Simulation-Longer Distance Lab Report

In general, the experiment succeeded in demonstrating free-fall by dropping a tennis ball. Distance and time were documented to calculate velocity and acceleration, the quantities involved in linear kinematics. Graph 1 (distance vs. time) suggests a commonsensical relation - longer distance yields longer time. The only exception is at 1.0 m, where its time value (0.42 s) is less than that of a shorter distance (0.5s for 0.5 m distance). Average time was used to construct the graph, and there were only three trials for each testing height. Therefore, a bad trial could considerably affect the average time, in this case is 1.0 m, leading to its off-trend position on the graph. Graph 2 (velocity vs. time) demonstrates that the greater distance has greater velocity. The exception from Graph 1 similarly occurs in Graph 2, where the …show more content…
In particular, the velocity at 0.5s is 1.62 m/s – less than the velocity (2.38 m/s) of the shorter time (0.42s). In fact, it is reasonable that the exception is repeated in both graphs, demonstrating the mutual relationships between these quantities. Specifically, the slope of Graph 1 (distance over time) indicates the velocity, while the slope of Graph 2 (velocity over time) signifies the acceleration of the motion. The velocity is used in the equation to determine acceleration, therefore, the graphs end up looking similar to each other (both trend lines tend to increase when moving rightward).
The standard deviation for velocity is calculated to be 2.26 ± 0.8023 m/s. On the other hand, the standard deviation for acceleration is 5.566 ± 0.4453 m/s2. In addition to that, the accelerations from each testing height are also compared to the theoretical acceleration (9.8 m/s2). The lowest percent error (36.22%) comes from the lowest testing distance (0.25 m). Furthermore, the lower testing heights (0.25 m, 0.5m, 1.0 m) tend to have the lower percent error