Lab on Projectile Motion

This lab is a very good lab for high school physics.

It makes students think of what needs to be measured in order to find the velocity of a marble sliding across a table and falling off. This is great for the Projectile Motion unit. Also it gives students an understanding of how to keep variables constant (in this case the speed of the marble is kept constant because of the ramp set at a constant angle at a constant distance from the edge of the table).

The lab requires very minimal tools / materials (a ramp, a marble, a ruler), but could be enhanced with a motion detector / graphing calculator CBR2 unit in order to see if the experiment correctly predicts the initial velocity. This way the students can also find the %error of their experiment. Also this lets them get into the technology, and review motion diagrams.

Great lab. Attached is the specification sheet.