- #1
Thundagere
- 159
- 0
For a physics project, a few friends and I got ahold of a couple of balls that would record the time of an impact. Using this, we wanted to calculate g using kinematics to see how off we would be from the expected 9.81 m/s^2. Obviously, differences in altitude, air resistance, and experimental issues mean that we won't be exact, but I was surprised to find that the value of our data averaged 8.5 m/s^2, much lower. I thought that we would get at least 9.2. Two questions, firstly, what is the best way to present this data? A physics instructor suggested the following method for experimental calculations:
Choose 7 random values of g from your list w/replacement. Take the average of them. Do this 5 to 6 times, or as many as possible. Take the range of the samples. Your answer is then average of all samples±range
Can anyone think of a better method? I'm not sure which would be best, considering we're this off. I know people like to use actual value- experimental value ÷ actual value, but for this project specifically, I'd rather not use this. Thanks!
Choose 7 random values of g from your list w/replacement. Take the average of them. Do this 5 to 6 times, or as many as possible. Take the range of the samples. Your answer is then average of all samples±range
Can anyone think of a better method? I'm not sure which would be best, considering we're this off. I know people like to use actual value- experimental value ÷ actual value, but for this project specifically, I'd rather not use this. Thanks!