Buggy Lab

In class this week, we did the buggy lab to show the difference between position and distance.  For part one, my group measured how far the buggy went every ten seconds from a reference point for a minute.  For part two, we did the same thing but almost double the speed.  Both of these created linear graphs.  Other groups had different scenarios for part two, like moving the the buggy a meter behind their reference point.  This created graphs with the same slope and y-intercepts as the starting points.  (0,0) would be the reference point.  In class we discussed if we should add (0,0) as a point into excel but i don't think we should because the y-intercept would show if you were off like if you didn't actually start the buggy on the reference point.  A question asked in class was if the graph was affected by either speed or velocity.  I think it was speed because it didn't really matter from which way the car was coming and some of the cars went off track to the left or right but nothing in the slope displayed that.  I understood everything pretty well so I don't have any further questions.

Lab Relationships and Questions

In Circle Lab #1, we discussed that the graph is positive and linear.  My group's equation ended up being y=3.03x-0.325 and as we were discussing we realized that it would be C=3.14d which is the actual relationship for circumference and diameter, so my group was pretty accurate with our measurements because we were close to that equation.  The graph would look very similar to the one my group originally came up with but with a y-intercept of zero.  I fully understood the relationship once we discussed it as a class because the equation seemed random compared to the C=3.14d equation that we found in the end. 

  

In the Pendulum Lab, the class discovered that, on average the, mass of the nuts wasn't really affecting the time it took to swing on the pendulum so the graph was mainly constant.  I'm wondering if the mass really was affecting the time because it seemed not to, but it could have been human error or that the groups only increased by one nut each time.   Would the graph look different if we used larger intervals of nuts?    

  

In the Lever Lab, the graph formed a negative power line.  This is because you never apply 0 force with 0 mass because then it would be a lever with nothing affecting it.  The class ended up discovering that as you decrease your distance from the mass, you increase your force on the lever to keep it level.  Would the graph be affected if we used a different lever?  

I feel like I understood the lab procedure and how the results represented them.  To get more out of the discussions, I should ask more questions/ participate more.