Physicals Essay
Physics coursework
The Experiment
Our experiment is to investigate the time it takes for an object to free fall and from our results work out a value for gravity. The experiment will include us dropping a golf ball from a different height and measuring the time it takes to pass through a light gate.
Our hypothesis for the experiment is that as the drop height of the golf ball is increased the velocity of the ball will increase, this is because it has more time to accelerate. We hope to find out from our results that the golf balls acceleration is the same as gravity which is 9.81 ms². We intent on showing this through the Suvat equation which is V²=U²+2as where ‘a’ is acceleration. Suvat equations were made by Gottfried Leibniz, Suvat stands for displacement (S), Initial velocity (U), Final velocity (V), Acceleration (A) and Time (T). As I said we are using the equation V²=U²+2as, but we have to re-arrange this equation to find ‘a’, this re-arranges to be a=(V²-U²)/(2s).
We are doing two experiments, the first one we are doing includes dropping a golf ball from a variety of different heights and only measuring the results with one light gate, in this experiment ‘U’ the initial velocity is always zero which means the Suvat equation is a=V²/2s.
In the second experiment we are using two light gates instead of one, similar to the first experiment we will be dropping a golf ball from various different heights and recording the times at each light gates, the difference between this experiment and the first experiment is that ‘U’ the initial velocity is the value at the first light gate, so the Suvat equation returns to the original a=(V²-U²)/(2s). In this experiment the dependent variable will be velocity of the golf ball as it travels through the light gate and as the drop height changes, this is the variable that will be measured. The independent variable will be the height the ball is dropped from as this is the variable that will be changed.
The Experiment
Our experiment is to investigate the time it takes for an object to free fall and from our results work out a value for gravity. The experiment will include us dropping a golf ball from a different height and measuring the time it takes to pass through a light gate.
Our hypothesis for the experiment is that as the drop height of the golf ball is increased the velocity of the ball will increase, this is because it has more time to accelerate. We hope to find out from our results that the golf balls acceleration is the same as gravity which is 9.81 ms². We intent on showing this through the Suvat equation which is V²=U²+2as where ‘a’ is acceleration. Suvat equations were made by Gottfried Leibniz, Suvat stands for displacement (S), Initial velocity (U), Final velocity (V), Acceleration (A) and Time (T). As I said we are using the equation V²=U²+2as, but we have to re-arrange this equation to find ‘a’, this re-arranges to be a=(V²-U²)/(2s).
We are doing two experiments, the first one we are doing includes dropping a golf ball from a variety of different heights and only measuring the results with one light gate, in this experiment ‘U’ the initial velocity is always zero which means the Suvat equation is a=V²/2s.
In the second experiment we are using two light gates instead of one, similar to the first experiment we will be dropping a golf ball from various different heights and recording the times at each light gates, the difference between this experiment and the first experiment is that ‘U’ the initial velocity is the value at the first light gate, so the Suvat equation returns to the original a=(V²-U²)/(2s). In this experiment the dependent variable will be velocity of the golf ball as it travels through the light gate and as the drop height changes, this is the variable that will be measured. The independent variable will be the height the ball is dropped from as this is the variable that will be changed.