Effect of dragging force on paper cone falling using high-speed video analysis technique

Abstract

This research was aimed to study of the effect of dragging force on paper cone falling by using the high-speed video analysis technique. Four different sizes of paper cones, ranged from 3.00-5.70 centimeter were used. The cones, having the same mass of 12 g and falling from 2.50 meters height, were recorded for 240 frames per second and then were analyzed using the Tracker Video Analysis software. The results showed that (1) all four different sizes of paper cones were not freely fall with the Earth's gravity, due to indirect proportion with time of theirs speeds. The terminal speed of two large cones having diameter of 5.00 and 5.70 centimeters were 4.42±0.03 and 3.97±0.04 meters per second, respectively. Only 0.87% of these experimental values were different from the theoretical ones. (2) The theoretical trajectory of these cones falling, using the terminal speed from the experimental, agrees with the theoretical ones. (3) The experimental drag force showed a second order function of the paper cone’s speed. The evaluated drag force, during terminal area, is approximately equal to the cone weight. Thus, this technique can help students and teachers to visualize simple physics phenomena and relate them to the physics principles learnt in the classroom