Free fall lab report

The above points were for general lab reports. Specifically, for the Galileo lab report:

Your abstract should mention what you actually did in your experiment.  The terms falling, acceleration, and gravity are important.  What were your actual results? What does theory say you should get?

Your introduction needs to use a primary source.  You should mention Galileo and his historical role in what you are about to present. You may mention other historical figures.  You should define velocity and acceleration.  You should explain the equation for the Law of Falling Bodies and provide a derivation of that equation. You should explain the connections between inertia, Newton’s 1st Law, gravity, weight, Newton’s 2nd law, and why g is constant for all objects.

Your procedure needs to provide explicit details of the experiment and how it was performed.  Do not present results.  Make sure you have annotated or explained diagrams, photos, or sketches.

Your analysis needs to have a data table with an explanation.  You should have a graph of the position data with a best quadratic fit.  There must be an equation and an explanation of the graph.  You should be able to show your calculation of g from that graph, and an error comparison to published values. You should explain possible sources of error.

Your conclusion should recap the big ideas (acceleration and gravity) you showed.  You should recap the procedure, results, and errors (briefly).  You should have proposals for future work.

Your appendix should include the bibliography (with primary sources), tables, graphs, pictures, sample calculations, etc.

1…Aristotle  Physica            Mugar             Q151 .A7 F29 Q151.A8 B65 1998 Q151.A7 F69

2.  Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, by Newton

Three Laws or Axioms                        PDF p 89  (p83 of the book)

Newton’s Law of Gravitation            PDF p 224   Section XII (Propositions 70-84) (p 218 of the book)

PDF p 400   Proposition 6 to 8  Book 3  p 394-398

3rd Law and Collisions PDF p98 Scholium

3rd Law and Attraction PDF p98 Scholium

Galileo Project                         http://galileo.rice.edu/index.html

3.  On motion, and On mechanics; comprising De motu (ca. 1590) translated with introduction and notes by I. E. Drabkin, and Le meccanniche (ca. 1600) translated with introduction and notes by Stillman Drake QC123 .F60

4.  Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo     Mugar QB41 .F67

http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-Galileo.html

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/galileo/dialogue.html

http://archimedes.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/toc/toc.cgi?step=thumb&dir=galil_syste_065_en_1661

5.  Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences by Galileo Galilei.   Mugar QC123 .G13 1974

Introduction has historical time line of Galileo’s work in the early 1600s.

3rd and 4th Day

197  Naturally Accelerated Motion

205 Postulate on speed vs height

209-210  Law of Falling Bodies            Note it uses Geometry as opposed to algebra

213            Inclined Plane experiment

274            Idea of parabolic paths of projectiles (inertia)

275            Air Resistance

276-7   Concept of Uniform Acceleration

286             Acceleration g is the same everywhere on Earth

6.  AJP Article on the exact correction to Galileo’s free fall law Only the first two pages

Secondary Source: Hewitt Conceptual Physics P 50  Derivation of Law of Falling Bodies                        P65  Explanation of acceleration and g