- Pushing the DROP button will cause to ball to fall.
- Pushing the CALIBRATE button will bring the time elapsed in
the stopwatch closer to time elapsed on the wall for your particular
computer. (It should only need to be used when you first start and
again if the load on your machine changes drastically.)
- Clicking and or dragging on the ruler you will get red and green
markers (click closer to the one you want to move).
- The markers magnify the numbers on the ruler and trigger the clock
to start when the ball passes the green one and to stop
when the ball passes the red one.
- The {Earth, Moon, Mars} choice will change the "gravity"
acting on the ball to approximate gravity on the surface of the
specified planet.
- The ball falls as it would in a vacuum or in "free
fall". It is hoped that a person using this applet would become
more familiar with basic measuring of displacement, and the concept
of "average velocity".
- Average velocity is found by determining the displacement between
the green and red markers and dividing that value by the time
elapsed The resulting value is the average velocity between the
green and red markers in meters per second.
- There exists some uncertainty in the measurement of time.
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