The Last Post!

This is the last post!  We've completed our lab and finished our race. 

Log Log

After finishing the experiment we had two sets of data. Each set value is the mode value found in five tries per increment. By doing this, we attempted to exclude the deviations in data from imperfections in the ball or bad trials.

Using this average set, we logged our x and y values and came up with a new log data set.

We plotted the points and graphed the line of best fit in the form of y=mx+b. 

We then derived our equation and graphed it along our average set of data using graphical analysis.

Our Experiment Worked!

The ping pong ball being down a ramp at different heights ended up producing a small curve, hinting a root  graph.  Our data shows that at a higher height the ping pong ball would reach its terminal velocity and will end up bouncing the same distance no matter how much higher it was.  Now we can take our data and log both the x and y values and derive our root law equation:  y=kxⁿ.

Different Ball Sizes- Bounce- Failure

Well yet another idea down the drain. This idea did not produce any significant correlation, no matter what size ball we used they bounced arguably the same distance.  Off to our next idea!

Idea Number 4- Ping Pong Ball At Different Heights

This idea consists of a ping pong ball being dropped at different heights and calculating the distance after its first bounce. The ball would be dropped down a ramp at 60 degrees 5cm up and continue all the way up to 100cm. The increments will be 5cm. We will end up with 20 data points on our graph. The independent variable will be the height that its dropped at and the dependent variable will be the distance it travels after the first bounce.

Idea Number 3- Different Ball Sizes- Bounce

Our Third Idea was to drop different sized bouncing balls from 150 cm tall down a 60 degree angle ramp and calculate the distance it travels after its first bounce. The Independent variable is the radius of the ball and the dependent variable was the distance it traveled after the first bounce. The ball size will be measured using a vernier to determine there diameters.

Water Release Failure

Water Release experiment went well, except for our data. We knew when doing this experiment that it might come out too linear, and it regretfully did.  We couldn't minimize our errors in timing to properly show the data, and there wasn't really much we could change to our experiment without copying another group so we decided we had to come up with another idea.

Idea Number 2- Water Release

Our second idea was to release different amounts of water out of a 15L Culligan bottle and time how long it takes for the bottle to be empty. Our independent variable was the amount of water in the Culligan bottle. The dependent variable was the time it took for the water to drain out of the Culligan water. We hope to see a exponential graph from our data after this experiment.

Catapult Idea Failed

The Catapult idea didn't go as good as we thought it would. At first, it worked well and was accurate, but when we started to use heavier weights the distance traveled by the ball became very inaccurate. We attempted to strengthen the catapult to solve the problem but nothing really changed so we decided to let go of the catapult idea.

Idea Number 1- Catapult

Our first idea is to make a teeter totter in which a ball would be launched by using different sized weights. The dependent variable would be the ball's flight distance and the independent variable would of been the weights dropped on the opposite end. The weight increments went up in  .5kg intervals all the way up to 5kg.

Starting Off

This blog will show all the progress of  Alexander Mistakidis, Andrew Le, Mitchel Scherer and Travis Durocher as we accomplish our MHF and MCV FSE: to select a system in which the relationship between the dependent and independent variables turns out to be a Non-Linear system/graph.