2/16/2017 AccelerationofGravity

TheAccelerationofGravity
IntroductiontoFreeFall
AccelerationofGravity
RepresentingFreeFallbyGraphs
HowFast?andHowFar?
TheBigMisconception

Itwaslearnedinthepreviouspartofthislessonthatafreefallingobjectisanobjectthatisfalling
underthesoleinfluenceofgravity.Afreefallingobjecthasanaccelerationof9.8m/s/s,downward(on
Earth).Thisnumericalvaluefortheaccelerationofafreefallingobjectissuchanimportantvaluethatit
isgivenaspecialname.Itisknownastheaccelerationofgravitytheaccelerationforanyobject
movingunderthesoleinfluenceofgravity.Amatteroffact,thisquantityknownastheaccelerationof
gravityissuchanimportantquantitythatphysicistshaveaspecialsymboltodenoteitthesymbolg.
Thenumericalvaluefortheaccelerationofgravityismostaccuratelyknownas9.8m/s/s.Thereare
slightvariationsinthisnumericalvalue(totheseconddecimalplace)thataredependentprimarilyupon
onaltitude.Wewilloccasionallyusetheapproximatedvalueof10m/s/sinThePhysicsClassroom
Tutorialinordertoreducethecomplexityofthemanymathematicaltasksthatwewillperformwiththis
number.Bysodoing,wewillbeabletobetterfocusontheconceptualnatureofphysicswithouttoo
muchofasacrificeinnumericalaccuracy.

g=9.8m/s/s,downward
(~10m/s/s,downward)

LookItUp!
Thevalueoftheaccelerationofgravity(g)isdifferentindifferentgravitationalenvironments.Use
theValueofg widget
belowtolookuptheaccelerationofgravityonotherplanets.Selectalocation
fromthepulldownmenuthenclicktheSubmitbutton.

Investigate!
EvenonthesurfaceoftheEarth,therearelocalvariationsinthevalueoftheaccelerationofgravity
(g).Thesevariationsareduetolatitude,altitudeandthelocalgeologicalstructureoftheregion.Use
theGravitationalFieldswidgetbelowtoinvestigatehowlocationaffectsthevalueofg.

Valueofg

Whatisthe accelerationofgravityon moon (inm/s/s)?

Submit

Seehttp://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/circles/u6l3e.cfm.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/1DKin/Lesson5/AccelerationofGravity 1/2
2/16/2017 AccelerationofGravity

Recallfromanearlierlessonthataccelerationistherateatwhichanobjectchangesitsvelocity.Itisthe
ratioofvelocitychangetotimebetweenanytwopointsinanobject'spath.Toaccelerateat9.8m/s/s
meanstochangethevelocityby9.8m/seachsecond.

Ifthevelocityandtimeforafreefallingobjectbeingdroppedfromapositionofrestweretabulated,
thenonewouldnotethefollowingpattern.
Time(s) Velocity(m/s)
0 0
1 9.8
2 19.6
3 29.4
4 39.2
5 49.0

Observethatthevelocitytimedataaboverevealthattheobject'svelocityischangingby9.8m/seach
consecutivesecond.Thatis,thefreefallingobjecthasanaccelerationofapproximately9.8m/s/s.

Anotherwaytorepresentthisaccelerationof9.8m/s/sistoaddnumbersto
ourdotdiagramthatwesawearlierinthislesson.Thevelocityoftheballis
seentoincreaseasdepictedinthediagramattheright.(NOTE:The
diagramisnotdrawntoscaleintwoseconds,theobjectwoulddrop
considerablyfurtherthanthedistancefromshouldertotoes.)

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/1DKin/Lesson5/AccelerationofGravity 2/2