Mg-4 Weightlessness

Aim

To demonstrate weightlessness of a free-falling body using an accelerometer.

Apparatus

  • Accelerometer
  • High Speed Video Camera i-Speed 221
  • Laptop Computer
  • Cushion

Accelerometer 1 Accelerometer 2

Accelerometer

Description

When an accelerometer is held in the vertical position by hand approximately 1m above ground, the LEDs will indicate that the accelerometer is experiencing an upwards force. That is a contact force from your hand preventing the accelerometer from falling towards ground. When the accelerometer is released will experience no contact forces and will be in a state of weightlessness until it strikes the cushion on the ground. This is confirmed with no LEDs indicating an upward or downward force. The use of slow-motion replay will confirm this. It takes the accelerometer about 0.4s to strike the cushion.

Videos