Today in class we did a lab to portray the acceleration of gravity in real life scenarios. We had a motion detector which we placed on the floor and covered it with a protective cage. We then held a ball directly above it and tossed it into the air and let it fall. The motion detector would then record the motion of the ball and graph it on a computer. From the results we can gather a position graph as well as a velocity graph.
Why should it be a parabola?
The position graph looks like a parabola because it is tracing the motion of the ball over time. Since a ball goes up and down so does the parabola over time.
Why does the curve have a negative slope?
The curve has a negative slope because the velocity is always negative. Since gravity always pulls the ball down, as soon as it leaves someone's hand, the velocity is always negative from that point.
What does the slope of this graph represent?
The slope of the graph represents the velocity. It represents the position divided by the time which is equivalent to velocity.
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