Today, you will be reconstructing an experiment that Galileo did over 400 years ago. Galileo wanted to test the acceleration of a falling body due to gravity, although he didn’t know about gravity at this time. Galileo didn’t have timing devices that could measure the short amount of time it took for an object to fall, so he had to slow down their falling rates. He did this by using an inclined plane.
Question: How does gravity effect the acceleration of an object?
Hypothesis:
Materials:
Galileo Inclined Track
1 plastic ball
1 marble
1 Stopwatch
Procedures:
1. One member of your group should be the timer.
2. At the same time, release the ball from Point A and say “GO”.
3. The timer should start the watch when they hear the word “GO”.
4. Timer should stop the watch when the ball hits the end of the track.
5. Repeat Steps 2-4 two more times for a total of three (3) trials.
6. Record your results on your data sheet.
7. Repeat Steps 2-6 for Points B, C, and D.
8. Calculate the Average Time by ADDING the three trials and DIVIDING by 3.
9. Measure the distance from Point A to the finish.
10. Repeat Step 9 for Points B, C, and D.
11. Calculate the Average Speed by DIVIDING the distance by the Average Time.
12. You will do this experiment once with a marble and once with a plastic ball.
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Galileo Ball Drop Experiment Data Sheet |
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Name |
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Plastic Ball |
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Avg. Speed |
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Time for Trial 1 |
Time for Trial 2 |
Time for Trial 3 |
Avg. Time |
Distance |
Distance/ Time |
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(sec) |
(sec) |
(sec) |
(sec) |
(cm) |
(cm/sec) |
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Point A |
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Point B |
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Point C |
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Point D |
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Marble |
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Avg. Speed |
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Time for Trial 1 |
Time for Trial 2 |
Time for Trial 3 |
Avg. Time |
Distance |
Distance/ Time |
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(sec) |
(sec) |
(sec) |
(sec) |
(cm) |
(cm/sec) |
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Point A |
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Point B |
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Point C |
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Point D |
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Questions
1. What happened to the acceleration of the ball as the distance increased? Was the result the same with both objects? Use data in your answer.
2. Compare the time to travel from Point A to the end with Point D to the end. How do they compare? Is this result surprising to you? Explain your answer.
Please state your conclusion
Please list any possible errors