Velocity Lab Investigation

In today's lab, our goal was to figure out how weight and height affected the velocity of an object dropping.

Problem: How does height affects velocity? How does mass affect velocity?

Hypothesis: Height will give what ever object that is dropped a larger rebound and greater force.. Newton's 3rd law states, "For every action, there is an equal and opposition Reaction." If an object is dropped from a higher berth, the object will have a greater rebound because the opposite reaction will bring it higher. If an object is dropped from a higher berth, the object will achieve more velocity because of the speed at which it travels downward and gravity bringing the object down. Mass will give an object more velocity because the higher the mass, the higher the velocity. These two combined factors will give this object much more velocity than normal.

Materials:
Vernier Computer Interface
Vernier motion sensor
Computer
Meter stick
Painter's or Duct tape
Ping Pong Ball
Golf Ball

Procedures:
Place meter stick on ground. Drop the golf ball from the top of the meter stick. Time the drop. Do 3 times. FInd average. Plug in equation (d=v*t). The ball is placed at the top of the meter stick. Next place the meter stick standing on top of a table. Drop the ball over the side of the table and time the drop. Do this 3 times and find the average. Plug the average into the equation (d=v*t). After this, place the meter stick so that it touches the ceiling. Drop the ball and time the drop. Do this 3 times and find the average. Plug the average into the equation (d=v*t) (Repeat steps with Ping Pong ball)

Procedures for Motion Sensor:
Tape the Vernier motion sensor to one end of the meter stick. Make sure that the actual sensor is not taped over. Now measure the velocity of the golf ball at the same heights as the day before. Before each drop, make sure the golf ball is right under the motion sensor. Before the drop, click "Collect" in the Vernier Computer Interface and it will measure speed and distance

Results:


In some cases the figures make sense, but for every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction, so we also have numbers that don't make any sense. I agree with the averages we got, and those look normal thankfully. Looking at the individual test scores...that's a different story. On the 1 meter and 3 meter tests, the results were as expected, the golf ball took longer to fall than the ping pong ball. On the second test, for whatever reason the ping pong ball was taking longer to fall than the golf ball. Hmm...I'm thinking that it was a button pushing error, or the fact that we have an alien golf ball.

During the velocity test, all was normal accept for the 2 meter test...go figure. The average of the tests was the same and therefore the velocity itself was the same. Again, I think that our alien golf ball wants to screw our experiment up.

Overall, we calculated the force of the ping pong ball to be 24.5 N, and the golf ball was roughly 447.5 N. Because of all these results, my group concluded that the heavier the object and the longer it is falling (the greater the distance), gives it more and more velocity.