In a laboratory exercise

PHYSICS · Multi-part · CBSE · Physics · Units and Measurements · Units and Measurements

Problem

In a laboratory exercise, a ball is released from rest to fall through a vertical distance of

1.50\,\text{m}

. The fall time is recorded for five independent trials using a digital stopwatch (least count

0.001\,\text{s}

). The recorded times are:

0.553\,\text{s}

0.557\,\text{s}

0.551\,\text{s}

0.554\,\text{s}

and

0.556\,\text{s}

. (a) Compute the mean (average) time of fall. (b) Using the mean time, determine the experimental value of the acceleration due to gravity. (c) Calculate the percentage deviation of the experimental value from

9.8\,\text{m}\,\text{s}^{-2}

. (d) Taking the least count of the stopwatch into account, estimate the maximum possible percentage error in the calculated value of

g

Related theory

Measurement Errors
Free-Fall & Vertical Motion
Gravitation
Errors in measurement
Arithmetic operations and uncertainty propagation

Browse the problem library