acceleration due to gravity?

Question

i know that the acceleration due to gravity is around 9.8 m/s2. but can anyone think of an experiment to prove it? maybe something like use a ball and let it fall to measure the speed? pls dont give me complicated experiment that gives me accurate value, i just need a simple experiment that gives me a rough value of around 9.8.
please describe the experiment fully, thanks

Answer 1

trust the experts ( to do an experiment you would have to calculate the drag due to the air it falls through ---impossible in a SIMPLE experiment ----not to mention the difficulty of timing the fall , proper release device , on and on and on ) FOR THE GUY BELOW do you have any idea what a high speed camera with a certified timing device cost ? TRUST ME NO SIMPLE EXPERIMENT POSSIBLE your results would be off just a little but a little off means INVALID RESULTS

but if you want to measure the falling rate of an object in the atmosphere USE THE SUGGESTIONS BELOW but don't forget to measure BAROMETRIC PRESSURE-HUMIDITY- TEMPERATURE ( like i said above ---if it's not repeatable it's not science )

Answer 2

Drop the ball from varying heights and measure the time it takes to hit the ground. Graph the results. If you have access to a camera that can take a series of shots, take a set in front of a tape measure. If you can use a strobe light that flashes every 1/10 of a second or so, use that. Note that if you drop it from too high, or use too light a ball, air resistance will slow it down and you'll no longer be measuring the acceleration due to gravity.

I won't describe it fully. You need to think about that.

Answer 3

There is no very simple method to determine the acceleration. But there are some simple instruments . A vacuum tube will release a ball from a particular distance at a particular time. The time clock will start working in 100 th of seconds. This will get stopped when the ball reaches it bottom. So you know the time of travel and the distance of travel. I have facilities to measure . The instrument I use will cost around 40 Us dollars only.

Answer 4

If you have a video camera or a still camera that can take several pics in a row (quickly), then:
Set up a tape measure somewhere with 10 - 20 feet (maybe a stairwell), put a digital clock nearby. Set up the camera to film the results.
Drop a ball beside the tape measure and show how far the ball falls each second....

Answer 5

Make a pendulum, hanging from a second story balcony. The time required for one complete cycle is T= 2 pi sqrt(L/g) where L is the length of the string. Say L is 3 meters, that gives a T of about 3.47 seconds. You should be able to measure this with a precision of .15 seconds, giving you a value of g within 5% of its true value.

Because the pendulum moves slower than a dropped object, you dont have to worry about air friction.

The pendulum equation is only valid for small oscillations, so don't let it swing too far.

Answer 6

Time a dropped a ball (something small & heavy like a baseball to reduce air resistance error) from a 10-12 storey building or a structure where you know the height. Calculate using s= 0.5 x a x t x t (where s= distance and a is acceleration due to gravity and t= time).

Answer 7

Get a pop gun that shoots a little ball or something like that to around 40 feet in the air.

Load and **** the gun and hit a stop watch just as you fire the gun, then hit a stop watch as the ball or whatever projectile hits the ground.

Make sure to fire the gun with your hand on the ground and straight up in the air on a windless day.

Its going to be hard to get a good measurement by just dropping something, but gravitational acceleration is in force both as the ball is rising and as it is falling.

If you know exactly how high the ball flies, and you know how long it is in the air, you can find out its velocity, etc. etc. etc.

Answer 8

Gravity was originally found using very simple equipment. All you need is an even slope with a known degree of elevation and something that will roll/slide down the slope with minimal friction.

a = g*sin(theta)

sin(theta) = height of slope/length of slope =(opposite/hypotenuse)

measure a by marking the the slope with set distances. Have a person stationed at each marking; each starts a stopwatch when the objects starts down the slope. each person stops the watch as soon as the object passes his or her assigned mark. You will then have a table of distance versus time values.

assuming the object starts from rest,

distance traveled = (1/2)(a)(t^2)

Average the accelerations to get a good value and eliminate some error, then plug in to a =gsin(theta).

a/sin(theta) = (your very own calculation of) g

Answer 9

you seem to be pretty good at math take the height of a building calculate it down to about nine feet. them take the weight of a person like let say you and calculate it to the size of a shoe
smaller then think if you were 500 hundred feet in the air and falling . and some how calculate the speed using one of those micro machine speed do-meter. then reverse the calculations to normal size , and you will answer yours and my question does it work. the micro thing. but the calculation must be right or you'll go para shooting and #$ck up thus the perfect why to test