gravity on the
surface of the Earth.

2. Using the data you obtained from the lab, you will also
verify that the height (falling distance) is directly
proportional to the square of time. By varying the
distance the ball falls (displacement), different
falling times can be recorded to calculate the
(b) acceleration . Starting with a minimum height of fall
(for example, with ), the fall distance is
increased step by step by the same interval of
and the corresponding fall times are measured. In this
Figure-4: Height of fall, as a function of the falling time, way, the distance of fall (drop height) can be

for the free fall (a) and the falling distance plotted against the represented as a function of the square of time.

square of the falling time (b). Then, you can calculate the acceleration due to
gravity because the slope is equal to ⁄
according to Equation-(4).
In the case of freely falling objects, the acceleration
of an object in free fall is always “downward”. It
means that the motion is vertical, so we should use a
vertical coordinate axis and call the coordinate
instead of . Then, we replace the position in the
constant acceleration equations by the “distance” of
fall . We take the origin at the starting point and as
positive downward. The initial coordinate and the
initial velocity are both zero.

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Rentech Free Fall Experiment

3. Experimental Set-up

Figure-5: The schematic representation of the experimental set-up with connection cables.

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Rentech Free Fall Experiment

3.4. Record also these measurements of the falling

4. Experimental Procedures
times as and .

3.5. Do not use drops in which the spherical ball hits

1. Connect the free fall apparatus as shown in the the sides of the photogates as it falls.
Figure-(5).
3.6. Obtain the average value of the falling time
1.1. In the experiment, to measure the fall time ( ) of a measurements and record it as in the
spherical ball from a constant height ( ), a experimental data table. This will give the
photogate system will be used. experimental falling time ( ) for the constant
distance, .
1.2. The mass (spherical ball) must be able to fall
freely through the both two Photogates.
4. By using the experimental value of the falling time ( )

1.3. Precisely adjust the falling distance (height) and the falling distance in the Equation-(5),
between Photogate-1 and Photogate-2 as: find the experimental acceleration due to gravity.
Record this experimental acceleration as g’ in data
Table-(1).

2. Attach one of the spherical mass to the magnet 5. Compare the experimental acceleration due to
holder above the Photogate-1. gravity (g’) with the accepted (theoretical) value
of (g ).
2.1. Press the magnet button for the spherical mass to
fall freely through the two photogates.
5.1. Determine the difference between experimental
and theoretical accelerations due to gravity as:
2.2. Practice dropping the ball a few times before
taking data. g  g  g 

2.3. Be careful when releasing the mass. The

spherical ball must be able to fall freely through 5.2. Calculate and record the percent error in the

the both photogates and remain vertical during the data Table-(2). The percent error can be

fall. calculated as:

2.4. Record the mass as in the data Table-(1).

g  g
% Error  x100
g
3. Attach the ball to the magnet holder again and
press the magnet button.
6. Repeat the experiment for the masses with
different radius.
3.1. After freely falling of the mass, the display screen
will finish the process of data collecting
automatically for the falling time ( ) and then it
7. Explain what factors may cause the experimental
value of the acceleration due to gravity to be
will show the fall time.
different from accepted value?. Which of these

3.2. Record the first measurement of the fall time as may cause most significantly to the measurement
. errors in g?.

3.3. For the reliability of your measurements, repeat

8. As a freely falling object speeds up, what is
the experiment two times more and read of the fall happening to its accelerationdoes it increase,
times on the display screen. decrease or stay the same (ignore air resistance)?.

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Rentech Free Fall Experiment

5. Laboratory Report

Name: __________________________________

Department: __________________________________

Student No: __________________________________

Date: __________________________________

Distance of Fall, : 1.0

Mass, : 0.007kg (7.0g)

Radius, : 0.012m (12.0mm)

Mass, : 0.011kg (11.0g)

Radius, : 0.014m (14.0mm)

Mass, : 0.017kg (17.0g)

Radius, : 0.016m (16.0mm)

Mass, : 0.017kg (17.0g)

Radius, : 0.027m (27.0mm)

Table-1: Experimental data values of the falling time and the acceleration due to gravity.

t1 t2 t3 t g
Radius ( )
(Measured) (Average) (Experimental)

m1 ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..

m2 ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..

1.0
m3 ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..

m4 ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..

Table-2: Comparison of the experimental and theoretical acceleration.

Radius ( ) t  (s) g  (m / s 2 ) g (m / s 2 )

m1 ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..

m2 ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..

1.0
m3 ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..

m4 ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..

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Rentech Free Fall Experiment

Description of the data parameters in the Table-(1) and (2):

: The constant distance of the free fall

motion as height (the distance between
two photogates).

: The masses of the freely falling objects.

Radius ( ): The radius of the each spherical mass

falling freely.

t1, 2,3 ( s) : Measured data values of the fall time for

each mass used in the experiment.

t  (s) : The average value of the fall time for each

freely falling mass.

g  (m / s 2 ) : Experimental acceleration due to gravity.

g (m / s 2 ) : Theoretical acceleration due to gravity.

g (m / s 2 ) : The difference between experimental and

theoretical acceleration ( g  g  g  ).

: Calculated percent error between

theoretical and experimental acceleration.

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