Free Fall Motion Graphs with Sonic Ranger

Mechanics > Kinematics > Motion in One-Dimension > Measurement of g

DCS# 1C30.xx

FREE FALL MOTION GRAPHS WITH SONIC RANGER

DESCRIPTION

Use the motion sensor to monitor a bouncing ball and plot position, velocity and acceleration vs time.; The value of the acceleration due to gravity is best obtained by fitting a regression line to a portion of the velocity graph.
NOTES: To just determine g, drop the ball onto a cushion (202-01-A) to minimize artifacts in the data from echos off hard surfaces.

Keep stray objects, in particular the sensor cable, out of the 30° cone of the sensor. The sensor cannot detect the ball when it is closer than 0.4 m.; It may take several trials to get one run in which the ball remains in the sensor's field of view.; The experiment file entitled "sports.mbl" has the x, v, and a vs t graphs displayed with appropriately scaled axes. Zero the sensor with the ball on the floor. Alternatively, go to setup > sensors > details to set up graphs so that the origin is at the floor and displacements toward the sensor are positive.