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Free fall with the 2-1 timer

Product No: P1004105

Principle

Pupils should examine a body's free fall under the earth's gravitational pull with the timer, a starting apparatus and a photoelectric gate, and they should determine the earth's gravitational acceleration from the information obtained.

Task

How does a stone fall?

Allow an electricity-conducting steel ball fall by opening a clamp with electric contacts. In doing this, the timer is started as the circuit is broken. After a certain height, h, has been covered in the fall, the photoelectric gate's light beam is broken by the ball, stopping the timer. The timer now shows the time, t, elapsed between the opening of the clamp and the interrruption of the gate's beam, i.e., the time which the ball requires to fall through the distance h. Change the distance, h, between the clamp and the gate, or in other words, the height or distance along which the ball will fall. Compare the time, t, needed for different distances fallen. Attempt to discover physical laws for the relation between the distance fallen, h, and the time needed to do so, t. Calculate the gravitational acceleration, g, from the data.

Materiallist (Excerpt)	Product	Amount
Timer 2-1	13607-99	1
Light barrier, compact	11207-20	1
Support base variable	02001-00	1
Ball release unit	02505-00	1
Support rod, stainless steel, l = 600 mm, d = 10 mm	02037-00	1
Boss head	02043-00	2
Connecting cord, 32 A, 1000 mm, red	07363-01	1
Connecting cord, 32 A, 1000 mm, yellow	07363-02	2
Connecting cord, 32 A, 1000 mm, blue	07363-04	2
Measuring tape, l = 2 m	09936-00	1
Steel ball, d = 19 mm	02502-01	1

Literature for this article als follows

Title	Product	Language
interTESS DVD Physik	01050-00
interTESS DVD Physik, Mechanik	01051-00
interTESS DVD, vollständige Version mit allen Versuchen Physik, Chemie, Biologie, Applied Sciences	01100-00
TESS advanced Physik Handbuch Mechanik 6, mit dem Timer 2-1	01159-11	DEU