Terminal velocity practical (3.2)

Question 1

What equipment do you need to measure the terminal velocity of a ball bearing in viscous liquid?

Answer 1

Ball bearing, glass tube, elastic bands, stopwatch, ruler

Question 2

How do you find the terminal velocity of a ball bearing travelling through viscous liquid?

Answer 2

1) Put elastic bands around a glass tube of viscous liquid at foxed intervals
2) Drop the ball bearing in and use the stopwatch to record the time at which it reaches each band
3) Take repeats
4) Calculate the average time taken for the ball bearing to travel between each set of bands
5) Use a ruler to measure the distance between each band and calculate the velocity of the ball between each pair of bands
6) The average velocity will increase at first, then stay constant at the terminal velocity
- You can draw a graph of velocity against time and use the curve to estimate terminal velocity

Question 3

What could you change for the terminal velocity of a ball bearing in viscous liquid experiment?

Answer 3

• The liquid
• The size of the ball bearing
• The mass of the ball
• The shape of the ‘ball’