Falling ball experiment

Objective

To investigate how the height a ball is thrown from affects the penetration distance in a flosorb mixture it reaches

Hypothesis

If the height the marble is thrown from increases, then the penetration distance in flosorb will increase as well because according to this formula, d=v^2/2μg  where v= velocity, μ= friction coefficient, and g= acceleration due to gravity”  (Formulas.tutorvista.com, 2014), the distance will be longer because the velocity will be faster (we know that the final velocity will be higher because since there is more distance to go through, it will have more time to accelerate as indicated by the following formula; "v= v0  + at , where v0= initial velocity, v=final velocity, a= acceleration and t= time” (Furey, 2014)) and the friction coefficient will stay the same because the substance is the same and so will gravity. 

Variables

Materials 

-Ruler

-Meter stick

-Sodium polyacrylate

-Plastic beaker 

-Marble

-Tap water

- Spoon

-Scale

Method

-Gather all the equipment

-Take a 250 ml beaker or bigger and fill it up with water.

-Mix 7 grams of sodium polyacrylate , until the mixture looks like jelly but enough transparent.

-With your ruler or meter stick, measure 50 cm, and put the marble at that height approximately

-Throw the ball from one of the heights

-Measure the penetration distance with a ruler. If you can't because the mixture isn't as transparent as it should, push the marble to the side of the beaker and measure it.

-Don’t forget to collect all your results. You need to do each measurement 5 times.

-Repeat this procedure changing the height to 50,100, 150, 200,  and 250 cm.

-Clean up and tidy up

Data process 

References

Formulas.tutorvista.com,. (2014). Stopping Distance Formula | Formula for Stopping Distance | Formulas@TutorVista.com. Retrieved 1 June 2014, from http://formulas.tutorvista.com/physics/stopping-distance-formula.html


Furey, E. (2014). Velocity as a function of Acceleration and Time. CalculatorSoup Online Calculator Resource. Retrieved 1 June 2014, from http://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/physics/velocity_a_t.php