Find Acceleration Experimentally

[Power of One]

You drop an object. You take the time it takes to hit the ground. So you have Δx (displacement) and time.

To find acceleration do you use

xf= xi + Vi t + .5at2
Δ x= Vi t + .5at2
Δ x- Vi t=.5at2
a= 2(Δ x- Vit )/ t2

or do you use

v= Δ x/ Δ t
a= Δ v/ Δ t

Should acceleration come out the same? Why do they differ so much? Take example a Δx of 2m and a time of .5. Using the first equation you get 16 m/s^2. But using the second method, you get 8 m/s^2.

 

[Vykan12]

It seems to me that you're not given enough information. If you had the initial and final velocity, you could plug into

V_{f} = V_{i} + at

to experimentally find the acceleration.

What would be easier is to use Newton's second law (F=ma) since then you only need to know the object's mass and the force it exerts on the ground upon impact to experimentally determine the value of g.