Measuring Gravity with a Falling Stick

You can literally measure the force of gravity using nothing but a falling stick.

This is the free fall experiment and it is the ultimate test of your lab skills.

You set up two light gates vertically and drop a dowel through them to catch the initial

and final speeds. The physics is simple, you are looking for the acceleration, or g.

You repeat the drop at different heights, then plot the difference in squared speeds against the distance.

If your line of best fit gives you a gradient that leads to 9.81, you have basically

hacked physics. Just watch out for air resistance or your results will be totally off.