SCI 201 Journal: Stage of CCM Developing (1) Proficient (2) Exemplary
SCI 201 Journal: Stage of CCM Developing (1) Proficient (2) Exemplary
SCI 201 Journal: Stage of CCM Developing (1) Proficient (2) Exemplary
This week’s journal was about the motion of falling objects, the forces that act upon them
and what factors determine certain outcomes. For this experiment we had an array of
objects including a small washer, a large washer, a flat piece of paper, a tightly wadded
paper and a loosely wadded paper. These objects are obviously all different sizes, shapes,
and weights. We dropped two of the objects simultaneously and recorded which object
reached the ground first. Below is the list of objects we dropped together. When we
dropped our objects we consistently dropped them parallel (the most surface area down)
to the ground like demonstrated below.
I had predicted that the washers would always reach the ground first because they were
smaller and denser than all the other objects. I also thought that the flat piece of paper
would always be the last object to reach the ground because it is more likely to react to a
breeze because it has a lot of surface area. I figured the loosely wadded piece of paper
would hit after the tightly wadded paper just because the tight paper was more compact
and had less surface area. For the most part my predications came out to be correct
although there was a lot of discrepancy in the class as to what the outcomes really were, I
figured that everyone would get very similar data but I didn’t think about different ways
to drop them, I think if everyone would have dropped their objects the same way the data
would be more consistent.
• First we dropped the Big washer and the little washer, it seemed that they reached
the ground at the same time, we dropped the objects two more time and came to
the conclusion that they hit at approximately the same time. We decided to drop
each set of objects two or three times just to get the most accurate data. The big
washer undoubtedly hit the group before the sheet of paper especially due to how
we dropped out objects. The big washer also beat both wadded pieces of paper.
The small washer also beat out both wadded pieces of paper, the drops with the
small washer were hard to determine because the washer was very small. In the
last two drops obviously the paper lost to the wadded pieces of paper.
• The data we collected was pretty accurate to what I had thought would happen,
although I wasn’t sure which washer would hit the ground first I thought the
smaller one would just because it was dense but not as large. I figured the washers
vs. the tightly wadded paper would also be close, and it was.
• We decided that the flat paper always lost because it had the most surface area
therefore hit the most air residence. As we looked over our data we decided to do
the small washer vs. the tight wadded paper and the big washer vs. the paper again
just to be sure after we saw the data from the other groups.
Constant velocity- an object in constant motion has an acceleration of 0, this means the
object could be at rest, or it could be moving as long as it is not getting faster or slower
In our small group before we did any of our experiments we discussed what we
thought would happen and we agreed on which objects would fall faster. After our
experiment one of our group members wanted to double check some of our data so we
repeated two drops and found that our data was correct. Also in our small group we
thought that our data was more accurate than the other groups in the class. In the class
there was a lot of discrepancy over what objects really did fall the fastest. Some of the
groups thought that all the objects including the flat paper fell at the same rate as all the
other objects which we as a group agreed that was not the case.
Also in the class discussion we discussed the reasons to why some objects fell faster
than others and the weight of the objects had nothing to do with it. We learned that the
main reason why some objects fall faster than others has to do with the surface area, the
denseness of the air, the acceleration, and the aerodynamics of the object, which are all
factors that determine air resistance. We watched a video clip from an experiment done
on the moon with a feather and a hammer, both were dropped and hit the ground at the
same time because there is no air on the moon therefore there is not air resistance. We
learned that when you take air resistance out of the equation anything will hit the ground
at the same time. Dr.Cullin got rid of air resistance here on earth by putting another
object in front of the falling object. This is just like when a Nascar racer drafts behind
another car to cut down on air resistance.
Dr. Cullin also explained to us why a heavier object does not fall faster, even though
the object has more mass it also has more forces pushing against it, the less weight an
object has the smaller amount of forces that push against it. That is why when air
resistance is not a factor objects with different weights will fall at the same speed.
When we started this experiment I thought I understood what determined how quick
an object fell and through the investigation I was assured that I did know how falling
objects were affected.
Gravitational forces -Every object in the universe is attracted to every other object in the
universe by a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and
inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
• I am still unsure of what objects actually hit the ground first, we did our best to
observe which hit the ground first using our eye sight and thinking logically
which one should have hit first.
• I would like to do this experiment with more similar objects like different shaped
objects that are made out of the same material. But if the materials were similar I
would also like to have a more consistent way to drop the objects and an easier
way to tell which object hits the ground first, something like a slow motion
camera would make this experiment more accurate.
• Newton's first law of motion is often stated as-An object at rest stays at rest and
an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction
unless acted upon by an unbalanced force
• Newton's second law of motion explains how an object will change velocity if it is
pushed or pulled upon.
o Firstly, this law states that if you do place a force on an object, it will
accelerate, i.e., change its velocity, and it will change its velocity in the
direction of the force.
o Secondly, this acceleration is directly proportional to the force. For
example, if you are pushing on an object, causing it to accelerate, and then
you push, say, three times harder, the acceleration will be three times
greater.
o Thirdly, this acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the
object. For example, if you are pushing equally on two objects, and one of
the objects has five times more mass than the other, it will accelerate at
one fifth the acceleration of the other.
• Newton’s third law For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
o The statement means that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces
acting on the two interacting objects. The size of the forces on the first
object equals the size of the force on the second object. The direction of
the force on the first object is opposite to the direction of the force on the
second object. Forces always come in pairs - equal and opposite action-
reaction force pairs.
• **Acceleration=force/mass
o a = FUB/m where “a” is the acceleration, “FUB” is the unbalanced force, and
“m” is the mass
o It is often written: FUB = m X a