Falling Balloon II - Significant Air Resistance

The meter stick taped to the door frame to the right in the movie clip should be used for
scaling purposes.
It is probably best to mark the center of the balloon in each frame and place the origin at
either the highest or lowest position marked.
Vertical (y) position values can be translated so that downward movement is defined to be
either positive or negative.
Horizontal (x) values of the position are not needed since the balloon exhibits only vertical
movement.
Finding terminal velocity - Method I
A position-time plot should start out approximately parabolic, but gradually become linear as
the balloon reaches terminal velocity.
The terminal velocity may be found from the slope of a position-time plot over a portion of
the descent.
First create a position-time plot of all the data points. Examine where the graph appears to
become linear. Highlight this portion of the data in your spreadsheet table and paste it into
two new columns.
Create a graph of this subset of the data and use the spreadsheet program to obtain the best fit
equation of this graph.
The slope of this line will be the terminal velocity of the falling balloon.
Finding terminal velocity - Method II
Calculate the instantaneous velocity of the balloon as it falls with time by manipulating the
data in your spreadsheet.
A velocity-time plot of this data should level out asymptotically to the value of the terminal
velocity.
Acceleration
Manipulate the data in your spreadsheet columns to obtain acceleration values.
An acceleration-time plot should start out with a value of either 9.8, but quickly move
toward 0, the acceleration of any object that has reached its terminal velocity.
Compare the terminal velocity and graphs of this balloon

with the balloon dropped with less mass attached to it.