Day 3: Pasco Capstone: Trials and Analyzing

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Today the group continued with experimentation by using a video analysis program called Pasco Capstone to determine the experimental acceleration value of gravity.

Procedures to use Pasco Capstone for the experiment include: adjusting the scale, setting the frame rate to 240 fps, and to have each click with the mouse on the object to move 5 frames. This way, each point plotted in the video corresponds to a displacement and a time. From there on, steps were taken to create a graph of both displacement vs. time and velocity vs. time to get the acceleration due to gravity.

In trials including a golf ball, steel ball, and wooden ball using both iPhone and Samsung cameras, the group found that the steel ball showed the most accurate value for acceleration due to gravity, 9.79 +/- 0.09 m/s2  while g for the golf ball was 9.41 +/1 0.10 m/s2.  This may be evidence that air resistance plays a part in the general error presented during the experimentation. Overall, the data found from these first few determinations showed that the experiment can be validated since the data is congruent with theoretical values and known values. In conclusion, further testing must be done to finalize the process for the experiment.


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