AP Physics C

Coffee Filter Lab

Name ________________________

The goal of this lab is to determine how the resistive force of air resistance relates to the terminal
velocity of a coffee filter in free fall.
If an object of mass M falls under the influence of gravity and a drag force Fdrag, we may write
Newtons Second Law as
Ma Mg Fdrag
Where a is the acceleration of the object and Mg is the weight of the object. The drag force has the
general form:
Fdrag bv n
Where the drag coefficient b is a constant that depends on the shape of the object, and v is the velocity
of the object. As an object falls from rest the velocity increases until the drag force and the weight are
equal in magnitude. The acceleration then becomes zero and we have the following relation:
Mg b(vt ) n
In this lab, the mass ( M) will be comprised of coffee filters. We can then express the total mass in
terms of the number of filters (N) and the mass of one filter (m):
M N (m)
Now we can express a relationship between the number of filters and the terminal velocity.
n
N ( m) g b vt
or
N vt
Our goal in this lab is to find n for the drag force.
n

Preliminary Questions
1. Drop one filter and then drop two. Did the two filters seem to fall faster, slower or at the same rate?
What kind of mathematical relationship do you expect will exist between the velocity of the coffee
filter and the number of filters?

2. Based on observations, sketch a graph of velocity vs. time for one filter as it falls to the ground. Do
your best to guess approximate times and velocities on your axes. Also sketch a graph of acceleration
vs. time.
v
a

Data
For each set of coffee filters you will take five time trials and then take the average. We will only need
to take data for up to 5 coffee filters.
To calculate the terminal velocity (vt) we will make the assumption that the filters reach terminal
velocity very quickly and we can thus calculate the average velocity for the entire fall (x/tavg) and use
that value as the terminal velocity. You will want a vertical displacement of at least 2 meters.
# of
filters (N)

Fall distance t1
(x)

t2

t3

t4

t5

tavg

vt

Analysis
According to the proportion
N (vt ) n
Can you generate a graph using these variables that is linear and whose slope is n? Give it a shot and
see me when you have a plan of attack.
Once you know what to plot, use the graph below to plot the data and perform a linear fit to determine
your value for n.
Data

According to your data and the following general expression

Fdrag bv n
How does the force of air resistance on a coffee filter vary with the velocity of the filter?

Questions
1. In this lab we made a very important assumption that the average velocity is equal to the terminal
velocity. In reality this is not the case. The average velocity is slightly less than the terminal velocity.
Why?

2. What effect does this have on your experimental value of n? Would it make n too high or too
small? Justify your answer.