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Memsic 2125 and Acceleration Due To Gravity — Parallax Forums

Memsic 2125 and Acceleration Due To Gravity

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2004-01-14 22:23 in General Discussion
An experiment I'd like to perform on a high balloon flight is to measure the
decrease
in the acceleration due to gravity as the altitude increases. I calculated that
g will
decrease by 1% at 100,000 feet.

Will the 2125 measure the acceleration due to gravity? If you take measurements

and then drop it, does it's output record that fact that it is in free fall?

Paul

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2004-01-14 22:05

    Original Message
    From: <verhap@o...>


    > An experiment I'd like to perform on a high balloon flight is to measure
    the decrease
    > in the acceleration due to gravity as the altitude increases. I
    calculated that g will
    > decrease by 1% at 100,000 feet.
    >
    > Will the 2125 measure the acceleration due to gravity? If you take
    measurements
    > and then drop it, does it's output record that fact that it is in free
    fall?
    >
    > Paul

    Yep, acceleration is acceleration is acceleration to an accelerometer. In
    climb, the output will correspond to the acceleration of gravity + whatever
    upward acceleration is being experienced in the climb. In free-fall, the
    output will correspond to 0g, because the accelerometer is not experiencing
    any acceleration.

    As far as measuring the change of gravity with altitude, I'm not sure that
    the Memsic accelerometer will work for you. You might be hard-pressed to
    distinguish an output for .99g from the output for 1g, at least with any
    degree of reliability. Look around for some more sensitive accelerometers -
    they might work for ya.

    - Robert
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2004-01-14 22:23
    In addition to gravity all linear accelerometers measure the resultant
    vector of gravitational force and linear acceleration components. If
    your balloon is buffeted by winds, there will be additional
    acceleration, adding and subtracting from g from moment to moment.

    An accelerometer dropped in a vacuum will report 0 output (free fall).
    When dropped in an atmosphere, it will reach a terminal velocity that is
    more or less constant, and therefore also close to 0 acceleration.

    The Memsic, which I think is based on expansion/compression of a gas
    bubble, would not be a good choice over wide-ranging atmospheric
    pressure. Other sensors (Analog Devices ADXL202e) would be better, if
    kept at constant temperature in a small oven.

    Dennis

    Original Message
    From: verhap@o... [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=E0wgUlbD1vuNj9-IiWzwJr6Driz3wSIwsIJ5EJxx98yZ_0hn8rFbf9I4ytOnS3HhASrBNVrRgLn6Nbypyo3luBjH]verhap@o...[/url
    Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 10:52 AM
    To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Memsic 2125 and Acceleration Due To Gravity


    An experiment I'd like to perform on a high balloon flight is to measure
    the decrease
    in the acceleration due to gravity as the altitude increases. I
    calculated that g will
    decrease by 1% at 100,000 feet.

    Will the 2125 measure the acceleration due to gravity? If you take
    measurements
    and then drop it, does it's output record that fact that it is in free
    fall?

    Paul


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