1. Ayano Masuda
P5 Physics
5/March/2008
Acceleration of a Falling Ball Lab
Introduction
Gravity is the force that attracts objects in space towards each other, and that on the earth
pulls them towards the centre of the earth. In this experiment, the research question is
“How does mass effect the acceleration of an object in the fall?"
Hypothesis
If mass of the ball increases, then the acceleration of the ball increases, so the ball falls
faster because the force of gravity also increases.
Materials
The motion detector
One small ball
One medium ball
One large ball
Computer
Methods
The all materials are in right positions. First, place the motion detector on the ceiling, and
switch it on. After that hold the small ball and throw it towards the motion detector. Then
click the motion detector. The motion detector will present the data in form of graphs on
the computer screen. There are two graphs; one is position time graph and the other is
velocity time graph. And then repeat the procedure by increasing the ball’s size to middle
and large. From the velocity time graph we estimate the most linear part of curve then we
click on the button “Analyze” on the computer to get linear fit line.
Figure 1: Position of the materials
Data collection
Figure 2: The graph shows relationship between time and velocity. These three slopes are
almost same numbers, so these three slopes have similar accelerations.

2. Table 1: Mass vs. Acceleration
This table shows that the mass of the ball increases, but the average acceleration does not
increase and it is almost constant.
Mass of the Acceleration Average
balls Trial 1(m/s/s) Trial 2(m/s/s Trial 3(m/s/s) Trial 4(m/s/s) acceleration(m/s/s)
Small Ball 9.636 9.911 9.934 9.810 9.823
(23.12g)
Medium Ball 9.656 9.695 9.773 9.744 9.694
(44.63g)
Large Ball 9.539 9.521 9.574 9.892 9.6351
(67.02g)
“?” Object 9.274 9.245 9.548 9.198 9.316
(64g)
Data processing and Presentation
Figure3: the graph shows that even mass of the ball increases, the acceleration does not
increase and it is constant.
Discussion/Conclusion
The result does not support the hypothesis because although mass of the ball increases,
the acceleration does not change. Therefore, there is no relationship between the mass of
ball and acceleration, and acceleration is always constant.
In the table 1, the results are unsteady because the results done by human hand.