More Open Source Science - Determine the Acceleration due to Gravity

I will go through a process that will allow you to determine the acceleration due to gravity. I use this activity with my high school physics students. In the past we've done a similar activity using a commercially available photo gate and device for interfacing the photo gate with a computer. In this instructable I'll show how to do it with a free program and cheap DIY photo gate.

Step 1 Stuff You Need

1. Computer with a microphone input
2. small flashlight
3. Strip of scrap Plexiglas (I get mine free from the local hardware store)
4. Electrical tape
5. An audio recording program. I recommend Audacity. It's free and open source. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
6. Home made photo gate - (see one of my previous Instructables)

Comments

[lgroner]

More modern alternative to acceleration (ticker) timers that I used ages ago. However not as transparent.

[hg341]

acceleration due to gravity=32 feet per sec per sec

[falconphysics]

True, but I tend to use 9.8 m/s/s with my physics students.

[hg341]

is my high school class pt^{or pot}(princables of tech) my teacher^{he's the best ever} he made us use both

[hg341]

sry i meant "in" not "is" o well

[Repter75]

Wow, this is ingenious.

[Chavez]

for the slope, you can use MATLAB

[CMPalmer]

Very nice. I really like the idea of the students building the apparatus - it provides a much more enriching experience...