Challenging Physics problem?

Question

I find this to be really difficult problem, and I can't find someone who can answer it.

Two physics students have been selected by NASA to accompany astronauts on a future mission to the Moon. The students are to design and carry out a simple experiment to measure the acceleration due to gravity on the surface of the Moon. Describe an experiment that the students could conduct to measure the acceleration due to gravity on the Moon. The answer must include :
- the equipment needed
- what quantities would be measured using this equipment
- what procedure the students should follow in conducting their experiment
- what equations and/or calculations the students would need to do to arrive at a value for the acceleration due to gravity on the Moon.

Answer 1

Find the period of a simple pendulum in moon. Use all that used while on earth. Calculate g.

Answer 2

They could use the Newtonian equation: -

s = u.t + 0.5.g.t^2

To measure gravity in the vacuum surrounding the Moon, all they would have to do is measure, very accurately, the time of fall from rest for a small weight. The weight could be dropped from an electronically opened trap - which in turn started a very accurate clock. The clock would be stopped, as the falling weight passed a light beam, just above the surface of the Moon. If the distance 's', of fall for the weight, between the release trap (clock start) and the light beam (clock stop) is accurately known then the equation simply becomes: -

s = 0.5.g.t^2

Where 't' is the time of fall and 'g' is the Moon's gravitational acceleration (^2 means squared). This equation rearranges to give: -

g = 2.s/(t^2)

Thus, the two students could very simply measure the gravitational acceleration on the Moon.

Answer 3

1. Take a 10 gram feather, 1 kilo hammer, stopwatch and ruler.
2. Measure out the height from which you will drop the feather and the hammer. You are doing both to reduce error, because you should get the same answer for both.
3. Time how long it takes for the items to fall your measured distance.
4. Calculate your results using d = 1/2 * g * t^2. d is your distance, t is the time, and g is the gravitational acceleration you are measuring. To make it easy, re-write as this:
g = 2dt^2
5. Do a third test with a sheet of paper. You should get the same answer as with the other two items.

Answer 4

Think of all of the things you've done in physics lab that involve the local acceleration of gravity: free-fall, balls rolling down inclined planes, simple pendulums...any of these would be fine.

I'd be inclined to use a simple pendulum with a well-known length L, measure the period T, and solve for the local acceleration of gravity g:

T = 2π √ ( L / g )

Answer 5

as a matter of fact, the equipment needed to measure the value of g on the surface of moon is the same as that which is used on the surface of the earth

Answer 6

position of dropped ball = h - 1/2 gt^2 position of thrown ball = v0 t - 1/2 gt^2 Set them equal and solve for the time: t = h / v0 They give you the height and the initial speed. Plugnchug. Notice how you can just ignore gravity in these kinds of problems where two objects are falling. It's like the classroom demo of the monkey and the pop gun. You fire the gun and drop the monkey at the same time, so you can hit the monkey if you just aim right at the it without considering gravity. If you are having a hard time with this, tell your teacher you need to see a monkey-shooting demo.

Answer 7

This is a totally trivial problem. A fish scale and a lead sinker are all the equipment needed. Weigh the sinker on the fish scale on earth, weigh it again on the moon, and divide.