The knowledge of the uncertainty of a measurement is crucial to draw conclusions from experimental results. Random errors are common in experiments and they produce a distribution of measured values that follows the Gaussian shape. In this work, we developed an apparatus based on the free fall phenomenon to assist in the illustration of the concept of uncertainty in measurements. The free fall time of an object has been obtained automatically by the Arduino board and displayed as a histogram on the computer screen. The visualization of the histogram was produced in real time and allowed to check the appearance of the Gaussian shape as the experiment was repeated.
uncertainty in measurements; free fall; Arduino platform
