Mathematics and Physical Science Department

EXPERIMENT NUMBER 5
FREE – FALLING BODIES

Name:
Vivas, Francis Gary J.

PHYSICS LABORATORY 1 Date Performed: Jan 18, 2018

F1003 Date Submitted: Jan 24, 2018
1:00pm-3:50pm Submitted to: Mrs. Ana Lopez

Score:
I. Introduction
An object that I falling under the influence of gravity alone is called a free falling body.
Two major natural philosophers, Galileo and Aristotle, disagree about the nature of a free falling
body. Team Aristotle argues that the property of a falling body affects its motion. They argue
that a heavier object falls faster to the ground as compared to a lighter object. They reason that
this phenomenon is directly observable in nature. Team Galileo, on the other hand, vehemently
denies this observation. Galileo explains that free-falling bodies, regardless of their masses and
shapes, move at the same rate towards the ground. These contradicting ideas confused a lot of
people for a very long time. Now it is the goal of your group to shed light on this matter

II. Objectives
a. Describe the motion of a free – falling body
b. Measure the acceleration of a free – falling body

III. Materials
1 Iron Stand 1 Metal Stick
1 Metal Bal 1 Triple Beam Balance
1 Big Marble 1 Stop Watch
1 Small Marble

IV. Procedures
1. Determine the mass of the marbles, and the metallic ball.
2. Measure the diameters of the marbles and compute their volume.
3. Record your initial measurement on table 5.0
4. Move the clamp (ball/marble holder) approximately 40 cm above the surface of the
table
5. Place the small marble on the clamp (holder). Place a piece of paper (cloth if available)
on the marble’s dropping point. Measure the height of the marble with respect to the
dropping point. Get the uncertainty in length (height’s uncertainty).
6. Release the marble from the rest and measure the total time before it hits the dropping
point. Repeat ten times. Make sure that the one who measures the time also releases
the marble.
7. Compute the average time of fall and its corresponding uncertainty. The standard error
of the mean is the measure of the uncertainty (Review Activity no.1)
 8. Calculate the acceleration of the ball and the corresponding uncertainty using the
equations below.
2H
a= i2

δa=
where
t2
(
√
2 H δH 2 2 δ t 2
H
) +(
t
)

a = acceleration
H = height of release
t = average time
δH = uncertainty in height
δt = uncertainty in time
9. Repeat this same procedure for the big marble and the metallic ball

V. Data and Results

Table 5.0 Initial Data

Object Mass Diameter Volume

Small Marble 1.9g 1.0cm 0.52 cm3
Big Marble 5.3g 1.5cm 1.77 cm3
Metallic Ball 27.7g 3.2cm 17.16 cm3

Table 5.1 Time of fall

Time (s)
Trial Small Marble Big Marble Metallic Ball
1 0.29 0.21 0.19
2 0.31 0.21 0.14
3 0.31 0.22 0.1
4 0.28 0.21 0.9
5 0.39 0.23 0.13
6 0.39 0.30 0.14
7 0.32 0.28 0.13
8 0.29 0.24 0.14
9 0.32 0.19 0.17
10 0.38 0.17 0.13
Mean 0.33 0.23 0.22
Uncertainty 222.61 657.52 751.32

Table 5.2 Summary of Result

 Object Average time of fall Acceleration Acceleration
Uncertainty
Small Marble 0.32 734.62 222.61
Big Marble 0.23 1512.29 657.52
Metallic Ball 0.22 1652.89 751.32

VI. Questions for analysis and discussion

1. Which object has the fastest time of fall? Explain your choice.
Based on our data the fastest time of fall is metallic ball because it has greater mass
among the three and have the lower air resistance.
2. Which object has the largest acceleration? Explain your choice.
Metallic ball because the gravitational force is proportional to the mass of the object.
More massive objects have a greater gravitational force. Then the higher the mass of the object
gives the largest acceleration when it’s falling.

3. Do the difference in the time of fall and acceleration among the three objects significantly
different with each other? Explain your answer.

Yes, because the three have different masses and it affects the time of all and
acceleration. Also air resistance affects the result of the data.

4. Based on the result of your group’s exercise, which explanation (Galileo or Aristotle) of free
falling bodies do you agree with? Explain your answer.

Aristotle because on our data the heavier object fall faster than the lighter object and
because our laboratory has air it affects the lighter object to fall because the presence of air
resistance that makes it slower to fall compare to heavy object.

5. What are the possible sources of error in this exercise? Explain your answer.

Human error has the biggest impact in this experiment because we can’t perfectly time
the fall of the object and because of that we have a random data that differ from our previous
result. Also the instruments we used especially the smartphone because we only stop the timer
if we hear the sound of impact so that we don’t know exactly the time of fall.

VII. Conclusion
 Therefore, I conclude that free fall occurs whenever an object is acted upon
by gravity alone. Based from our results of our experiment, we conclude that all
falling bodies have the same motion regardless of mass when air friction and air
resistance are negligible. The weight, size, and shape of an object are not factors
in describing a free fall. When an object falls under the influence of gravity, its
velocity increases at a regular pace and the average of this pace is known as
gravity. We also prove that Aristotle’s theory which the mass and volume of a
given body falls faster compared to lighter objects. However, Galileo’s theory is
that objects regardless of their mass and shapes moves in a constant acceleration
towards the ground provided that you will have the air resistance that affects the
object.