Free Fall Project Description

 

Introduction

 

Over three centuries ago, Galileo reasoned the rules for objects falling would be very simple as long as air resistance is considered relatively unimportant. By guessing what would happen in the imaginary case of objects falling freely in a vacuum, Galileo extracted the following rules: "All falling bodies fall with the same motion; started together, they fall together.“ "The body gains speed at a steady rate.“ If all freely falling bodies have the same motion, that motion itself is worth detailed investigation. It might tell us something about nature in general, something common to all falling things. From Physics for the Inquiring Mind By Eric M. Rogers, 1960

 

Task

 

Test Galileo's rules by measuring the distance and time traveled for an object in free fall. Determine how the velocity changes as the body falls. Tools A falling body and high-precision timing device, meter stick, calculator and/or spreadsheet

 

Report

 

• Describe the method used to gather and measure the distance and time data.
• Discuss how error is kept to a minimum.
• Submit a table of distance and time data.
• Create a graph of distance versus time.
• Find the best-fit linear relationship to this data and include correlation and residual information
• Explain how well the linear model describes the distance verses time relationship using correlation and residuals. Calculate velocities and describe how you obtained velocities from distance and time data. Submit a table of velocity and time data.
• Create a graph of velocity versus time.
• Find the best-fit linear relationship to this data and include correlation and residual information.
• Explain how well the linear model describes the relationship between velocity verses time using correlation and residuals.

 

Analysis

 

• How does the distance traveled change between equal intervals of time?
• How does the velocity change between equal intervals of time?
• The slope of velocity linear regression model represents gravity’s acceleration.
• What are the units for the slope of the velocity versus time graph?
• Calculate the percent error between your slope and an accepted result for Raleigh, NC, which is 9.79832.
• What does the y-intercept of the velocity linear regression model represent?