Measurement Activity
Time of Fall Experiment
View MIT Physics 8.01 Lecture 1 starting at 22:10 (available on ITunes U and MIT Open CourseWare) and then discuss the following questions. For your convenience, Prof. Lewin's analysis and measurements are reproduced below.
Prof. Lewin's dimensional analysis:
Prof: Lewin's height measurements:
Prof: Lewin's time-of-fall prediction and measured times:
Prof. Lewin's calculated results:
Questions:
- Prof. Lewin originally assumed that the time of fall of an object depended on what quantities?
- How did Prof. Lewin conclude that the time of fall of an object did not depend on its mass?
- Prof. Lewin used dimensional analysis to conclude that the time of fall of an object was proportional to what?
- How did Prof. Lewin arrive at an uncertainty of 0.006 m for his calculation of h1/h2? What would be a shortcut way to do this? Do you get the same result with the shortcut?
- How did Prof. Lewin justify an uncertainty of 0.002 s for the time of fall of the object?
- How did Prof. Lewin arrive at an uncertainty of 0.002 s for the theoretical ratio of t1/t2?
- How did Prof. Lewin arrive at an uncertainty of 0.008 s for the measured ratio of t1/t2?
- Do Prof. Lewin's experimental results confirm or cast doubt on his hypothesis. Explain your answer clearly.
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last update March 27, 2008 by JL Stanbrough