Book Drop Lab

Iyan Khokhar & Brian Thomas

Abstract
The concept of acceleration can be hard to
understand for some students. The Free Fall Lab
simplifies this process and introduces real data and
statistics to back up the claim of every objects
acceleration being 9.81m/s/s on Earth. The lab is
conducted first with one textbook being dropped
while the acceleration is measured by a device. The
lab is redone two more times, each time strapping
another book on to see if the acceleration changes.
The hypothesis presented to students is What is the
acceleration of a falling book? and if it will or will
not change when more books are added. Students
tested the hypothesis by using their data to see what
the acceleration totaled to after averaging all three
outcomes. The values that came out were frequently
close to 9.81m/s/s but were not exact due to the
presence of friction and air resistance (which were
not taken into account). This type of experiment
proves to students that acceleration of all objects are
the same in free fall no matter what the object be. It
demonstrates in it a friendly manner and with
statistical data to prove it.

Methods

Results

Conclusion

The students were given a motion sensor that

would measure acceleration, software to
analyze the data, and three textbooks. The
students started with a textbook below the
sensor. They then proceeded to drop the
textbook down vertically allowing the
sensor to record the data. These steps were
repeated three times, each time adding an
additional book implying more mass being
added. The logged data then had to be
organized to show acceleration in
position/time format instead velocity/time.
Then the students had to obtain an
equation to show how acceleration was
affected overall. The students then took the
data and equations; and then turned it into
a quantitative graph using physics
variables. The students then reflected on
their hypothesis to see if it was correct or
not.

The students learned that increasing the mass

of the object does not affect the
acceleration during free-fall. The data is
shown below.

The students data shows how the

acceleration changes insignificantly when
adding an additional book. The only
impact on the acceleration changing was
human error, air resistance, and error in
the sensors. Students come to realize the
acceleration that affects the books during
free fall is the acceleration towards the
earth's gravity. We can all benefit from
the students findings because knowing
earths acceleration is -9.81m/s2 helps in
doing free-fall equations and
understanding a basic law that applies to
earth. The next steps the students must
take is to apply the data that was given to
them by the equation they created. They
can apply it to any free-fall equation or yaxis based problem.

Tw o B ook
x(t) = 3.85t2 - 2.21t + .294
v(t) = 7.7t - 2.21
a(t) = 7.7
Th ree B ook
(t) = 5.03t2 - .360t + .084
v(t) = 10.06t - .360
a(t) = 10.06

Students
dropped up to
three books to
test
acceleration

Objectives
The aim in this project was to see if
acceleration increased when students added
another textbook. Students tried to measure
acceleration while keeping the number of
books as a variable. Students are answering
this question in order to show that
acceleration is not affected by the addition
of another book.

Equation for controlvariable:

O n e B ook
x(t) = 5.1t2 - .684t + .144
v(t) = 10t - .684
a(t) = 10.2

Students
preparing
the motion
sensor

The graph above shows position

and time