Determining Gravity Three Different Ways

Determining acceleration due to gravity by three methods

Purpose: To use three different methods to determine the acceleration due to gravity and see which is more accurate. Also to give us practical application and proof of the 9.8m/s/s law.

Materials: Eraser, Video, stop watch, 2M stick

Procedure: We measured 2M from the floor to a certain spot on the chalk board. Then we measured by hand with a stop watch how long it took for the eraser to hit the floor. In the video they used a ball and slow motion that slowed it down by nine times. They used a strobe light the second time but not the third. Also lines were drawn 10cm apart.

Observation: When Professor Miller dropped the eraser and attempted to time it by hand it wasn't very accurate even though he received a decent time. When we timed the slow motion ball we received a more accurate time but the number for some reason each time was not closer to 9.8 m/s/s than the eraser drop. The third and most accurate measurement was the strobe light with 10cm increments drawn on the background. The curious thing was it still wasn't as close as Professor Miller to the 9.8 m/s/s time.

Analysis: The one factor that made all of the times not exactly 9.8 m/s/s was human error. No matter how close we thought we were getting to the perfect stop watch usage there was still great error because or reaction time and unreliability. If it was done by computer eye and there were more perfect conditions the me would be closer to the 9.8 m/s/s range.