What is the relationship between mass and acceleration based on given data?

[novawinters]

Homework Statement

I need to find the relation between mass and acceleration.I was given the values above in a table, save for acceleration.
The mass of the object was given as well, so that I could plot acceleration v. mass

This is part of my chart.
Object Mass (g) ti (s) Vi (m/s [d]) tf (s) Vf (m/s [d]) A (m/s2)
1 1696 0.65 0.244 1.00 3.526 9.37
2 573 0.45 0.399 0.80 3.709 9.45
3 151.95 0.45 0.575 0.80 3.674 8.85

Homework Equations

a = Vf-Vi/Tf - Ti

The Attempt at a Solution

I successfully graphed my 8 values, but I couldn't find a trend. When I adjusted the scale, it sort of looked like a sinusoidal function.

+ my original hypothesis that more mass is equal to increased acceleration was wrong, because some high mass values didn't have high acceleration values

 

[Delphi51]

Like this?

What are the "[d]" symbols?
Does it say what kind of objects are involved, what force accelerated them? Anything more?

As it stands, I would have to say there is no trend. No relationship can be found.

 

[SammyS]

Looks like gravity accelerated them.

What are the other 5 mass values, along with the acceleration value for each?

Maybe the accelerations are nearly equal, with some random or systematic variation.

For the three values listed, there is not much correlation between mass and acceleration.

One of the masses is more than 10 times one of the others, yet it's acceleration in only a bout 5% higher than that of the smaller mass.

 

[novawinters]

Here's my updated work:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50168628/accelerationoffallingobject

I would appreciate if you could tell me whether I'm correct or not. Thanks

 

[Delphi51]

I agree; no trend.
If you must have one, drop the one low acceleration point as unreasonable and the rest will probably have a line of best fit with a slight upward slope, so slightly more acceleration as the mass increases.

 

[gneill]

There is not enough information to draw any conclusions. "I was given the values above in a table" is not inspiring... How was this data collected? What was the setup of the experiment?