b Can you redesign the experiment to make these factors irre

(b) Can you redesign the experiment to make these factors irrevelant?

Solution

Speed of sound in air : 1116.43701 feet/second

So, for the sound of your voice to reach your buddy, it would take :

Distance/Speed ---> 32 / 1116.43701 --> 0.029 seconds

Now, the voice has reached your friend\'s ears, he takes 0.25 seconds to drop it

So, time wasted is : 0.029 + 0.25 --> 0.279 --> 0.28 seconds

Now, your friend drops the ball.

32 = 16t^2
2 = t^2
t = sqrt2

So, the true time was : sqrt(2) + 0.28 ---> approx 1.69 seconds

So, t\' = 1.69 seconds

to get the true time, 1.69 - (time taken for your friend to hear you) - (time taken for him to release the ball)

1.69 - 0.25 - 0.03 ---> 1.41 seconds

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b)

The two factors that affected the accuracy was the time it took for your voice to reach your friend and the reaction time.

To make these factors irrelevant, you can redesign the expriment this way :

You have a stopwatch. You shout to your friend to drop the ball. An instant before your friend(approximately 0.03 seconds) drops the ball, he shouts back at you and when you hear the sound, you start the stopwatch. This way, the 0.25 second reaction time is completely removed from the experiment. And the fact that your friend shouts back at you right before he drops the ball will also make up for the loss of time in the sound reaching your ears