The $150 Lab

"Don't let the machine fall off the ramp- it costs $150!!!!", Mr. Battlagia told our group this past week. Wow!!! I never thought such a little foot long machine would cost that much! As you can imagine, our group didn't want to pay $150, so we protected that tiny machine. So, what was this highly expensive lab you may ask???? Well, here's a clue- it involved a ramp, some books, a long piece of carbon paper, and a little machine that rolled down the ramp. 

Mr. Battlagia presented us with the question, "How does time affect the position of a cart on a ramp?" To solve the problem, my group immediately started getting all the supplies we needed. Our group was lucky enough where we didn't have to dot the ramp every second with a marker. We got to use carbon paper that was attached to the car. As the car rolled down the ramp, the paper received dots from a needle like object. The more space between the dots, the faster the car was moving. The data we found out was...

Time (sec)      Position (cm)

30.                            14.5

60.                             44

90.                              93

120.                           157

150.                          232

Once we collected our data and made our white board very colorful, the whole class got together for a group discussion.   In the discussion, we first talked about how everyone's data was extremely different. Our data was especially different from everyone else because we got to use the carbon paper. Other groups struggled just to get 5 seconds, but somehow we got 150. My group wasn't very sure how it was possible to get 150 seconds but we figured it had something to do with the carbon paper being more efficient than dotting the ramp with a marker. The class also discussed the graph. We ended up with a polynomial graph. Our next topic was about the equation for the graph. My groups equation was: 

P= .0084t^2 + .3124t-3.3. 

Of course none of the groups had the same equation because we didn't have the same data, but we determined the units for each section of the equation. •The .0084t^2 represents acceleration because of the cm/t^2. 

• the .3124t represents the speed. Cm/t

• the -3.3 was the starting point. Our group didn't know why it was negative because we couldn't have started at a negative number, but we thought it had to do with human error. 

Well, that wraps up another blog entry! I guess tomorrow we are doing computer programming. I never have programmed a computer before in my life, so this should be interesting! 

                        ¡Adiós!