measuring acceleration due to gravity lab

Measuring acceleration due to gravity lab series#

The current accepted value is 5.514 g/cm3. Since the gravitational force of the Earth on the small ball could be measured directly by weighing it, the ratio of the two forces allowed the specific gravity of the Earth to be calculated, using Newton's law of gravitation.Ĭavendish found that the Earth's density was 5.448 ☐.033 times that of water (due to a simple arithmetic error, found in 1821 by Francis Baily, the erroneous value 5.480 ☐.038 appears in his paper). By measuring the angle of the rod and knowing the twisting force ( torque) of the wire for a given angle, Cavendish was able to determine the force between the pairs of masses. The arm rotated until it reached an angle where the twisting force of the wire balanced the combined gravitational force of attraction between the large and small lead spheres. Their mutual attraction to the small balls caused the arm to rotate, twisting the suspension wire. The two large balls could be positioned either away from or to either side of the torsion balance rod. ĭetail showing torsion balance arm ( m), large ball ( W), small ball ( x), and isolating box ( ABCDE).

Measuring acceleration due to gravity lab series#

Cavendish then carried out a series of measurements with the equipment and reported his results in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1798.

After his death the apparatus passed to Francis John Hyde Wollaston and then to Cavendish, who rebuilt the apparatus but kept close to Michell's original plan. However, Michell died in 1793 without completing the work. The experiment was devised sometime before 1783 by geologist John Michell, who constructed a torsion balance apparatus for it.

His experiment gave the first accurate values for these geophysical constants. Instead, the result was originally expressed as the specific gravity of Earth, or equivalently the mass of Earth. Because of the unit conventions then in use, the gravitational constant does not appear explicitly in Cavendish's work. The Cavendish experiment, performed in 1797–1798 by English scientist Henry Cavendish, was the first experiment to measure the force of gravity between masses in the laboratory and the first to yield accurate values for the gravitational constant.