fastR (version 0.10.3)

drag: Drag force experiment

Description

The data come from an experiment to determine how terminal velocity depends on the mass of the falling object. A helium balloon was rigged with a small basket and just the ballast to make it neutrally buoyant. Mass was then added and the terminal velocity is calculated by measuring the time it took to fall between two sensors once terminal velocity has been reached. Larger masses were drop from higher heights and used sensors more widely spaced.

Format

A data frame with 42 observations on the following 5 variables.

• time time (in seconds) to travel between two sensors

• mass net mass (in kg) of falling object

• height distance (in meters) between two sensors

• velocity average velocity (in m/s) computed from time and height

• force.drag calculated drag force (in N, force.drag = mass * 9.8) using the fact that at terminal velocity, the drag force is equal to the force of gravity

Examples

# NOT RUN {
data(drag)
with(drag,force.drag / mass)
xyplot(velocity ~ mass, drag)

# }