PHYSICS
G R O U P 2
What is free fall?
Free fall is defined as the motion of a
falling object with only the force of
gravity is acting on the object
The distance, y, a body falls in a time t is
by Where Vo is the initial
velocity. If the object is
dropped from rest, then
downward taken as
Hence, by measuring the
negative)
time, t, it takes for an
object to fall a distance, y,
the acceleration, g, due to
gravity (which is
approximately 9.80 m/s2)
MATERIALS
• Object with different
masses
• Meter stick
• stopwatch
PROCEDURE
1. Assign one member to drop and another to do the timing.
When measuring the time intervals with a stopwatch or timer,
each measurement should include the timer’s reaction times
in starting and stopping the clock.
2. Label the object as m1, m2, and m3. Drop one of them from
a fixed height y above the floor (say, about 5 meters) and
measure its time of fall. Drop it with the arm held horizontally
or held upward. Do a couple of practice runs to become
familiar with the procedure. Record the data for four trials.
3. See Question 3 at the end of the experiment for a
procedure to measure the reaction time. Determine this
for the person doing the timing and add to the fall times.
4. Compute the acceleration, g, due to gravity using the
corrected times of fall. Find the average or mean value
and the mean deviation of your results from the average
value.4. Compute the acceleration, g, due to gravity using
the corrected times of fall. Find the average or mean
value and the mean deviation of your results from the
y = 5m
1.38 1.14 7.69 2.10
1.28 1.04 9.25 0.55
1.70 1
1.46 4.69 5.11
1.68 1
1.44 4.82 4.98
1 6.61 3.19
1
Result (average value ± mean _
+ 3.19
1.36 1.121 7.97 1.83
1.2 0.961 10.4 0.6
1.3 1.121 7.97 1.83
0
1.2 1.981 2
10.41 2
0.61
6 9.19 0.61
2
Result (average value ± mean +
_ 0.61
1.2 1.0 9.2 0.5
1.1 0.9 11. -
8
0.8 41
0.6 5
23.6 -5
8
1.2 41
0.9 32
10. 1.5
-
9 51 7
13. 18.8
-
0 61 85 2
1.0
77 43.9
Result (average value ± mean - 5
7
1.Based on our experiment, objects with
different masses have different
acceleration due to gravity. The heavier
stones have the highest acceleration or
the one who lands or falls first on the
ground, and lighter objects accelerates
slower.
2. The sources of errors in our experiments is likely
the reaction of the person assigned on the times,
air resistance errors in measurement, variation in
the height of the fall and other factors. This shows
that random error occured because of the factors
may vary unpredictably each trial. Thus, these lead
to the inconsistency of measurements or
calculations.
4. If we do not ignore air resistance, the
acceleration of falling objects would decrease
as it falls, reaching a terminal velocity wherre
the force of gravity is balanced by air
resistance. This means that heavier objects
may still fall fasrter initially, but their
acceleration would eventually deminish
compared to lighter objects.
Generalization:
Overall, our experiment showed that the
obejcts with different measures have different
acceleration due to gravity that heavier the
object the faster the acceleration and the lighter,
the slower the acceleration going down.
However, the accuracy of results may be offered
with several factors that lead to inconsistency of
measurements.
Thank you
