Acceleration due to gravity

Gravity video

This online resource looks at the effect of mass on gravity.

The resource is a short video from the ABC television show Catalyst about the effect of gravity on two objects of different mass and the popular misconceptions about this phenomenon.

The video shows interviews with various people who are shown a 5kg medicine ball and an ordinary basketball of the same size, but much lighter. They are asked which one will hit the ground first when dropped at the same time.

Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S7U04 (Year 7)

Leaning Tower Video – Gravity Investigation with Air Resistance

This online resource investigates the gravity tower at Gingin near Perth.

The resource is a video from the ABC television show Catalyst and shows several objects being dropped from the 45 m high tower and their acceleration due to gravity is compared.

It also demonstrates that an object with a chain attached, like a bungee cord, can actually accelerate faster than gravity. This is then compared to the cracking of a whip where the whipping motion accelerates the end of the whip to a speed faster than the speed of sound.

Gravity and a Smashing Watermelon

This video deals with acceleration due to gravity.

The video investigates whether the mass of an object influences how fast it falls.

Science ambassadors Bernie Hobbs and Ruben Meerman explore a variety of situations in their quest to discover what affects the speed of falling objects.

Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S7U04 (Year 7)

Acceleration due to gravity

A downloadable resource in which students determine a value for gravitational acceleration.

This downloadable resource is a worksheet for a practical activity where students determine a value for the acceleration due to gravity and then compare it to 9.8 ms-2.

Students drop a ball from a height and measure the distance covered and time taken.

The worksheet details the necessary calculations.

Australian Curriculum v9 Codes: AC9S10U05 (Year 10)

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