Instituto No Gubernamental Bilingüe

Evangélico “Virginia Sapp”

Virtual Lab 1: Free Fall

Physics 10th __C______ Teacher: Ms. Sánchez

Student’s name: __Daniel Sandoval
______________________________________________________________

Objective: use the Phet simulations to verify that the free fall acceleration has the value measured
by Galileo in his experiments.
Bible principle: Proverbs 24:16. Although at times we are freely falling into sin, we must get up
with God's help.

THEORY
Galileo demonstrated that the acceleration of gravity near the Earth’s surface is constant and has a
value of 9.80 m/s2 for all objects, regardless of their mass. The equation that relates the distance
traveled to the acceleration and time is
1
𝑑 = 𝑎𝑡 2 (1)
2

Useful equations.
Acceleration in terms Percent error
Distance equation
of distance
|𝐴 − 𝑀|
%𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = × 100 %
1 2𝑑 𝐴
𝑑 = 𝑎𝑡 2 𝑎=
2 𝑡2 𝐴 = 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
𝑀 = 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒

PROCEDURE
Part 1: Familiarizing yourself with the simulation
Open the PHET simulation at Projectile Motion Simulation and select Lab. You should see the
following screen:
First of all, familiarize yourself with the simulation by changing parameters.
 Leaving everything as it is, change the object (Cannonball, Pumpkin, etc.) and launch
them, one by one. Include a screenshot of your trial.
1. What is the relationship between the trajectory of the object and its mass?
If the object has a bigger mas , his trayectory is less.
 Now select one of the objects and leaving its mass unchanged, change its diameter a few
times and launch it. Include a screenshot of your trial.
2. What is the relationship between the trajectory of the object and its shape/size?
If the shape or diameter is bigger, the trayectory is different.
Part 2: Measuring the Acceleration of Free Fall
In this part we want to verify that equation (1) given above gives indeed the correct value for the
acceleration of gravity.
Change the angle of launch to 90 degrees (since we want to simulate free fall) and adjust the
initial speed to 10 m/s, as shown in the screenshot below. Choose any object you like for this
part.

 Launch the object and using the tool measure the height reached by the object and the time
it takes to reach the highest point. Increase the initial speed in increments of 1 m/s until
you get to 15 and fill the table below.

Since the object starts from the ground and falls back on the ground, it has an initial velocity
upward. We want to measure the acceleration for an object that starts from rest. So, we are going
to do this by launching the object upward, but measuring the time and distance that it falls from its
highest point in the trajectory. That is, we are going to measure the distance and time only for the
descending part. Luckily, this is exactly what the measuring tool records, because the upward
distance is the same as the downward distance and the time it takes to go upward is the same as
the time it takes to go downward. For example, if the tool recorded the following numbers

, you would just record the values in the table (𝑑 = 4.6 𝑚 and 𝑡 = 0.7 𝑠).
To calculate the value of acceleration, we have to solve Equation (1), which gives
1 2𝑑
𝑑 = 𝑎𝑡 2 → 𝑎 = 2 (2)
2 𝑡
3. Fill the table below with your results. (Report measurements with the correct number of
significant figures)
Table 1.
𝒅(𝒎) 𝒕(𝒔) 𝒕𝟐 (𝒔𝟐 ) 𝟐𝒅 𝒎
𝒂= ( )
𝒕𝟐 𝒔𝟐
5.1m 1.02s 1.0404s 9.80ms2
6.17m 1.12s 1.2544s 9.83ms2
7.34m 1.22s 1.4884s 9.86ms2
8.61m 1.33s 1.7689s 9.73ms2
9.99m 1.43s 2.0449s 9.77ms2
11.47m 1.53s 2.3409s 9.79ms2
4. Now, using the five values of acceleration that you obtained in the table, calculate the
average value of acceleration, by adding all the values and dividing the result by 6. This
will be your measured value of acceleration.

𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠. = 9.79ms2

The accepted value of acceleration is

𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐. = 9.80 m/s2

5. Using the equation given at the top of the handout, calculate the percent error between the
accepted value of acceleration and the measured value of acceleration.

%𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = 8.8 %
 6. Your value is probably not exactly what Galileo predicted. This might be due to different
factors, such as rounding, and slight improper measurement of the height. However, within
experiment error, do your results seem to confirm Galileo’s claim? Explain.

Yes, the measurement were not exact but really closed to the reality.