9/7/16-Free Fall

Title: Free Fall
Purpose:
The purpose of this lab is to examine the validity of the following statement:
In the absence of all other external forces except gravity, a falling body will accelerate at 9.8m/s^2
Apparatus:

                                           

A free falling cylinder is held on the top by an electromagnet. When the magnet releases the object, the spark generator marks periods of the fall of the object at set intervals of 1/60 of a second.
Theory:
With the measured marks, we enter the data in a Excel spreadsheet to graph the data to find velocity and acceleration.

Data:

0
1.8
3.8
6
8.5
11.3
14.3
17.6
21.2
25
29.1
33.4
38.1
43
48.1
53.6
59.3
65.3
71.5
78
84.8
91.9
99.2
106.8
112.4

Graphs: 

Analysis: 

The acceleration is the slope of the velocity vs time graph, which, when converted to the appropriate units, is relatively close to 9.8m/s^2. The slope I got was 9.6m/s^2. In order to find the acceleration with the position vs time graph, I can take the derivative of the equation formed twice to find the acceleration. 

Conclusion: 

The acceleration I got was 9.6 m/s/s, which is relatively close to the "actual" value of the acceleration due to gravity of 9.8 m/s/s. Errors could be made when measuring the differences in the markings, as well as inputing the data into the spreadsheets.