Measurement of Free-Fall Acceleration

Measurement of Free-Fall Acceleration Introduction         Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), the man first accredited with the correct notion of free-fall with uniform acceleration, stated that 'if one were to remove entirely the resistance of the medium, all materials would descend with equal speed.' Today, this statement holds true for all objects in free-fall near the Earth's surface. The purpose of this experiment is to verify Galileo's assertion that acceleration is constant. In addition, the magnitude of …

…m/s2         s = 9.47 ± .78 m/s2         slope (m) of graph = 8.9 Conclusions         The average value of acceleration for each time interval is closer to the desired value of 9.8 m/s2 than the calculated slope of the velocity-time graph. The average of uncertainties for the calculated accelerations is a better as choice of uncertainty because it provides a narrower field of uncertainty than does standard deviation. In conclusion, the calculated value of 9.47 ± .69 m/s2 for acceleration is acceptable.