AP Physics Lab 2: Air Resistance and Terminal Velocity

In this lab your goal is to learn about terminal velocity and the force due to air resistance,
specifically you are to find out the relationship between terminal velocity and the number of
coffee filters stacked together and based on this data develop a hypothesis about how the force
due to air resistance depends on velocity.

As before, your lab report should consist of the following six parts.

Title: your choice.

Introduction: This need not be long. It should include the objective or the focus question.

Theory/Background: This section should explain the objective, focus question or hypothesis,
including explanations for all the physics terms or concepts that are important for understanding
it. Frequently it gives an overview of how the problem will be approached and analyzed without
getting into the step by step details of collecting data. In cases where students have generated
their own focus question, students should explain why the question is interesting or important
and why they think their hypothesis is correct.
Make a list of important terms or concepts to include in the theory section.

Methods: Explain how data was collected. Do not list steps that someone else should do.
Instead use the past tense and first person (“I” or “we”) to explain what you actually did.
This section is graded in two ways: First, were you attentive to good experiment design and did
you develop a procedure that would collect enough good data to answer the question; and
second, did you communicate your method effectively so that others could replicate what you did
and get almost identical results. While not absolutely or universally required, diagrams are
strongly recommended.

Data: Include, as needed, data tables, graphs, trend lines with equations, error bars, calculations
and/or brief analyses of graphs. Although graphs may show only averaged values, all data
should be in the data tables, including values that are disregarded in the graphs.
In this lab in addition to graphs of your raw data, please alter the axes of the graphs to get a
direct proportion (or at least a linear graph) between values related to number of filters and
terminal velocity.

Conclusion: Clearly state your conclusion to all parts of the objective or focus question.
Support your conclusion through clear references to data and trends. Explain the logical
connections between your data and the conclusion. Estimate your confidence in your results and
conclusion and defend this estimate with references to errors and/or limitations in the method or
equipment.

Refer to the checklist and general requirements handout for more specifics and ideas about what
to include in your lab report.