Rubber Band Lab

Rubber Band Lab

In this week's lab, we had to answer two big questions: 

"How can we store energy to do work for us later?"

“How does the force it takes to stretch a rubber band depend on the 

AMOUNT by which you stretch it?” 

To answer these questions, we had to follow some steps.

1. Plug in the force probe, hold it horizontally, and zero it.

2. Then, hook the force probe over both strands of the single looped rubber band. 

3. After pulling the rubber band 1cm (.1m) for 10 seconds, measure the average amount of force.

4. After finishing these steps, repeat them but use the lengths of 2cm, 3cm, 4cm, and 5cm.

We recorded the following data:

• Length | Force (single looped rubber band)
• .1m      |  .7n 
• .2m      |  1.4n
• .3m      |  2n
• .4m      |  2.8n
• .5m      |  3.4n
• Length | Force (double looped rubber band)
• .1m      | 4.2n
• .2m      | 5.7n
• .3m      | 7.3n
• .4m      | 9.9n
• .5m      | 12.8n

In this lab I learned about:

• Hooke's Law
• Multiple different equations

Real World Connection:

"I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth I knew not where." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Bows must be made of elastic material. When the bow is drawn back, energy is stored. The farther back the bow is drawn, more energy is stored in the bow. After the bow is released, all the energy stored in the bow is transferred to the arrow, and away it goes.  

Simple Machines: Pulley Lab

Simple Machines: Pulley Lab!

In this lab, the main questions we had to answer were these:

“How can force be manipulated using a simple machine?" 

"What pattern do you observe regarding the relationship between force and distance 

in a simple machine? "

To answer these questions, we followed these steps:

1. We designed a pulley system!
2. After many attempts, the pulley system was finally able to hold the 200g brass mass, which meant the next step was to put the 100g brass mass on the other side and start lifting!
3. After lifting the 200g brass mass to 10 cm, we measured the length of string it took to lift it up.

After lifting the 200g brass mass with 1.8n, we were challenged to use the same pulley but find a way to pull the mass with only .5n! To accomplish this, we lifted the mass in many different ways, but we were finally able to accomplish this by pulling diagonally to the right. Although it took roughly 3cm more string, the task was accomplished. From our lab, we were able to come up with the equation: W=FD. Work(energy) equals force(newtons) times distance(centimeters) 

Real World Connection:

     Speaking of simple machines, every time I ride my longboard, I'm using a simple machine commonly known as the wheel and axle! The wheel and axle have made it super easy for people to move things and it has been the basis for tons of creations!

Mass-Force Lab

Mass-Force Lab!

In this week's mass-force lab, we had to answer two main questions: 

“How do we measure force in a reliable and repeatable way?"

"What is the relationship between the mass of an object and the force needed to hold it in place?” 

To answer these questions, each table group had to follow a set of steps:

•  First, we had to hang a brass mass from a manual force probe, and then write down the mass of the brass (in g and kg) and how much force it took to support that mass at rest.
• After doing that for 3 or 4 masses, we plotted the information on a graph with the mass on the x-axis and the force on the y-axis.
• Finally, after the graph was finished, we created a best-fit line that goes through the most points on the graph. 

Real World Connection:

• Now that I have to think about force and mass, it is easy to connect it to my daily life. Every single time I swing a baseball bat, I am exerting force on the ball, which here would be the mass. The more force that I exert on the tiny baseball, the farther it is going to fly.