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ball

1.2 Falling Balls

Ideas for today:


Weight
Acceleration due to gravity
Falling objects
Horizontal and vertical motion

Recap

The force exerted on an object is


equal to the product of that
objects mass times its
acceleration.
The acceleration is in the same
direction
as the
force.
Force = mass
x acceleration
F=ma
(force and acceleration are vectors)
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Recap, continued
a=F/m

Mass is a measure of inertia

Animation (link):
simulation of 1-d forces
Courtesy of:
Physics Education Technology
(Carl Wiemans project at CU)
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Clicker Question:
Suppose that I throw a ball upward
into the air. Right after the ball
leaves my hand, is there any force
pushing the ball upward?
(A) Yes
(B) No
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Galileo was the first to analyze


motion in terms of
measurements and
mathematics.
He described
acceleration, which is the
rate of change of speed:
(should be velocity)

Galileo, age 60, drawn


by Ottavio Leoni in
1624.

final
speed

initial
speed
acceleration
time
required
=
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Galileos Inclined Plane

Important!

Galileo did not use vectors


Really:

acceleration
=

final velocity initial


velocity
time required
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Important for
Scientific
Method:

Galileo did experiments to


convince others that the
acceleration caused by
gravity would be the same for
all freely falling objects if
there was no air to retard
He
dropped
their
motion.two heavy metal
balls together from the leaning
tower. Although one weighed
much more than the other,
they reached the ground
almost at the same time.
1. Experiment repeated MANY times
2. Led by a thought experiment
(brick that splits in two)

The nature of science*:


Physics is about predicting the
future
There is always a limit to accuracy
Verified by experiment
Experiments must be reproducible
Scientific knowledge is constantly
evolving, and is always a little wrong
(but can still predict well enough)
*according to me

Large and Small Balls

A tennis ball and a golf ball


dropped side-by-side in air.
The tennis ball is affected
more by the airs resistance
than the golf ball.

The larger the object is, and


the faster it is falling, the
greater the airs resistance to
its motion, as skydivers all
know

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Coin and Feather

When most of the air is


removed from a
container, feathers and
apples fall almost sideby-side, their speeds
changing at almost the
same rate.
If all the air was
removed, they would
accelerate downward
at exactly the same
rate.

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Observations About Falling Balls


A dropped ball:
Begins a rest, but soon acquires downward speed
Covers more and more distance each second
A tossed ball:
Rises to a certain height
Comes briefly to a stop
Begins to descend, much like a dropped ball

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Dropped Ball: Falling Downward

Repeat Galileos Inclined Plane

velocity = initial veloc


+ acceleration time

position=initial positio
initial velocity time +
acceleration time
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How do position, velocity, and


acceleration relate?
Time ( s )

Position ( m )

Velocity ( m/s )

Acceleration ( m/s2 )

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-1

-1

-1

-1

-1

-1

-1

Acceleration tells Velocity how to change


Velocity tells Position how to change
Time is a marker common to all three
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In free fall objects accelerate


constantly toward Earth at the
rate of g . Objects moving
upward slow down until their
direction is reversed, and then
they accelerate downward.
At the top of their path the
upward speed is zero.
How long?
Only instantaneously.
A constant acceleration means
the speed is changing all the
time, so the speed only passes
through the value of zero at
the top of the path.
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Tossed Ball: Falling Upward

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Clicker Question
Is it possible to have an object that has
a negative position, a positive velocity,
and a negative acceleration all at the
same time?
A) Yes
B) No
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Tossed ball:

Drop and Shoot Sideways Demo

Falling Upward, then Downward, with a


constant horizontal velocity component

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Here two heavy balls


begin free fall at the
same time.
The red one is dropped,
so it moves straight
downward.
The yellow ball is given
some speed in the
horizontal direction as it
is released.

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The horizontal lines show


that they keep pace with
each other in the vertical
direction.
Why?
They have the same
acceleration, g,
downward, and they both
started with zero speed
in the downward
direction.

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Repeat Galileos Inclined Plane

The yellow balls


horizontal speed is
not affected by
gravity,
which acts only in
the vertical
direction.

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Cannonballs shot horizontally with different


speeds from the ship travel different
distances.
But each cannonball drops the same distance
in the same amount of time, since the vertical
acceleration is the same for each.
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A simulated strobe illustration of a plane


flying horizontally with constant speed
dropping a cannonball package of food and
medical supplies, ignoring air resistance.

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The cannonball package of food and medical


supplies initially has the same horizontal
speed of the airplane.
Neglecting air resistance, it keeps that
horizontal speed as it falls, so it stays
beneath the airplane.

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Shoot the Monkey

Another example of packages of food and medical


supplies being dropped by a WWII food delivery
system
Note the streamlined packages. Allowances are
made for air drag. Note also the acceleration.

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Weight is a type of force


It is the earths gravitational force on an object

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Weight and Mass


An objects weight is proportional to its mass
weight = g mass
On the Earths surface, that constant, g, is
9.8 Newtons/kilogram = 9.8 meters/second2
(9.8 is
approximately 10)
32 feet/second2
g is called the acceleration due to gravity
1 Newton 1 kilogrammeter/second2
A Newton is a unit of force, like pounds. A
Newton is about pound, about the weight of
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a medium apple

Acceleration Due to Gravity


On Earths surface, all falling objects accelerate
downward at the acceleration due to gravity, g !
force = mass x acceleration, or F=ma
(Newtons 2nd law)
weight = m g = force

mg=ma
g=a
Dont think that this is quite so simple
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mg=ma
Why should gravitational and
inertial masses be the same?

Einsteins
equivalence
principle still
being tested!

U. Washington
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