Determination of the acceleration due to gravity

by

Buckaroo Banzai

Abstract
The time required for a ball to fall through a preset distance was used to determine the acceleration due to gravity. An experimental value of 10.4 0.2 m/s 2 was obtained. This value is 3 standard deviations away from the accepted value of 9.8 m/s 2 . The most likely cause of this discrepancy is due to the existence of a non- zero initial velocity coming out of the ball drop mechanism.

Determination of the acceleration due to gravity

by Buckaroo Banzai

Laboratory Partners
David Marcus Emmet Brown Hans Zarkov

Introduction
The determination of the local acceleration due to gravity is one of the oldest experiments performed in physics. Galileo was the first person to discover that all objects experience uniform acceleration regardless of their mass. This finding was of great importance since it was the first time experimental data was used to refute a commonly accepted perception, namely that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones. Even today, determining the local value of "g" is important since it can be used to get indirect measurements on the local geological conditions under the surface soil. This can be done because the greatest contribution to the acceleration of a falling object comes from the matter closest to the object. In particular, the local acceleration due to gravity depends on the density of this region. Therefore, a measurement of the acceleration due to gravity can give an average density for the crust in the area, and this in turn can be used to determine subterranean composition in a rough manner. Thus, experimentally determining the acceleration due to gravity is still important and can yield physically useful results.

Purpose
The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the relationship between the acceleration due to gravity, the distance dropped, and time. Specifically, test if the numerical value of g is 9.8 m/s 2 .

Equipment
The equipment used in this experiment is as follows: 2 digital stopwatches with 0.01 s accuracy. 1 set of 25 steel ball bearings, each weighing approximately 25.0 g. 1 Meade 5x spotting telescope with central horizontal marking. Telescope mounted on a adjustable tripod. Tripod equipped with leveling bubble, plumb line and tiltable telescopic shelf. Shelf has built in protractor, marked in 1 intervals. 1 meter stick, marked in 1 cm intervals.

1 ball dropping apparatus, secured to the laboratory wall. The apparatus was specifically designed for this experiment and with the following dimensions (as obtained from the blueprints):

Procedure
1. Load the ball drop apparatus with the ball bearings. 2. Set up the spotting telescope approximately 3 meters from wall. Measure the exact distance using the meter stick. 3. Aim telescope at the exit point of ball drop apparatus, noting the angle made by the telescope on the protractor. Determine the vertical distance between the center of the spotting telescope and the exit point of the ball drop apparatus. This distance is calculated via the formula
h ' = d tan

where h is vertical distance between the center of the spotting telescope and the exit point of the ball drop apparatus, d is the horizontal distance between the center of the spotting telescope and the wall, and is the angle measured on the protractor. 4. Measure the height of the spotting telescope using the meter stick. Calculate the height of the exit point of the ball drop apparatus by adding the height of the spotting telescope to the height determined in step (3). This height is found from y = h + h
4

5. 6.

7. 8.

where y is the total height of the ball drop apparatus, h is the height of the spotting telescope, and h is the height determined in step (3). Have one person operate the ball drop apparatus (operator) and the remainder time the drop (timers). The operator releases one ball, verbally marking the time of release. The timers start their stopwatches at the mark. The timers stop their stopwatches when the ball hits the floor and record the time. Repeat step (6) until all the balls have been released. Reload the ball drop apparatus and rotate positions. Repeat steps (5)(7) until all partners have rotated through all of the positions and there are a minimum of 100 total drops. Using the average height found in step (4) and the average time, calculate average acceleration due to gravity, along with the related uncertainty. The average acceleration is given by
g= 2y t2

where y is the average height found in step (4) and t is the average time.

Notes and Observations

Only two stopwatches were available for use. Stopwatches had calibration stickers on them. Calibration dates were not the same. Specific dates were: 8/92 and 8/88. Thus, step 5 is modified so that two people time the drop while one operates the ball drop apparatus. These three positions were rotated so that everyone took a turn as timer and as operator. Telescope inventory number was TAMUK 20435. Telescope was difficult to level due to one bad leg clamp. The leg would slowly collapse and the telescope would have to be readjusted every 4- 5 balls. The angle to the ball drop apparatus was measured only once since all of the experimenters agreed on both the angle and the uncertainty associated with it.

Data
Distance to wall Person Distance, d (m) Banzai 3.002 Marcus 2.997 Brown 2.998 Uncertainty, d (m) 10.003 10.004 10.001 ( di d ) (m) 0.002 - 0.003 - 0.002 ( di d )2 (m 2 ) 4 x 10 - 6 9 x 10 - 6 4 x 10 - 6

Zarkov

3.001 d = 3.000

10.002

0.001 d = 0.002

1 x 10 - 6 d = 0.001

Angle to ball drop apparatus: Height of Telescope Person Height, h (m) Banzai Marcus Brown Zarkov 1.248 1.253 1.251 1.249 h = 1.250

29.5 11 0.4 1 = (0.515 10.007) rad Uncertainty, h (m) 10.001 10.002 10.001 10.001 ( hi h ) (m) - 0.002 0.003 0.001 - 0.001 h = 0.002 4 9 1 1 ( hi h )2 (m 2 ) 10 - 6 10 - 6 10 - 6 10 - 6 h = 0.001 x x x x

Drop times to floor with an instrumental uncertainty of 10.005 s. All times in seconds,

BB = Buckaroo Banzai, DM = David Marcus, EB = Emmet Brown and HZ = Hans Zarkov Operator BB HZ EB DM Timers EB HZ DM EB BB DM HZ BB 1 0.77 0.85 0.71 0.76 0.75 1.35 0.76 0.78 2 0.65 0.86 0.77 0.64 0.78 0.77 0.76 0.79 3 0.77 0.76 0.71 0.64 0.80 0.76 0.70 0.77 4 0.76 0.76 1.10 0.77 0.71 0.87 0.73 0.81 5 0.73 0.83 0.70 0.63 0.74 0.71 0.78 0.78 6 0.78 0.79 0.78 0.75 0.68 0.73 1.03 0.76 7 0.61 0.81 0.71 0.97 0.72 0.74 0.80 0.87 8 0.71 0.80 0.85 0.75 0.69 0.68 0.82 0.86 9 0.68 0.73 0.85 0.63 0.87 1.47 0.76 0.70 10 0.65 0.86 1.37 0.79 0.87 0.70 0.76 0.71 11 0.75 0.87 0.84 0.60 0.78 0.71 0.73 0.79 12 1.02 0.73 0.79 0.64 0.84 0.72 0.72 0.82 13 0.76 0.77 0.76 0.79 0.82 0.74 0.86 0.68 14 0.71 0.79 0.70 0.66 0.74 0.79 0.86 0.75 15 0.74 0.84 0.70 0.68 0.76 0.70 0.68 0.70 16 0.75 0.81 0.82 0.64 0.77 1.09 0.68 0.87 17 0.78 0.87 0.75 0.99 0.83 0.76 0.84 0.68 18 0.70 0.84 0.84 0.68 0.77 0.80 0.72 0.73 19 0.78 0.72 0.71 0.69 0.69 0.85 0.83 0.72 20 0.73 0.85 0.86 0.76 0.70 0.75 0.76 0.75 21 0.60 0.79 0.76 0.72 1.21 0.71 0.87 0.73 22 0.70 0.78 0.68 0.63 0.85 0.76 0.79 0.76 23 0.67 0.68 0.84 0.65 0.86 0.75 0.81 0.86 24 1.07 0.71 0.77 0.73 0.76 0.82 0.71 1.48 25 0.60 0.87 0.69 0.63 1.02 0.81 0.69 0.82 t 0.74 0.80 0.80 0.71 0.80 0.82 0.78 0.80 0.11 0.06 0.15 0.10 0.11 0.20 0.08 0.15 tn 0.71 0.80 0.78 0.69 0.78 0.77 0.77 0.77 e w nw 0.06 0.06 0.09 0.06 0.08 0.09 0.06 0.06 e t 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01 t best t best 0.752 1 0.004 Some of the times the stopwatch did not stop when the ball hit (marked by a single line). Chauvenet's criterion was used to reject data points (marked by a single line and a highlighted entry). tnw and nw were determined using the reduced data set. e e The final value for the measured t was determined using weighted averaging.
7

Calculated Data
distance dropped, y acceleration due to gravity, g (2.95 10.03) m (10.4 10.2) m/s 2

Conclusions
For the distance tested, a value of 10.410.2 m/s 2 was obtained. This is higher than the accepted value of 9.8 m/s 2 . Specifically, the experimental value is 3 standard deviations above the accepted value. Thus, within our error estimate, we feel that our data does not indicate that the average acceleration due to gravity is given by 9.8 m/s 2 . There are two probable reasons for the large discrepancy. The first reason is related to systematic error induced by the method used to time the drops. By relying on sound cues to start the stopwatches, a delay proportional to the average reaction time was introduced. An equivalent delay was not created at the end, since the experimenters could see the balls hit and tended to stop the stopwatches more accurately. This could be reduced by redesigning the experiment. Instead of relying on sound, some form of photo cell or other automatic timing mechanism could be introduced. The final potential cause of error is in the formula used to calculate 2y the acceleration due to gravity. In this experiment, the formula g = 2 was t used. This formula assumes that the initial vertical velocity of the ball bearing is zero. Looking at the design of the ball dropping apparatus, we see that this assumption is incorrect. The formula that should be used is 2y 2v g = 2 0,y , where v 0,y is vertical speed at which the ball leaves the ball t t dropping apparatus. Since both v 0,y and t are positive, the net effect is to reduce the calculated value of g . Based on the design of the ball dropping apparatus, v 0,y can be approximated as v 0,y = (0.48 0.05) m/s, yielding a g 2 corrected value of ~ = ( 9.1 0.2 ) sm . From our results we see that our measurement of the acceleration due to gravity can be improved by changes in the design of the experiment. In addition, this experiment did not study the possible relation between mass and the acceleration due to gravity. A future experiment to determine if any relationship exists should be performed.