Question

Why do I have to take the quadratic for the ascent and descent of motion for a styrofoam ball independently? Is it because the ball is a lot lighter than a steel ball and is therefore affected by air resistance?

In our lab, we observed the motion of an aluminium ball and used the computer to get a quadratic equation for its motion. We then did the same thing with a styrofoam ball and got the computer to give a quadratic equation for its motion for the entire set of data. But then we had to select only the part of the graph where the styrofoam ball was ascending and get a quadratic for only that part of the ball's motion. Then we had to do the same thing where the ball was descending.

Answer 1