OVERVIEW
-An object dropped near the earth’s surface will accelerate uniformly with the acceleration due to gravity (g) toward the earth. The magnitude of g at the Berks Campus is 9.80 m/s2. Thus, according to the equation describing motion for a uniformly accelerated object, its position y as a function of time t is
y- y0 = vo t + ½g t2
-If we assume that y0 is 0 m and v0 is 0 m/sec when we start measuring the fall of the object, then y = ½g t2
-Where y is the elevation, g: gravity and t: time. So the acceleration due to gravity can be given by g = 2y/t2
-In this experiment, we will be using electromagnetic-attracting ball instrument in order to calculate the acceleration due to gravity. This will be done by counting the time the steel ball will take in order to fall freely between G1 and G2 at different distances, where G1 and G2 are photo gates. The acceleration due to gravity will be calculated from the graphical analysis.