A Catapult Investigation Essay Example

A Catapult Investigation Essay Example A Catapult Investigation Essay A Catapult Investigation Essay The aim of this experiment is to investigate how far a piece of block would travel using a catapult with different weights on the block and different force applied to the catapult.FrictionI know from text books and from lessons that friction will affect how far certain object travels. Since Im not going to change the friction or not going to change where I will do my experiment I dont need to worry about this factor.HypothesisMy hypothesis for this experiment is the more force you apply to the rubber band the further the wood will travel but the more weight you put on the block of wood the less distance its going to cover.Apparatus* A stool* Rubber band* Newton meter* Weights* A metre stickMethodI will do tests of 5, 10, 15 and 20 newtons force each with and without weights. I will put up to 3 weights on the block. I will do 5 repeats for each test. Firstly we had to set up the stool then we had to find a place to do the experiment but we made sure that we did the experiment in the s ame place throughout. We recorded our results on a book and put it on to a table.Fair testThe variables we didnt change in order to make this as fair test were the equipment and the place we did the experiment. We did this by writing our name in the equipment we used.DiagramSafetyWhen we were doing the experiment we made sure no one stood in front of the wood which was going to be released. We wore goggles so our eyes wont get damages if the rubber band flies at us.Other PrecautionsDuring the investigation we must make sure that we dont make any human error such as recording the distance wrongly or plotting the results wrong.These are the results(in cm)5N5N+1Weight5N+2Weights5N+3Weights161251151062161373159531775410N10N+1Weight10N+2Weights10N+3Weights796555387762494176595842767153367863474515N15N+1Weight15N+2Weights15N+3Weights13011091601551169864121119100711201159559118114945720N20N+1Weight20N+2Weights20N+3Weights205169132115267210134104250121135105230208130110200191121102Observati onsStandard DeviationI did standard deviation to find out how spread the collected data is. Here are the results:5NX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^2160.20.0415-0.80.64160.20.0415-0.80.64171.21.44792.8Mean15.8Standard Deviation0.755N+1WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^2121.83.2410-0.20.04132.87.849-1.21.447-3.210.245122.8Mean10.2Standard Deviation2.145N+2WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^25-0.60.3660.40.1671.41.965-0.60.365-0.60.36283.2Mean5.6Standard Deviation0.805N+3WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^21-1.62.562-0.60.3630.40.1630.40.1641.41.96135.2Mean2.6Standard Deviation1.0210NX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^2791.83.2477-0.20.0476-1.21.4476-1.21.44780.80.643866.8Mean77.2Standard Deviation1.1710N+1WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^2651162-2459-5257174963-1132080Mean64Standard Deviation4.0010N+2WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^2552.66.7649-3.411.56585.631.36530.60.3647-5.429.1626279.2Mean52.4Standard Deviation3.9810N+3WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^238-2.45.76410.60.36421.62.5636-4.419.36454.621.1620249.2Mean40.4Standard Deviation3.1415NX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^21301.21.4 415526.2686.44121-7.860.84120-8.877.44118-10.8116.64644942.8Mean128.8Standard Deviation13.7315N+1WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^2110-4.823.041161.21.441194.217.641150.20.04114-0.80.6457442.8Mean114.8Standard Deviation2.9315N+2WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^291-4.621.16982.45.761004.419.3695-0.60.3694-1.62.5647849.2Mean95.6Standard Deviation3.1415N+3WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^260-2.24.84641.83.24718.877.4459-3.210.2457-5.227.04311122.8Mean62.2Standard Deviation4.9620NX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^2205-25.4645.1626736.61339.5625019.6384.16230-0.40.16200-30.4924.1611523293.2Mean230.4Standard Deviation25.6620N+1WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^2169-29841210121442121419620810100191-7499901330Mean198Standard Deviation16.3120N+2WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^21321.62.561343.612.961354.621.16130-0.40.16121-9.488.36652125.2Mean130.4Standard Deviation5.0020N+3WeightX(X-Mean)(X-Mean)^21157.860.84104-3.210.24105-2.24.841102.87.84102-5.227.04536110.8Mean107.2Standard Deviation4.71AnalysisFrom these results its clear that my hypothesis were right. My hypothesis was the more force you apply to the rubber band the further the wood will travel but the more weight you put on the block of wood the less distance its going to cover. As Newton said When an object gains force it will accelerate or decelerate the acceleration or deceleration is proportional to the resultant force. This explains that when the block of wood was released at 20 Newtons the force it gained was much greater than the friction; this is why it could go for greater distance. But when the same block of wood was released at 5 Newtons the block of wood didnt go far enough this is because the friction was greater than the force released by the piece of wood.EvaluationI think that these results are not good because we didnt check the elasticity of the rubber band.Elasticity of the rubber bandI know from the Internet that elasticity of a normal rubber band will change when you keep on stretching but there is a limit when the rubber band will not stretch furthe r. I put 50g weight on a new rubber band and measured how much it stretched. I then took the weight and stretched the rubber band 20 times and put 50g weight and measured it. I did this until I got the same result 3 times. These are the results:155mm179mm200mm200mm200mmThese results show that the elasticity of the rubber band will change but there is a limit to it. If I had done this and used the same rubber band then I can be sure that the results are not wrong. I think I collected enough results.