Free Fall

Today was dominated by a study of free fall with B, C and F Blocks engaging in a discussion of free-fall motion and E Block working on an activity to experimentally determine the value for acceleration due to gravity. That lab shows quite nicely that can be measured quite simply (as long as you have a photogate) and you'll use another method on Wednesday when you conduct a more extensive investigation on the free fall motion of a ball tossed in the air.

B, C and F Blocks tramped over familiar ground in their study of free fall, since the basic rules and formulas of kinematics apply equally to vertical and horizontal motion. As long as the only force producing significant acceleration on an object is gravity, the motion is easy to describe and predict. You know the acceleration will be -9.81 m/s² and you know that at the highest point of the rise the velocity of the object will be 0 m/s. If the object is dropped from a height (already at it's highest point), the initial velocity is 0 m/s. Remember this when making your information list to solve problems. The book won't remind you in the problem's write-up, so you'll have to remember that on your own. You know that an object on the rise (with + velocity and - acceleration) will slow down and falling object (with - velocity and - acceleration) will speed up. Tomorrow, B and C Blocks will conduct an activity on acceleration due gravity and F Block will analyze the motion of a ball tossed into the air to determine if all this blah, blah, blah about free fall is really to be believed.