A Measurement of g Using Alexander’s Diving Bell

M. QUIROGA; S. MARTÍNEZ; S. OTRANTO

THE PHYSICS TEACHER

American Association of Physics Teachers

Año: 2010 vol. 48 p. 386 - 387

0031-921X

This paper describes a very simple exercise using aninverted test tube pushed straight down into a col-umn of water to determine the free-fall accelerationg. The exercise employs the ideal gas law and only involvesthe measurement of the displacement of the bottom of the“diving bell” and the water level inside the tube with respectto the water column surface. The experiment is ideal for stu-dents in introductory physics courses.