Question

I'm supposed to to calculate an experimental value for the acceleration of gravity from the slope of an acceleration vs. delta mass graph... also i'm supposed to find the percent error (to the normal acceleration of gravity of 9.8).. the slope is .442 i'm not sure how to do this because the slope is a/delta m not just acceleration so how am i supposed to calculate it and find a percent error when they aren't the same type of values?

Answer 1

I suspect you did not understand the experiment, and there is not enough here to understand what you did.

Did you use an Atwood machine?

a=deltamass/totalmass*g

If it was in fact the atwood machine, take a look here.

http://www.phy.gonzaga.edu/downloads/pdf/accel.pdf

Answer 2

yes i used the atwood thing, but when i formulated the expression it came out to be a = g*delta mass/ total mass... does that make a difference?

Answer 3

it is exactly the same
x=a/b * g= ag/b