PHY145

1. Title : FREE FALL MOTION

2. Objectives: To determine the magnitude of the gravitational acceleration during

free fall.

3. Apparatus: Drop box, communication cable, time of flight accessory, control box,
AC adapter, steel ball (1.5 cm diameter, 8.10 g), plastic ball (10.30 cm diameter,
20.7 g), golf ball (4.46 cm diameter, 23 g) and timer switch.

4. Theory

The object that falls from a high-rise position is influenced by the gravitational force.
An object is released from the position above the earth will move towards the ground
and this motion is called free fall. The falling object will experience a gravitational
acceleration and it is considered as a constant over the time. Since, all those
kinematics equations are useful to solve for free fall problems.

For a given time, the height from where the object is released can be determined by
using linear kinematics equation at constant acceleration.
1
h= a t2 + ut (1)
y
2

Where ay refers to gravitational acceleration and u is the initial velocity of the object.
Supposed the object is released from rest, the equation (1) will now become
1
h= a t2 (2)
y
2

Rearranging equation (2), the gravitational acceleration can be determined where

2h
a=g= (3)
y
t2

(
g = 2  gradient of the graph h versus t2 ) (4)
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5. Procedures

i. Setup the experiment as shown in Figure 1.

ii. Attach the object to the drop box.
iii. Place the time-of-flight accessory directly below the object.
iv. Switch on the smart timer.
v. Press the “Select Measurement” button until “time” appears on the display.
vi. Press “Select Mode” button until “two gates” appear on the display.
vii. Press the “start/stop” button once to release the object and to reset the
recorded reading.
viii. Take the timer reading.
ix. Repeat the experiment several times with different height. Record the height
and drop time in given Table 1.
x. Repeat step (ii) until (ix) for two different types of objects.

Clamp
higher Drop Box
on rod for
increased Timer Switch
fall height
Drop Box

AC Adapter
To timing device

Time-of-
Flight
Accessory
Time-of-Flight
Accessory

Figure 1 : Experiment Setup

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6. Data
Type of ball :__________
Mass of ball :__________ Diameter of ball : _________________

Table 1

No Height of the ball, h Time, t Average time, t t2

t1 t2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Type of ball :__________

Mass of ball :__________ Diameter of ball : _________________

Table 2

No Height of the ball, h Time, t Average time, t t2

t1 t2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
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Type of ball :__________

Mass of ball :__________ Diameter of ball : _________________

Table 3

No Height of the ball, h Time, t Average time, t t2

t1 t2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

7. Data analysis

i. Plot h versus t2 graph based on the data in Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3.

ii. Using equation (4), calculate the gravitational acceleration, g for each graph.

8. Discussion

i. Compare the calculated value of g with standard value (g = 9.81 ms-2).

ii. Discuss the factors that have contributed to the differences in the value.
iii. How to overcome the factors mentioned in (ii), discuss.

9. Conclusion