Physics Lab Report
LABORATORY REPORT
Acceleration Due to Gravity
Table of contents
Objective 1
Equipment 1
Procedures 1
Recorded data, calculated results, and graphs 1
Discussion 3
Conclusions 3
Objective
In this project we attempted to confirm that the acceleration due to gravity of a freely falling body is .
Equipment
Pasco Photogate, ME-9204B
Pasco "picket fence," a transparent piece of plastic with dark bands spaced 0.050m apart
Dell computer with Science Workshop 700 interface
DataStudio and Excel software
Procedures
We dropped the picket fence through the photogate, which was connected to the computer through the Science Workshop 700 interface. The photogate sent to the computer a signal when its beam was broken by one of the dark bands. The Datastudio software recorded for the amounts of time between breaks.
Recorded Data, Calculated Results, and Graphs
We used the Science Workshop program to calculate the velocities and accelerations due to gravity of the picket fence between breaks in the beam using
where Äy represents distance traveled between breaks and Ät represents the time of travel between breaks. These are the measured values of distance and the calculated velocities and accelerations:
Measured Calculated
Time Position Time Velocity Time Acceleration
( s ) ( m ) ( s ) ( m/s ) ( s ) (m/s^2)
0.04500 0.05 0.02250 1.1111 0.0421 9.84
0.07840 0.10 0.06170 1.4970 0.0771 9.40
0.10640 0.15 0.09240 1.7857 0.1055 10.06
0.13080 0.20 0.11860 2.0492 0.1302 9.64
0.15280 0.25 0.14180 2.2727 0.1523 10.21
0.17290 0.30 0.16285 2.4876 0.1726 9.60
0.19160 0.35 0.18225 2.6738 Average: 9.79 The time given for each velocity is halfway (in time) between the
Acceleration Due to Gravity
Table of contents
Objective 1
Equipment 1
Procedures 1
Recorded data, calculated results, and graphs 1
Discussion 3
Conclusions 3
Objective
In this project we attempted to confirm that the acceleration due to gravity of a freely falling body is .
Equipment
Pasco Photogate, ME-9204B
Pasco "picket fence," a transparent piece of plastic with dark bands spaced 0.050m apart
Dell computer with Science Workshop 700 interface
DataStudio and Excel software
Procedures
We dropped the picket fence through the photogate, which was connected to the computer through the Science Workshop 700 interface. The photogate sent to the computer a signal when its beam was broken by one of the dark bands. The Datastudio software recorded for the amounts of time between breaks.
Recorded Data, Calculated Results, and Graphs
We used the Science Workshop program to calculate the velocities and accelerations due to gravity of the picket fence between breaks in the beam using
where Äy represents distance traveled between breaks and Ät represents the time of travel between breaks. These are the measured values of distance and the calculated velocities and accelerations:
Measured Calculated
Time Position Time Velocity Time Acceleration
( s ) ( m ) ( s ) ( m/s ) ( s ) (m/s^2)
0.04500 0.05 0.02250 1.1111 0.0421 9.84
0.07840 0.10 0.06170 1.4970 0.0771 9.40
0.10640 0.15 0.09240 1.7857 0.1055 10.06
0.13080 0.20 0.11860 2.0492 0.1302 9.64
0.15280 0.25 0.14180 2.2727 0.1523 10.21
0.17290 0.30 0.16285 2.4876 0.1726 9.60
0.19160 0.35 0.18225 2.6738 Average: 9.79 The time given for each velocity is halfway (in time) between the