Procedure

1. Sketch in your notes the experimental setup. Check the connection of the Motion Detector to the LabPro box and to the computer.

2. Prepare the computer for data collection by opening the LoggerPro software with the "MotionBallToss" experiment. Three graphs will be displayed: distance vs. time, velocity vs. time, and acceleration vs. time.

3. In this step, you will toss the ball straight up towards the Motion Detector with it also falling back down away from the motion detector. This step will require some practice. Hold the ball directly below the Motion Detector. Click "Collect" to begin data collection. When you will notice a clicking sound from the Motion Detector, wait a second and then toss the ball straight upward towards the detector. Keep your toss from hitting the detector by staying away by at least 0.5m (any closer and the motion detector will give faulty readings showing up as anomalous readings on your graphs). Smaller/lower tosses give the best results with the graphs scaled to fit the data.

4. Scale your three graphs for the best view of the ball toss region. Graph scaling is done by changing the scale end value by clicking on it. Adjust the x-axis scale to be the same for all three graphs with the y-axis of each graph adjusted for the best/largest view of the data.

5. Examine the distance vs. time graph. Repeat Step 3 until your distance vs. time graph shows an area of smoothly changing distance.

6. Sketch a copy in your notebook of all 3 motions graphs (as shown on the screen, keeping the relation between parts of the graphs the same).

7.  Repeat the ball toss experiment five more times. Each time, fit a straight line to the free-fall portion of the velocity graph and record the slope of that line. Average your six slopes to find a final value for your measurement of g.