PHY 101L M4 Gravity Lab Report
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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Apr 3, 2024
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Name: _________Sara Rigby_____________________
Date: ___________03/29/2024___________________
PHY 101L Module Four Lab Activity: Gravity
Overview:
Gravity is the force that pulls everything on or near Earth down toward the center of the Earth. As objects fall, they tend to accelerate in response to gravity. In this investigation, you will explore whether the mass and the distance an object falls affect its rate of acceleration. Safety:
Read through all of the instructions for this laboratory activity before beginning. Follow the instructions closely and observe established laboratory safety practices.
Safety goggles should be worn during this lab. The activities in this lab involve dropping spheres that accelerate and bounce. Take care while performing these lab activities to avoid injuring hands and fingers or feet and toes with moving or falling masses. Make sure lab area is clear of pets, children, and breakable objects. Do not eat, drink, or chew gum while performing this activity. Wash your hands with soap and water before and after performing the activity. Clean up the work area with soap and water after completing the investigation. Keep pets and children away from lab materials and equipment. Time Requirements:
Preparation: 15 minutes
Experiment: 60 minutes
Materials needed from the lab kit:
Tape measure
Steel sphere
Acrylic sphere
Make a sphere of similar size as the steel/acrylic sphere out of clay
Pocket scale
Materials needed but not supplied in the lab kit:
Stopwatch
Calculator
Erasable pencil or tape for height markers
Procedure
:
1)
Before performing this experiment, develop two scientific hypotheses – one hypothesis about how mass will affect the acceleration of the sphere and the second about how height will affect the acceleration of the sphere. Document these hypotheses in your response to the first question in your Gravity Lab Report below. Support each of these hypotheses with explanation and reasoning as to why you are predicting what you are.
2)
Use the tape measure to mark every 0.5 meters on a wall, up to 2.5 meters. This can be done
with an erasable pencil mark or a small piece of tape.
3)
Select the steel sphere from your kit and measure its mass using the pocket scale. Record the sphere’s mass on the chart below.
4)
Using the stopwatch, time each fall as you drop the steel sphere from each of the measured marks, starting at 0.5 m and ending at 2.5 m. For each drop, start the timer upon releasing the sphere and stop the timer when the sphere hits the ground. Record each fall time on the chart below. Repeat this process two more times for a total of three times at each drop height and calculate the average fall time for each drop height. 5)
Repeat the procedures described in steps 3-4 for the acrylic and clay spheres.
6)
Create a graph of height versus average time for your data. Time should be represented on the x-axis (the horizontal line) and height should be represented on the y-axis (the vertical line).
7)
For each of the heights, using the average fall time, calculate the acceleration of the sphere. The following formula may be helpful, but you’re welcome to use different physics principles if preferred:
Height = initial velocity x time + ½ acceleration x time
2
Note that in this experiment, initial velocity is zero, since the sphere is dropped from rest. If we plug in initial velocity = 0 and solve for acceleration in terms of height and time, we get:
Acceleration = (2 x height)/ time
2
8)
Create a graph of acceleration (using the data collected from the height of 2.0 meters for each sphere) and the masses for each of the three spheres. Mass should be represented on the x-axis (the horizontal line) and acceleration should be represented on the y-axis (the vertical line).
Data for the steel sphere: Mass = ____67.5g______
Height (m)
Time (s)
Time (s)
Time(s)
Avg Time (s)
Calculated Acceleration (m/s/s)
0.5
0.36
0.38
0.36
0.37
7.44
1.0
0.70
0.58
0.68
0.65
4.69
1.5
0.71
0.66
0.71
0.69
6.24
2.0
0.78
0.83
0.88
0.83
5.81
2.5
0.93
0.97
1.03
0.98
5.25
Data for the acrylic sphere: Mass = ___10.1g_______
Height (m)
Time (s)
Time (s)
Time(s)
Avg Time (s)
Calculated Acceleration (m/s/s)
0.5
0.45
0.43
0.48
0.45
4.87
1.0
0.60
0.70
0.76
0.69
4.24
1.5
0.63
0.71
0.78
0.71
6.01
2.0
0.85
0.81
0.81
0.82
5.90
2.5
0.98
0.94
0.94
0.95
5.51
Data for clay sphere: Mass = _____17.4g_____
Height (m)
Time (s)
Time (s)
Time(s)
Avg Time (s)
Calculated Acceleration (m/s/s)
0.5
0.45
0.53
0.51
0.50
4.05
1.0
0.63
0.66
0.55
0.61
5.32
1.5
0.73
0.65
0.70
0.69
6.24
2.0
0.71
0.73
0.81
0.75
7.11
2.5
0.79
0.82
0.88
0.83
7.30
Lab Questions:
1.
Before performing the experiment, develop two scientific hypotheses about how 1) mass will affect the acceleration of the sphere and 2) height will affect the acceleration of a sphere. Be sure to explain your reasoning for each.
1.
I think the mass of the sphere will have a large amount of impact on the acceleration. As the mass increases I suspect the acceleration will as well. 2.
When the height of the starting point increases I predict that the rate of acceleration will also increase
2.
For each of the two hypotheses that you have written above, once the experiment is complete, address if your initial hypothesis was correct. Support your argument with data you collected from the lab.
The results of the lab proved both of my hypotheses as incorrect, however the differences in the measurements were small. As the height increased, I got varied results on the calculated acceleration, the clay sphere increased in acceleration with the height, however the steel sphere decreased speed as height increased. The weight of the sphere did not seem to matter much either, each of these spheres varied in mass by quite a bit and all of the measurements were similar.
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3.
In what way does acceleration vary with mass and height? Does this make sense relative to what you understand about the way gravity works? Why or why not?
The acceleration did not appear to be affected by the height of the drop point and the weight of sphere. This does not make sense to me necessarily, because I thought that both factors would impact the acceleration. Although there is little friction opposing the force of gravity in this instance, I did think the difference in the mass of the spheres would make the measurements noticeably different. However, it appears that the offsetting force was small enough that there was little change in the acceleration. 0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Height (m) vs Average Time (s) Avg Time for Steel Sphere (s)
Avg Time for Acrylic Sphere (s)
Avg Time for Clay Sphere (s)
Time (s)
Height (m)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Acceleration at 2 meters (m/s/s)
Mass (m)
Acceleration (m/s/s)