T ABLE OF C ONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2
Question ................................................................................................................................. 2
Reaction ................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Hypothesis.................................................................................................................................. 2
Background on hypothesis ..................................................................................................... 2
Collision Theory ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Temperature ...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution curve ............................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Method ....................................................................................................................................... 5
equipment ............................................................................................................................... 5
Instructions ............................................................................................................................. 5
Fair Test.................................................................................................................................. 5
Factors ................................................................................................................................ 5
Measuring ............................................................................................................................... 5
Accuracy ............................................................................................................................. 6
Repeating ............................................................................................................................ 6
Safety Precautions .................................................................................................................. 6
Predictions .............................................................................................................................. 6
Results ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Result Table............................................................................................................................ 7
Graphs .................................................................................................................................... 7
Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 8
Evaluation .................................................................................................................................. 9

I NTRODUCTION
It is a known fact that all material objects fall towards Earth. It is commonly thought that an
object of heavier mass will fall faster than one of less mass. Only in the 17th century, when
Isaac Newton formulated his laws of motion that gave exact relations between force, mass
and acceleration where we able to describe the motion of a falling object. In this experiment
we will use the laws of motion to calculate the acceleration of an object at free fall the
magnitude of the gravitation field of Earth.
We will drop three objects of known mass at a known height, and measure the time it takes to
reach the floor. With all these variables known, we will calculate the acceleration of the
objects in free fall (g).

Q UESTION
How can we determine the value of g (magnitude of the gravitational field of Earth)?

H YPOTHESIS
We will calculate the acceleration of the free falling objects as 9.8m.s-1

B ACKGROUND
Newtons second law states that:
If there is an unbalanced force acting on an object, the object will accelerate
in the direction of the force.
This allows us to create the equation:






m the mass of the object

F the net constant force on the object
a the acceleration of the object
This equation can be rewritten for easier use:

 

The acceleration of an object in free fall (the object being dropped) is equal to g (the gravity
of earth. An object moving up or down under the influence of gravitational force with no
other forces acting is said to be in free fall.

From this we deduce that (in terms of an object in free fall):



 



  

In our experiment we will have (for each object):

The objects mass (m)

The height that the object was dropped from ( y)
The time taken for the object to fall the distance of y this will be calculated by
performing the experiment. (t)
The object is at rest before it is dropped so we know Vi= 0

With these variables we can use two different sets of equations; we can use Newton's law of
universal gravitation and we can use the equations of motions and alter them for an object in
free fall.

N EWTON S L AW

OF

U NIVERSAL

GRAVITATION

Newtons law of gravitation states:

Every object in the universe attracts every other object in the universe with a
force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and
inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centres.
This gives us the equation:

 


F is the gravitational force
m1 and m2 are the mass of the two objects
G is the universal gravitational constant 6.67x10-11
r is the distance between the centres of the masses.
From the previous section, we learnt that

  

We can combine these two equations because they both give us the gravitational force.



 


  

 

 


We can simplify our new equation by removing a mass on both sides.



E QUATIONS




OF MOTION

FREE FALL

We can manipulate an equation of motion (that contains acceleration) to help us calculate g.

We can use this equation:

   






Firstly we change the  to  as we are working on the y axis not the x axis. Also we
know that vi=0 as the object has fallen from rest. We also know that a=g

    
We can simplify this further:





M ETHOD
EQUIPMENT

I NSTRUCTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Make sure all safety precautions are taken.

Add 50ml of Sodium Thiosulphate solution to the conical flask.
Measure the temperature of the sodium thiosulphate.
Add 10ml of Hydrochloric acid to test tube.
Place the conical flask directly over the cross on the page. making sure visibility is
good.
6. Pour the hydrochloric acid into the flask
7. As soon as the hydrochloric acid was poured the timer should start.
8. The conical flask needs to be watched while the reaction occurs and as soon as the X
is not visible the timer should be stopped.
- When conducting the experiment with the different temperatures, put the conical
flask after step 2 in ice (to decrease the temperature) and then in hot kettle water
(to increase the temperature). Put a thermometer in both the water and the
Sodium Thiosulphate, and only remove the flask when the temperatures are the
same. Then carry on the experiment from step 3.
- Once complete with the experiment, clean and pack away all equipment and work
area.

F AIR T EST
In the experiment, the concentrations of the substances are the control. All the hydrochloric
acid I use shall be retrieved from the same container as to remove chances of slightly
different concentrations, we shall do the same with the sodium Thiosulphate.
F A CT O R S
Human error - The alertness of the person who controls the stopwatch and the people
watching to see if the X is still visible can affect the time of the reaction and therefore change
the results of the investigation completely. This best way to counter this would be repeat the
experiment, retrieve two different results, and see if there are any discrepancies. Redo the
experiment to check if the new results match the discrepancy and if not replace the result with
the discrepancy.

M EASURING
We are measuring the time taken for the black X to disappear beneath the cloudy solution at a
specific temperature. The solution is originally colourless and becomes cloudy which
happens because of the solid sulphur produced. Therefore we are measuring the reaction rate.

A CC U R A C Y
We will keep the measurements accurate, by taking the error of parallax into account when
measuring the temperature and each group member will watch the reaction with their own
stop watches to record the time and the times will be all taken into account and averaged.
R E P E AT I N G

S AFET Y P RECAUTIONS
P REDICTIONS

R ESULTS
R ESULT T ABLE
G RAPHS

D ISCUSSION
Looking at both graphs we can see that higher the temperature the faster the reaction the
time taken for the reaction to occur visibly was the fastest at the highest temperature and the
slowest at the lowest temperature. We have proven our hypothesis In the reaction between
sodium thiosulphate and hydrochloric acid an increase in temperature will increase the
forward reaction rate and a decrease in temperature will cause a decrease in the forward
reaction rate. With a higher temperature the solution will become cloudy considerably faster
than the solution done using a lower temperature. correct.
This can be seen by looking at these results:

Experiment

Experiment 1
Temperature Rate of
(in degrees
Reaction (in
Celsius)
seconds)

Room
Temperature
Heated in
hot water
Cooled in ice

23

95

67

239

Taking the room temperature and hot water results into account, the reaction rates speed more
than tripled and when taking room temperature and ice-cooled results into account, the
reaction rate speeds decrease almost three times when the substance is at a lower temperature.
The experiment fits the Collision theory in that as at a lower temperature, the numbers of
collisions are lower due to the particles moving more slowly. Also when a collision occurs,
there is less chance of a reaction taking place because there is insufficient kinetic energy, this
causes the reaction rate to decrease which can be seen by the results.
This is the same for the increase in substance temperature, molecules at a high temperature
move faster and have a larger kinetic energy which means that both more molecules will have
sufficient energy during a collision and more collision will occur, this leads to an increase in
reaction rate which too can be is easily proven in the results.

E VALUATION
We think that the experiment went as planned, and we have proven our hypothesis correct
using our results so it was generally a good experiment.
It was accurate because we attempted it twice and compared the results to check for
discrepancies, when it was found that there were none we averaged the results to get a more
accurate result.
The method was good but there are several possible errors that could have gone wrong in this
experiment, for example, there could be errors in the measurements or possibly faulty
equipment. There can also be errors as when it gets to the end of the experiment it is not easy
to judge as soon as the X cannot be seen.
To improve our investigation, we could have attempted it at more temperatures to see a more
detailed result, and repeat it more times to increase the accuracy of the result.
The results are reliable because they arent extremely scattered, they seem to fit the pattern
that for every 10C increase, the reaction rate doubles.
This hypothesis can further be tested using another experiment that tests temperatures
dependence on the reaction rate, for example the experiment How does the temperature of
water affect the dissolving time of a Berocca? This would be an easier experiment to carry
out as well, as the water changes into orange and it stops bubbling.
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http://mypages.iit.edu/~smart/martcar/lesson2/free-fall-experiment.html
http://www.studymode.com/essays/Acceleration-Of-Gravity-Free-Fall-Method-1280092.html
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http://www.haverford.edu/educ/knight-booklet/accelarator.htm
http://www.odec.ca/projects/2007/mull7j3/#31
http://motivate.maths.org/content/finding-value-g