One Dimension Free Fall

by Wei Lin

Submitted : Fall 2016

One dimension kinematic of free-fall is explored in this project. Free-fall is the acceleration of an object where only gravity is the only force acting on the object. In a vacuum everything will fall at the same rate. On Earth the average gravitational acceleration is 9.8 m/s². In the project, a picket fence with alternating clear and black stripes is dropped through a photogate(will be connected to Capstone, which is a tool with laser on one side and a detector on the other to measure the alternating patterns passing through it. The distance between the patterns on the picket fence is 5 cm. By measuring the increase in amount of time the black stripes passes through the photogate, the gravitational acceleration should come out to be 9.8 m/s².

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