How To Find Gravity With Distance And Time

Science project

Relationship Between the Distance and Time of a Falling Object

Freefall occurs where the simply force acting on an object is gravity. Because gravitational acceleration on world is constant, the distance an object falls is proportional to the time spent falling. In this experiment, you will experimentally determine the acceleration due to gravity in addition to testing your ain reaction time! Reaction time is the time it takes for you lot to react to an event: in this case, the falling of a meter stick or dollar bill. Is your reaction time faster than dispatch due to gravity?

Experimentally determine acceleration due to gravity.

Do all objects fall at the same rate? Does the weight of the object matter? What is the relationship between altitude and fourth dimension for complimentary-falling objects?

Friend, partner or helper
Small ball
Meter stick
Dollar bill
Stopwatch
Notebook and pencil

Have a partner agree the meter stick and so the 0 side is just higher up your hand.
Accept the partner start the timer as presently every bit he or she drops the meter stick and stop the timer every bit presently as you catch information technology.
Record the distance along the meter stick and the time.
Do this several times for different lengths along the meter stick. What is the relationship betwixt the time and the distance the meter stick traveled?
Graph your results. Time will be on the 10-centrality, distance traveled in meters volition be on the y-axis.
Use the following equation to calculate the time it takes for the meter stick to autumn. How shut is your calculated time to your stopwatch value?

Gravity Distance Equation

Where d is the distance the object traveled, in meters
m is the gravitational acceleration on Earth, equal to 9.81m/s2
t is the time in seconds.

Calculate the acceleration at any point on the graph. How close is it to the gravitational dispatch of Earth?

Acceleration Equation

Repeat the experiment with a dollar bill. Use the above equation to calculate how long it volition take for the length of the dollar to pass through your fingers. Can you take hold of information technology?

Graphing results will prove that distance traveled is in proportional to the foursquare of the time spent falling. Your calculated acceleration should be close to 9.81 one thousand/southward². Human being reaction time is approximately 0.25 seconds which, for the bulk of people, is not fast enough to catch a dollar beak.

The graph y'all create will prove that the longer the meter stick falls, the faster it ends upwards moving. This explains the curve in the graph: because of the abiding acceleration produced by the force of gravity, the velocity of an object volition become increasingly faster.

When objects are in true gratis fall, they volition eventually reach their concluding velocity when the downward strength from gravity and the upward strength from air resistance are equal. A skillful anaology would exist a skydiver: fifty-fifty though gravity yet acts on her body, she wouldn't get any faster because the forcefulness of the air pushing back is so great. In this experiment, air resistance and drag are not really an issue because the objects fall very short distances.

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