Marble Investigation

We are studying forces and motion, and we needed to do a marble investigation. In the marble investigation we needed to change something from the normal experiment, we decided to change the car mass, by adding weights. Factors that can affect the object motion are mass and the velocity of an object. Friction is a force that acts on an object to stops its motion it acts in the opposite direction. Momentum is the product of mass and velocity, it changes by how much velocity and mass an object has. Inertia is force that keeps an object in rest. 

Our aim was to investigate the effect of the mass of the car on how far it will travel. 

Variables:

• Independent variable: weight of the car

• Dependent variable: how far the car will travel(distance)

• Controlled variable: height of the slope and mass of the marble

Materials: 

• 4 meter sticks

• Books on the left side with an height of 28.9 cm

• Books on the right side with an height of 4.9 cm

• Ruler

• Weights kit

• Toy car with a mass of 256.7 gram

• Two marbles each with 28.239 gram

• Plastic cup

Procedure: 

1. Create a slope with two rulers leaving a small dent between them for the marbles to roll down the slope. (Remember, this slope must remain the same throughout the experiment.) At the end of the slope, place the car with the cup taped to i t in a way that the marbles will roll into the plastic cup when you drop them down.
2. Place a meter ruler to measure the distance the car moves when it is hit by the marbles.
3. Add the 200 gram weight to the car and drop the two marbles from the top of the slope.
4. Measure the distance traveled by the car.
5. Have 5 trials, measure the distance, and take pictures of videos. Record data.
6. Repeat this procedure (basically dropping the ball and measuring distance) adding 500 grams to the car and having 5 trials, then to record data.
7. Repeat #6 now with 1 kg (1000 grams)
8. Compare results and write a conclusion (compare to your initial hypothesis)

Table Graph:

Scatter Graph: 

By looking to the scatter graph and table graph you can notice that the their isn't a pattern, and when we look t the scatter graph, we can see that the average are different and their is an error. If we were to do the experiment again I think we should do more trials so we can see what happened wrong with the experiment.

Conclusion:

I discovered that bigger the mass of the car, less the car will travel. This is connected to our aim, investigate the effect of the mass of the car on how far it will travel, we would add the weights to change the car weights. Errors that could change the experiment is that, if we had more time, we could do more trials so we could see what the problem was. Looking to the table their isn't any pattern and by doing more trials we may find a common pattern. Another error that we found was that sometimes when we are putting the car back, we can move like three or four centimeters more and this could change the whole experiment. The next time I think that we will need to make sure the car is at the same place and then do the next trial. 

What was the purpose of these first two days of science class and what are my plans for this year?

My plan for this year is to do my best, and have in my mida that even if I don´t understand something in class, I will go after what I need so I can understand, I won´t let this year pass like the other year. I will pass this year with good grades and with the right foot to the next year. The purpose of these two days of science class was to show us how to be strong and believe on what you want and continue until you get it, never give up.