Matt ODonnell

Lab 1: Analysis of One-Dimensional Motion

Introduction:
This experiment was conducted to analyze the one-dimensional motion of a
ball lacking substantial air resistance as it was thrown straight up and fell down, and
of a ball with substantial air resistance as it was dropped to a free fall. The time and
position data was collected with a software program and plotted to compare the
motion of the two balls with the motion predicted by the kinematic equations. This
allowed the calculation of the constants of the kinematic equations, including a (or
g), for the thrown ball.

Procedure:
The instructor recorded 2 videos in front of a premeasured screen: one of a student
throwing a tennis ball straight up into the air and allowing it to fall, the other of the
student dropping a Styrofoam ball from the top of the screen and allowing to
freefall.
We then imported these videos into the software program Tracker and we calibrated
the area of the screen in the video in accordance with its premeasured area. We
then used the program to mark the position of the balls as the videos advanced,
tracking the position of the balls relative to time elapsed. We then used Tracker to
get the y-coordinate (vertical position) for each of these marker placements, along
with the calculation of the velocity (vy) and acceleration (ay). We copy and pasted
this data table into Microsoft Excel.
In Excel, we created scatterplots from this data of the thrown balls position vs. time
and velocity vs. time, set a quadratic trendline and linear trendline to the respective
plots, and used these equations to infer the acceleration and velocity constants for
the kinematic equations. We calculated the average acceleration using all of the
acceleration (ay) values in the table and compared this and the other acceleration
values to the actual constant, g by calculating the percent difference between the
actual g (9.8 m/s^2) and our calculated values. We also made scatterplots of the
dropped balls vy vs. t and ay vs. t. All of these plots and calculations are below.

Data and Calculations:

Position vs. Time, thrown ball

f(x) = - 4.98x^2 + 4.32x + 0.42

Y0 (initial position) = .4246 m

V0 (initial velocity) = 4.320 m/s
a (acceleration) = -4.976 * 2 = -9.952 m/s^2

Velocity vs. Time, thrown ball

f(x) = - 9.97x + 4.32

Linear ()

V0 (initial velocity) = 4.325 m/s

a (acceleration) = -9.967 m/s^2

Acceleration vs. Time, thrown ball

Figure 1. Position, time, velocity, and acceleration of thrown ball (same units as above plots); average
acceleration in lower right corner.

g (acceleration) Calculations:
Percent difference of 3 calculated acceleration (a) values and actual g value (9.8
m/s^2):
[(9.952-9.8)/9.8]*100% = 1.552% difference
[(9.967-9.8)/9.8]*100% = 1.704% difference
[(10.1-9.8)/9.8]*100% = 3.061% difference

The average acceleration was the least accurate method, and the position vs. time
equation was the most accurate.

Position vs. Time, dropped ball

Velocity vs. Time, dropped ball

Is there a point where the velocity magnitude stops increasing? Yes, when the
velocity equals roughly
-4.5 m/s, the velocity stops changing.

Acceleration vs. Time, dropped ball

Is there a point where the acceleration drops to zero? Toward the end of the
measured part of the drop, the balls acceleration starts to approach zero (from
roughly .3 seconds on). This is likely due to air resistance acting on the lighter,
higher surface Styrofoam ball.

Figure 2. Position, time, velocity, and acceleration of thrown ball (same units as above plots).

Conclusion:
This experiment was conducted to analyze the motion (including velocity and
acceleration over time) of two balls, one with and one without substantial air

resistance (the first thrown and the second dropped into a freefall). The acceleration
constant of gravity (g) was calculated by the motion of the thrown ball, and the
most accurate calculated value, -9.952 m/s^2, was obtained by analyzing the
trendline quadratic equation of the plot of position over time. This value has a
1.552% difference from the known value of g, 9.8 m/s^2.