Have a friend drop a dime and a quarter at the same time from as high as they can reach while standing on a chair. Try it a couple of times. Which hits the ground first? Now try dropping one of the coins at the same time as a piece of paper or feather is dropped? Again, which hits the ground first? What can you conclude? What do you suppose would happen if you did this experiment on the moon? Why?
Part B:
It is important to remember that force and acceleration are vectors and that therefore a force in a particular direction will only affect the motion in that direction. Gravity is a handy source of a constant acceleration. Since the force of gravity is always downward then it should not affect horizontal motion. Let’s test this.
Get yourself:
1) a couple objects that you can comfortably drop from a high place
2) a high, safe place
3) a stopwatch or a watch with a second hand (even counting one-one thousand, two-one thousand etc. will work in a pinch)
4) a partner would be helpful.
Get yourself:
1) a couple objects that you can comfortably drop from a high place
2) a high, safe place
3) a stopwatch or a watch with a second hand (even counting one-one thousand, two-one thousand etc. will work in a pinch)
4) a partner would be helpful.
What you’re going to do is see how long it takes for your objects to fall and hit the ground. And you’re going to do this while giving your object different horizontal speeds. By different horizontal speeds we mean different speed parallel to the ground. Make sure some of your measurements involve simply dropping your objects (this is zero initial horizontal speed) while other times your objects start out moving perfectly horizontal
Lab reports must include four parts: hypothesis (a statement of the specific things you expect to happen in the experiment), method (a detailed description of what you did), data & observations ( a detailed listing of what you saw, and an organized data table for any numerical data you collected), and Conclusions. The conclusions should state your major findings, discuss if what you found supported or did not support your hypothesis, and connect what you learned in lab to the topics studied in class that week. You must complete all parts of each lab and the lab write up for full credit. Each lab report is worth 20 points.
Sample Solution
