Lab Experiment: Free Fall and Projectile Motion, Lab Report Example

Introduction

The laboratory experiment was conducted in order to ascertain the qualities of bodies experiencing free fall and projectile motion. The movement in which a body is launched is designated as projectile motion. Free falling bodies only have the force of gravity exerted upon it. The interval of flight was determined for the vertical motion component of the projected bodies as y = y_i + v_it -1/2gt² (Finocchiaro 21). In the case of the free falling bodies the equation y = 5.579x² – 0.2539x + 1.1108 was applied for the first free falling body.

The value of R² in the first equation was tabulated at 0.9999.  In the second trial the equation of y= 5.2039x² + 5.1837x – 0.0282 was applied. For the body starting with an initial velocity and falling afterward.  The value of R² that was applied in the second trial was one. In the third trial, a body with an initial horizontal speed was launched. The equation used in the third trial was y= 5.2338x² + 0.3808x + 1.0626. The value of R² that was applied in the first component of the third trial was one. The value of R2 that was used in the second component of trial three was R² = 0.9997. The second equation in the third trial that was applied had been y = 0.747x + 0.3954. In the fourth experiment the equation that was determined was y = 5.1174x² + 4.5126x – 0.0277. The R2 value that was used for the fourth trial was R²= 1.

Objective

The objective of the experiment was to confirm the theory proposed by Aristotle and Galileo with regards to bodies that are launched and free falling bodies (Finocchiaro 21).

Procedure

The conventional procedure in each of the trials is identical.  A movie was filmed of the movement that was reviewed. In addition the position of the moving object had been measured in each of the movie frames. A graph was plotted in order to determine the manner that these positions changed as a function of the time passing. There had been two devices which were established for the creation of the movie. After the movie was filmed, a copy was sent to the group´s computer in order to evaluate the motion.

Conclusion

The lab experiment assisted in the comprehension of free falling and launched bodies. It had been demonstrated that with the effect of gravity, an object in free fall starts with an initial velocity and accelerates at a continuous pace toward the Earth. When an object is free falling, the unique force that is exerted is the force of the Earth´s gravity. The air resistance is not considered in the experiment due to its negligible contribution. The force exerted by the Earth´s gravity is almost constant as the body is free falling close to the Earth´s surface. As a result of this characteristic, the object is accelerated in a downward direction at a constant index. The acceleration index is represented by g. In this experiment, movies were filmed of the bodies which had been free falling and launched. The movies were transposed to the class computer and graphs had been depicted. The graphs demonstrated the equations and the slope of the object as it was in free fall or launched.

Works Cited

Finocchiaro, Maurice A. The Routledge Guidebook to Galileo´s Dialogue. New York, NY: Routledge, 2013. Print.