Friday, April 8, 2011

Velocity Lab

Yesterday we had a lab investigation which we titled Velocity of Ping Pong/Golf Balls. The main purpose was to find and compare the velocities of a golf ball and ping pong ball when dropped at 1m, 2m, and 3m. We hypothesized that if we drop the golf ball at 1m, 2m, and 3m, it will end up having a greater velocity and speed than the ping pong ball because it has greater weight and greater mass which equals more force which means greater velocity. In order to complete this lab you need one golf ball, one ping pong ball, one meter stick, one Go!Motion sensor, a laptop/computer, a chair, and a stopwatch/timer. Throughout the lab we had to complete 18 tests with the golf ball and ping pong ball (not counting the motion sensor tests). We started with the stopwatch tests, we did three trials for each distance for more accurate results. We started with the ping pong ball, below is a chart with all the results of the the tests with the ping pong ball and stopwatch:

The velocity was greatest with the 1 meter test and lowest with the 3 meter test. Below is a chart with all the golf ball data: