Curious Magnets Lab

Hi. I actually wasn't here on this day, because I was on a visit day to Lakeside. If you want to know what this lab was about, you can look at Louisa or Alice's blog, because they were going to be my partners.

A Measure of Sound

Today in class I was the measuring sound lab with Amalia and Le-Jayah. In it, we had two experiments to do. The first part of the lab was to make a device that would measure sound. The second part was to build orur own speaker. We had enough time to do the first one though.
Experiment One:
There was an attached document with a diagram and instructions on how to build the device. We followed them, and ended up with a battery with copper wire attached to both ends, with the middle wound around an iron nail. The nail was held onto a magnetic sound tracker which was attached to the computer. The Computer had a built in lab for this, that would track the magnetic feild per wind. We had to test eight different times. Each time with three more winds then the time before it. The winds we tested at were: zero, three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, and twenty-one. We only got up to eighteen, because we had to keep starting over due to technical diffuculties.
Anyway, the more the wire was winded around the nail, the higher the magnetic feild was. The line on the graph went up.
At the end of the lab, we were supposed to save our graph that we made using the points from our sound measurements, and then print it out. But we forgot to, so I have no data to support what we did.

Impact Craters Lab

Today in class my lab was impact craters. My partners were Taryn and Amalia.
For our lab, we had to record the width and depth of craters that we made with a small compass ball and flour in a tin pan.
Then, we had to make 2 hypothesis. The 1st question was; how do you think GPE will affect crater depth- directly, inversly or not at all? Why? We said directly, becaue the higher up the ball is and the faster it goes, the deeper the crater would be, because there would be a lot of force coming down. Same goes for the lower the ball is, and the slower it is going.
The 2nd question was; how do you think GPE will affect crater width- directly, inversly or not at all? Why? We said directly and not at all both, because if the ball is droped from an extremely high height, then the crater would most likely have a larger width, because the force of the drop would impacted the flour, and then it would most likely change the space around it to make room for the ball and the air coming down with it. We said not at all, because if the ball was droped from not a very high height (like 10 cm then the GPE would probably not impact the width of the crater as much.
We had to pick 5 different spots on a meter stick, and drop the ball from those spots. We picked: 10 cm, 20 cm, 40 cm, 60 cm, and 80 cm. Then, we used the measurements in 5 GPE = mgh equations.. That gave us the measurement of energy. Then, we plugged that into a KE = 1/2m v2 problem.
This was to figure out the velocity. The velocities and heights were:
height = velocity
10 cm = .626099034
20 cm = .885437745
40 cm = 1.25219807
60 cm = 1.53362316
80 cm = 1.77087549
We took the data 2 times, because the 1st time we got the same depth and width for each height. Then, we talked to Mary Margaret, and she told us to loosen up the flour. So we did, and then the results were a bit different for each height.

Motors Lab

In class today, I did a motors lab. My lab partners were Anna and Lena. The 1st thing that we had to do, was wind a copper wire around a straw. We then had to hold the straw horizanatlly and put a needle into it.
The 2nd thing we had to do, was wind a copper wire around a battery 3 times, and then attache it to two paper clips, which we then taped onto the battery. And we also had to put a ceramic magnet underneath the copper wire circle. What was supposed to happen, was the battery sides, the paper clips, and the wire were supposed to get warm, and the wire circle was suppoesd to turn.
I did the 2nd expiriment with Anna, but then Anna went and helped Lena. We split up the expiriments so that our group could do both in the time we were given.
Although the contraption didn't work properly (the wire only spun 1/2 way then stopped). It did on the other hand heat up. In fact, it heated up so much, that I burned my cheek on it.

Body Power Lab

In class today, I was the body power lab. My partner was Em.
My BEE= 744.86
My RHR= 87
My MHR= 120
My WHR= 120
My calories burned per minute= 1.5
My EE= 10800
My DEE= 11544.86
My work= 15778
My power= 2954.68
My horsepower= 3.960

Launching to the Moon Lab

On Friday, I did launching to the moon with Alice and Taryn. At first, we put the tube on the string, and then we taped the ping pong ball on to it. We then taped the 1st balloon on the it. It wasn't that successful, because it didn't go that far, probably about 2 inches off the ground. So, we took the tape off, so we could blow the balloon up more, and add another one too it, but the balloon popped. We added two more objects to the tube (the two red Lego sticks) so it would be heavier, and so we wouldn't have to launch that many rockets. Just when I was going to blow the 2nd balloon up, (the 1st for that round, we only had 2 balloons total) I was called to the front desk for a soccer game, so I didn't get to finish the lab. I think that if we had two balloons to tape to the tube, then the tube would go up more, because more air would be pushing it upward. I don't know if adding more weight to the tube would work or not, but I think it would, because then the tube would be a little heavier, and we would make less trips, and it is most usually easier to throw a tennis ball in the air than a feather.

Lego Robotics- Challenge 2

Today, my lab partner was Louisa. We had to design a program that had our robot follow a black line. It was really hard at first, becasue we didn't know how to start it, but then, we asked Bert for help, and he showed us. Then, We tried to make it go, but our first program didn't work, so, we tried a new order of directions. We kept switching around the order, until we could get the robot to do what we wanted the robot to do. Our sequence is at left.

Remote Repairs

In class today, we did a lab called remote repairs. My partners were Emma S. and Anja. We had to go to different places in the lab, and IM to each other of what they had in their bags. My bag contained a bunch of different kinds of axels, some black Lego bricks, some thin long grey Lego pieces, a purple tube, and a couple other Legos. I can't remember what was in my other bag. Anja had the completed version of what was in my un-completed bag. But, before we could really get into what we were supposed to do, I was called to the front desk for a doctors appointment, and I don't know what happened after that.

Recovery Systems

Yesterday in class, I did a lab called Recovery Systems. My partners for this lab, were Kimmy and Em. In it, we had to make a parachute out of a plastic garbage bag, string, a hole puncher, hole punch reinforcement stickers, scissors, tape, and a hair dryer. Also, we had some balloons that were filled with sand. We started, by tying a sand bag to a big garbage bag, and blowing hot air from the hair dryer into it. That didn't work, because it was too flimsy, and it would fall down and crumple up really quickly. So, we cut the end of it off. Em worked with that, and made a parachute out of that the same way, but Kimmy and I wanted to make a smaller neater parachute, so we decided that Em would make a big one, I would make a small one, and Kimmy would write down what happened. Then, we would have two models (maybe more) and from that, we would decide which one worked better, and was a better model. The bigger one that Em made, fell just as easily as the one we had made original, so we tried out mine. That didn't work either, because it was too small, and the string was uneven, but it did work better. Then, Em came up with the idea of making a second parachute, and attach it to the top of my model, like a bi-plane. I'm not sure if they got a chance to make that version, because the soccer team was called to the front desk for early dismissal to go to the game, and I am on the soccer team.