Falling Objects October 17, 2017

Gina Tangelo Donnie Harris

Ben Davis
Marvin Lin

Introduction:
The acceleration due to gravity on Earth is 9.8 m/s2 and this will be used as a comparison to the
acceleration calculated by dropping light and heavy objects. A heavier object should fall a little slower
than a lighter object because it’s heavier and so the force will slow the object down. If there the vertical
distance and a fall time are known, the equation that needs to be used to find the acceleration of the
𝑥−𝑥0
object is =a. This equation is relevant to the first part of the lab because in the first part the only
𝑥2
element we have to figure out is acceleration using this equation. If the time of an object in free fall and
1
the acceleration of the object is known, then the equation 2 𝑥𝑥2 = 𝑥0. This is relevant to the second part
because it’s extremely hard to calculate the height of the climbing wall compared to heights needed to
be calculated inside. This lab meets the domain of using mathematics and computational thinking
because we need to use mathematics to be able to find the acceleration of the objects, also meaning
that this meets the using the problem solving process domain because we had to use mathematics to
be able to calculate the unknowns. This meets the analyzing and interpreting data because we had to
look at the data we collected and compare it to what the actual acceleration due to gravity on Earth is.

Research Question:
We will calculate acceleration due to gravity for SSFS using objects falling from rest and then use this
calculated acceleration due to gravity and a falling object to calculate the height of the climbing wall.

Materials:
Door + Mailboxes Materials: Fire escape Materials: Climbing Wall Materials:
● Tennis ball ● Cannon ball ● Softballs
● Golf balls ● Meter Stick ● Phones
● Meter stick ● Tape Measure ● Ropes
● Harnesses
● Phones ● Phones
● Tape measure
● Step ladder

Procedure and Setup:

Part 1 (Inside and Fire Escape):
1. Measure the height of the door that the object will drop from with a tape measure and meter
stick
2. Have one group member stand above the edge of the open door using a step ladder with
another group member recording. The other group members use the stopwatch app on their
phones to time how long it takes for the ball to reach the ground
3. The group member recording counts down before the member holding the ball drops it straight
down while the other group members record. Repeat this three times and record the average
times of the members timing into the spreadsheet
 4. Repeat steps 2-4 with a golf ball then go to the mailboxes near the window at the back of the
classroom and repeat steps 2-4 with a golf ball and a tennis ball
5. Go outside and measure the height of the top of the railing of the fire escape steps outside of
the library with a tape measure and a meter stick then repeat steps 2-4 using a heavy object

Part 2 (Climbing Wall):

1. Have one group member climb up the climbing wall then throw two softballs up to the member
2. Have one group member recording on their phone while the other group members stay below
as well and get prepared to record the times on their phones
3. The group member recording counts down before the member holding the ball drops it straight
down from rope 12 while the other group members record the time. Repeat this three times and
record the average times of the members timing into the spreadsheet
4. Repeat step 3 from rope 8

Data/Observations:
Calculations of Acceleration (Part 1):
 Calculations for the height of the climbing wall (Part 2):

Analysis/Calculations/Graphs/Questions:
According to the data, the tennis ball fell faster than the golf ball when dropped from the top of the edge
of the door but fell slower than the golf ball when dropped from the top of the mailboxes. It fell
significantly faster than the heavier object when dropped from the fire escape steps. This is the same
as what I thought in the beginning though most would presume that the tennis ball and the heavy object
would fall at the same rate. The tennis ball has a different density than the golf ball and the heavy
object. Though it fell at a faster rate as the golf ball when dropped from the door and a slower rate as
the golf ball when dropped from the mailboxes, both of these rates were similar though not the same. I
believed that the tennis ball would fall faster than the heavier object but it wasn’t presumed that it would
fall faster than the golf ball depending on the heights. On the climbing wall, the objective was to try and
find the height of the climbing wall with the time and a given acceleration, the time changing with each
trial and the acceleration remaining constant at 10.47 m/s2. The difference between the actual recorded
height of the climbing wall and what was calculated using a (our constant acceleration) versus using g
 (acceleration due to gravity on Earth) was very interesting. The height calculated using our constant
acceleration was closer to the actual measured height of the climbing wall at 9.14 meters compared to
the calculated height using g which had a greater height than the measure height and thus having a
greater percent error.

Error Analysis:
A great deal of error will come from the timing methods. There were several people timing and because
of this, everyone will get different times. This is all depending on whether each person starts at the
same time (when the ball is first dropped) and stopping exactly when the ball hits the ground. These are
both very hard to time accurately and thus this will mean that no one will be able to all get the exact
same times but it is expected that the times will be within the same range of each other. Because of the
way some people start and stop their stopwatches, some people will have times that are incredibly fast
while other will have times that are incredibly slow. The average time has to be used and if there is a
great variety of different times it makes it harder to come up with an accurate time for you group.
The average percent errors for calculating the acceleration of an object compared to the acceleration
due to gravity on Earth were:
Tennis Ball (Door): 34.1%
Golf Ball (Door): -7.18%
Tennis Ball (Mailboxes): 6.79%
Golf Ball (Mailboxes): 14.21%
Tennis Ball (Fire escape): 16.06%
Cannonball (Fire escape): 5.41%
The percent errors for calculating the different heights of the climbing wall using a versus g were:

Height using a Height using g

Rope 12 22.24% 30.59%

Rope 8 32.14% 41.18%

The height calculated using the average of the two average times for both the different height had a
percent error of 0.181% using a and a percent error of 7.03% using g.
Another error could be the direction of which the ball was dropped might have been maybe by the
direction of the wind. The greatest source of error was dealing with the timing issues and this will cause
for the results to be drastically different each time.

Conclusion:
The acceleration of the objects when dropped were different depending on where they were dropped
from and thus the size and weight of certain objects didn’t change the rate the objects fell. In
conclusion, heavier objects will not fall at the same rate as the lighter ones but the rates that they fall
will be close. On the climbing wall, the expected result was for the height calculated using g to be more
accurate than the height calculated using our given acceleration and yet it was the opposite. In
conclusion, the calculated height of the climbing wall using a given constant acceleration of 10.47 m/s2
was accurate based on the fact that the percentage error of the was less than 1% and was barely 0.01
meters higher than the actual height. This means that it does not pass the common sense test because
it contradicts what the acceleration due to gravity on Earth is since it was not accurate with trying to find
the height of an object.