Day 6: Pasco Capstone: Further Video Analyzing

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Today the group continued to analyze the five different balls in positions dropped from 10 cm in front of the meter stick, 10 cm behind the meter stick, and in line with the meter stick. All videos were analyzed using the Pasco Capstone software which utilizes plotted points to find various calculated data -in this case, the group is tasked with finding the acceleration due to gravity.
As mentioned previously, two major determining factors contribute to the accuracy of the calculated acceleration value: where the ball moves (and lands) in relation with the meter stick (which acts as the scale to determine the distance traveled by the ball) and the air resistance of the ball which acts against the force of gravity, thus causing a noticeable difference in results when comparing to the actual value of g as well as calculated values from heavier objects such as a lead ball.

Figure 1: lead ball 10 cm behind meter stick

Figure 2: lead ball in line with meter stick

Figure 3: lead ball 10 cm in front of meter stick

As shown in the sample data shown above, it is evident that the lead ball traveling in front of the meter stick caused the value of g to be greater than intended while the lead ball traveling 10 cm behind the meter stick caused the value of g to be very low. This phenomena, as concluded by the team, was due to the perspective and difference of travel of the ball; if the ball is in front of the scale, it will show the ball to be covering more distance than it should, while the ball falling behind the scale will show the ball traveling more distance than it actually is (note that this only will happen if the two determinations land at relatively the same time.) This effect can be better shown from the diagram below:

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