Measurement of Gravity with a Projectile Experiment

Daniel Brown

Aberystwyth University
Abstract

The aim of this experiment is to measure the value of g, the acceleration

of gravity at the surface of the Earth, by timing how long a frictionless
projectile takes to travel through the air before hitting the ground. The
experiment is carried out by projecting the body at different height. Using
principle of conservation of energy and range of object in horizontal projectile
motion, the equation below is obtained.

R2
g=
2 h t2

By plotting the graph of R2against 2 h t 2, g is obtained by calculating the

gradient. The final measured value of g is given by g = 8.4ms-2 which compares
well with g = 9.8, the value of gravity given in the literature. The main source
of errors in the experiment and how to improve the accuracy of the measured
result are discussed.
INTRODUCTION

Projectile motion could be defined as the motion of an object launched

at a certain speed and then subjected only to the constant acceleration of
gravity. Real-world examples are everywhere: bullets shot from guns, erasers
hurled across classrooms, basketballs thrown into hoops, bottles tossed into
garbage cans, pianos flung by trebuchets.

Projectile motion is a good subject for study because it describes a lot of

real-world situations, and because the math involved is not especially difficult.
To keep the math from becoming difficult, we make a few reasonable
assumptions.

Galileo was the first person who accurately described projectile motion.
Because of the drawings of Niccolo Tartaglia, Galileo realized that a projectile
followed a curved path which is called a parabola. It was later found out by
Galileo that the parabola has an exact mathematical shape. Also, he stated that
a projectile was acted upon by two forces, vertical and horizontal. The vertical
force was from gravity, which pulled it to Earth at 9.8 m/s. That is why a
parabola is a precise mathematical equation.
 The foremost of these assumptions is that gravity is the only force acting
on the projectile.

In particular, we assume that there is no air resistance. That's a

reasonable assumption, as long as the projectile is fairly dense and is not
moving too fast through the air. It breaks down if the projectile isn't dense
enough (e.g. a loose wad of paper flung across a room) or if it's moving far and
fast enough to make air resistance a serious effect (e.g. an artillery shell fired a
long distance at supersonic speed). These effects should not be a problem in
this lab.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the acceleration due to gravity, g using motion method.

THEORY

From the law of the conservation energy, the potential energy of a body of
mass, m equals to its kinetic energy and is given by:
1 (1)
mgh= m v 2x
2

Where m = the mass of the object

g = the acceleration due to the gravity
h = the height of the body
v x = the velocity of the body
 A body which is moving in a projectile motion with a velocity of v x will have a
range of:

R=v x t (2)

Where v x is the horizontal component of the velocity (see in Figure 1)

Combining equation (1) and (2), we obtain:

R2
g= (3)
2 h t2

Where t is time taken for the body from the end of the curve track to reach the
ground.

steel ball
Figure 1

h
steel ball vx
curved railing
projectile
motion

horizontal table

drawing paper steel ball

pendulum bob

Procedure:
1. Set up the apparatus as shown in Figure 1.
2. Slide the steel ball on the curve railing from 8 different heights, h and
record the values of R and t.
 3. Plot a graph of R2 against 2ht2 and calculate the value of g from the table
and graph.

RESULT

Height, Range, R (m) Time, t (s) R2 T2 2ht2

No
h (m) R1 R2 R3 R T1 T2 T3 T

1 0.05 0.307 0.307 0.302 0.305 0.51 0.72 0.70 0.64 0.0930 0.41 0.041

2 0.10 0.459 0.456 0.464 0.460 0.51 0.47 0.46 0.48 0.2116 0.23 0.046

3 0.15 0.538 0.552 0.573 0.554 0.51 0.45 0.43 0.46 0.3069 0.21 0.063

4 0.20 0.642 0.666 0.668 0.659 0.42 0.41 0.49 0.44 0.4343 0.19 0.076

5 0.25 0.740 0.743 0.728 0.737 0.42 0.42 0.43 0.42 0.5432 0.18 0.09

6 0.30 0.828 0.820 0.802 0.817 0.40 0.41 0.43 0.41 0.6675 0.17 0.102

7 0.35 0.882 0.892 0.847 0.874 0.40 0.42 0.39 0.40 0.7639 0.16 0.114

8 0.40 0.871 0.880 0.854 0.868 0.38 0.41 0.39 0.39 0.7540 0.15 0.124
DATA ANALYSIS

R2 vs 2ht2
0.9
 Graph 1.0

0.8

0.7

0.6
CALCULATION :
0.5
By using this this formula
R2

0.4
below, we can obtain the
0.3 gravity based on the
0.2 gradient of the straight

0.1 line from the graph above.

0 R2
0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 0.11 0.12 0.13 g=
2 h t2
2ht2

Find the gradient for the

best line.

y 2− y 1
𝑚𝑏 = g = 2 1
x −x
0.70−0.28
= 0.11−0.06

= 8.4ms-2.

DICUSSION
 The experiment was carried out to investigate the relationship between
acceleration due to gravity, 9.81 ms-2. We managed to obtain all the data by
doing all the procedures as followed. Graph 1.0 was constructed based from
the data table in order to obtain the gradient from the straight line which is
being used to calculate the gravity. In this experiment, 8 different heights were
set by using the curved railing to let the steel ball rolls down to the landing
surface. The stopwatch was started when the steel ball reached at the end of
the curved track and being stopped immediately after it reached the landing
surface (carbon paper and drawing paper). All the observations were recorded
in the table.
From the data table, it shows the velocity for each height is not constant.
This is because the time and acceleration values for each height where the
steel ball released were different. Because acceleration is the rate of change of
velocity per unit of time, the velocity was changing, not constant. The time
value would get smaller and the acceleration value would increase as the
curvature railing got steeper. Also, while going down the curved railing, the
ball changed its velocity. Therefore at each height, the velocity values were
different and the velocity changed as the ball travelled down the curved
railing.
As the calculation has been made, it can be found that the acceleration
due to gravity is 8.4 ms-2, which was slightly different with the theoretical
value for acceleration due to gravity which is 9.81 ms-2. The slight different
might be caused by the air resistance and frictional force between curvature
railing and the steel ball. The experiment can be said as successful because the
difference between theoretical value of acceleration due gravity was small.
To ensure the observation of the data is more correct, the experiment
needs to be repeated for three times to find the average value. Thus, the
accuracy of the value obtained will be précised. Besides that, in order to reduce
the error, our eyes must be perpendicular to the scale in order to avoid
parallax error. Besides that, we must make sure the curvature railing was
straight to ensure that the ball can slide in a straight line. The stopwatch needs
to be stopped immediately after the steel ball reached the ground because the
timing might not accurate and this will affect the calculation as a result a
wrong value of gravity will be obtained.

CONCLUSION

From the experiment, it can be concluded that the acceleration of the

steel ball is affected by the gravity which is 9.8 m/s2, but we did not obtain the
precise value of the gravity because based from the data and calculation had
been made our acceleration due to gravity is 8.4 m/s2. Also, the mass of the
steel ball was kept constant thus it did not affect the acceleration. We also
know that the relationship between the acceleration and the different height of
the ball released from the curved railing, which are directly proportional to
each other. We found this by increasing the height in each experiment and
timing each run to see if the time it took for the ball to roll down the curved
railing is shorter, which it was. In other words, the higher the height of the
ball released, the faster the acceleration, and the closer it gets to 9.8 m/s 2.
Overall, while we were not entirely accurate with our hypotheses, we
completed our objectives, and learned from both our results and our mistakes.
REFERENCE

Sources

Book:

 Fendt, Walter. “Projectile motion.” 9/13/200, 8/30/2006

http://www.walter-fendt.de/ph11e/projectile.htm

Internet:

 https://podcast.punxsy.k12.pa.us/groups/laineyswiki/revisions/1aeda/17/
 http://honorsphysicsrocks.wikispaces.com/