Question

I performed a lab that required me to drop 6 coffee filters at once and subsequently removing one filter and repeating until I am left with only one. I analyzed using the Tracker program to find terminal velocity. Now I'm trying to analyze and the directions say "Multiply the number of coffee filters to m(filter)*g to calculate the gravitational force on the filters. Since you are calculating force, your units of the mass must be in kilograms. You should be obtaining values of 0.0088 N, 0.0176N, etc". I am not sure what to do for this step.

Answer 1

It sounds like you should measure the mass of only one filter, and according to the experiment, you should multiply the number of filters, the mass of ONE filter, and the gravitational acceleration to get the force. For example. let's assume that the mass of one filter is 1g (0.001kg). If at the begining, you drop 6 filters, then, the gravitational force willl be:

This is because the total mass of the object analized is n times the mass of a single filter.

About the units, Newtons (as unit of force) is the equivalent force that produce 1kg at an acceleration of 1m/s^2. Then:

This is why the mass should be in kilograms, the acceleration in m/s^2 and you get forces in N.