Science

Proficiency #1
Newton's laws

Problem: What impact will the mass of the ball have on how far it pushes a block?

Hypothesis: I think that the golf ball will push the block the farthest because it weighs the most and since it weighs the most it will go the fastest and will apply the most force pushing the block the farthest. 

Materials-

• Ramp
• ping pong ball
• golf ball
• bounce ball
• ruler
• laptop
• block

Variables-

• CV- area, ruler, ramp, block 
• DV-weight of ball
• IV- distance block pushed

Procedure- First you take the ping pong ball and roll it down the ramp and measure how far it pushes the block. After you record your data repeat that step four more times.  Then take the bounce ball and push it down the ramp and measure how far it pushes the block. After you measure that and record the data repeat that step four more times.  Finally take the golf ball and push it down the ramp and measure how far it pushes the block. After that record data and repeat four more times.  When you done testing make a graph and compare data. Finally clean up.

Observation-

After the first couple of trials I started to notice that golf ball pushed the block the farthest and the ping pong ball pushed it the least amount of distance.  That's when I thought that the more mass the object has the farther it will push the block and that is why the golf ball would always push it further then bouncy ball and the ping pong ball. That was my observation while doing this experiment.

Conclusion- My group was trying to find if the mass of a ball will affect how far the ball pushes the block.  My hypothesis was correct. The golf ball pushed the block the farthest with an average of 42.4 inches.  The beat the bouncy ball by 16.2 inches and the ping pong ball by 36.3 inches. If i did this experiment again I would of tried to have the balls be the exactly the same size.  That is our experiment and the data we collected

External Variables- Some of the things that I plan to do to get rid of all external variables is to do the experiment in side. This will get all the external variables like wind, light, and temperature. One of the other things I will do is stay in the same location and use the same materials. Staying in the same location will keep the surface the same so I don't have to worry about that external variable. That is what I’m planning to do to get rid of external variables.

How do the laws of motion apply to the physical world? 
 The three Newton's laws of motion apply to the physical world. For example the first law of motion is like when you're playing soccer and the soccer ball is sitting in the middle.  It will stay there until you kick it and then it will be put into motion, but if another player tries kicking it at the same time it will be an unbalanced force.  The second law applies to the physical world too. When your car brakes down and you have the transmission in neutral its still hard to push it. Then if you tried to push a toy car it would be fairly easy. The reason is mass. According to the second law of motion the more mass an object has the more force it will need to put it in motion.  The third law can also be applied to the physical world.  Just like the first one it can be applied to soccer.  For example when you head the ball. The ball is already coming at you, but when you apply the force you cause an action. With every action there is a reaction and the reaction is when the ball goes the other way.  That is how the three Newton's laws of motion apply to the physical world.

Proficiency # 3
Speed and acceleration
Problem- What impact will the mass of a ball affect how fast it accelerates?

Hypothesis- I think that the ping pong ball because it has the least amount of mass and in Newton’s second law it says that the less mass object will accelerate faster.
Materials-

• Ramp
• ping pong ball
• golf ball
• bounce ball
• ruler
• laptop
• block
• timers

Variables-

• CV- area, ruler, ramp, block, timer 
• DV- mass of ball
• IV- time of acceleration

Procedure- Start by taking one of the three balls and rolling it down the ramp. As soon as you let the ball go start the first timer.  You won’t stop this timer until it is done going thought the course. Start the second timer when it reaches the end of the ramp and stop it when it travels one yard. Then have a block to stop the ball at the end.  Measure one yard towards the ramp from the block.  When the ball reaches that mark start the last timer and stop it once it hits the block.  Also stop the first timer as soon as it hits the block.  Repeat that with the same ball four more times.  Next take the next ball and do the same exact thing five times. Finally take the last ball and do those same steps five times.

External Variables- Some of the external variables my group faced were the surface wasn't flat and the balls weren't the same size. I would fix the surface external variable by finding a surface that is as flat as I can find with the requirments that it need.  The size of the balls external variable would be a little harder to fix. The balls had to be the same size but have different masses. The masses had to have a difference of at least 10-20 grams so the data is easy to read. Those are the two biggest external variables that my group faced in this experiment.

Observation-

At the beginning of the experiment it was hard to tell what ball accelerated the fastest but it was easy to tell what one had the fastest speed. It was the golf ball and I knew it did because it would always do the course in the fastest time.  After the experiment I looked at the data we collected and found that the ping pong ball had the fastest acceleration and I thought that it did get to its top speed fast.  That is what I observed in that experiment.

Conclusion- My group was trying to find out if the mass of a ball affects how fast it accelerates.  From the data we collected we found that the golf ball accelerates the fastest and then the ping pong ball and finally the bouncy ball. The golf ball had an average of 0.072 and the bouncy ball had an average of 0.076 and the proves that the golf ball had the fastest time of acceleration. If I did this experiment again I would have a flatter surface for the ball to roll on so it goes in a straight line. The other thing I would have don differently is find three balls with the same exact size but had different masses.  That was all the data we collected from our experiment.


 Relationship between speed and acceleration- Speed and acceleration are to different things.  Just because something has the fastest speed doesn't mean that it accelerated the fastest. According to Newton's second law an object with the least amount of mass will accelerate the fastest.  That is why the ping pong ball accelerated the fastest and the golf ball had the slowest acceleration time. Speed is how fast an object can travel a certain distance.  The golf ball had the fastest speed but it had the slowest accelerations time.  So that shows that speed and acceleration are two completely different things.
Proficiency #4
Simple Machines

Rube Goldberg- 
It will start with a ball will roll down an inclined plane and hit a car which has mechanical energy. The wheel and axles will detach the string from the ground. That is kinetic energy.  The thing on the other side of the pulley will drop onto a 1st class lever and make kinetic energy by hitting the ball that hits a screw that will hit the dominoes.  The dominoes which have potential energy will be hit that will turn it into kinetic energy. Then they will go up on top of a box and hit a small ball making kinetic energy. Then the ball will roll down a ramp and hit a wedge that has potential energy that will hit bigger ball which makes kinetic energy that will hit a soccer ball into a net, scoring a goal.
The three forms of energy used in this Rube Goldberg are kinetic energy, potential energy, and mechanical energy.
Proficiency #2
Friction and Gravity

Problem- What impact does the surface have on how far the ball rolls?

Hypothesis- I think that the wood surface will make the ball roll the farest because it won't have anything slowing the ball down it will just let it roll.

Materials-

• ramp
• smooth track
• rough track
• cardboard
• scissors
• laptop
• ruler
• ping pong ball

Variables-

• CV- ball, angle of ramp, ruler, area, length of track
• DV- type of surface
• IV- distance ball rolls

Procedure- First gather all the materials that you will need to do this experiment.  Next take the smooth track and roll the ball down it and measure how far it rolls.  Repeat rolling the ball and measuring the distance four more times. After that take the rough track and roll the ball down it then measure the distance. Repeat that step four more times. After that make a graph and compare data. Finally write the conclusion and clean up.

External Variables- I will do this experiment inside and will stay in the same area so that will get rid of a lot of external variables like wind temperature and the angle of the ramp. One other thing I will do is use the same brand of track. That will get rid of an external variable because not all companies that make track the same That is how I plan to get rid of external variables.

Observations -

During this experiment I noticed that the blanket slowed down the ball a lot because it was the softest so the ball sank into the blanket and slowed the ball down.  Since the ball slowed down it didn't go as far and that was why the blanket would always get the shortest distance. For the wood the ball rolled down the fastest out of the three surfaces and the speed made the ball go the farthest. That was why it had the farthest distance.  The track surface was the second fastest because it let the ball roll down but as the ball went down the track would bend a little at where the ball was that caused the ball to slow down and since it wasn't going very fast it didn't travel the farthest.  That is what I noticed during the experiment.

Conclusion- This data proves that my hypothesis is confirmed  because the ball rolled the farthest on the  wood.  It rolled the farthest on the wood because it is smooth and is firm so the nothing gets in its way and it doesn't bend when the ball is rolling down the wood.  The average distance for the wood was 366.5 inches that is 145.2 inches further then the track which is the second place surface.  If I did this experiment again I would create a wall so the ball will roll in a straight line and not all over the basement.  That is the data I collected from this experiment.

How do friction and gravity have to do with Newton's laws of motion- For the first law when it says an object will stay in motion unless an unbalnce force acts apon it. The unblanced force could be gravity stopping the object.  That is how gravity has to do with the first law.  The second law states that the greater the acceleration the greater the force.  If you have a heavier ball it creates more acceleration which become a greater force when it hits the ground because of gravity.  Friction is also created by this because when the ball hits the floor it creates heat and that is friction. That is how the second law has to do with friction and gravity.  In the third law it says that for every action there is a reaction. This can apply to friction and gravity by the following example. For the action you roll and ball and the reaction is when gravity stops the ball the reaction is the ball stops. The friction is the ball rolling on the floor. That's friction because it creates heat. That is how friction and gravity have to do with Newton's laws of motion.
Proficiency #5
Energy

 

Ocean Energy

Ocean energy could one day be the type of energy that powers your home.  Right now it is one of the least popular ways of energy.  There are three different ways that you can collect ocean energy.  It is the kind of energy that you don’t hear a lot about in science class but it could one day be something that you rely on.

   One of the first ways to collect ocean energy is by using the waves. You collect this energy by kinetic energy existing in the moving waves of the ocean.  That energy can be used to turning a turbine to make electricity to power the lights in your home.  The way it turns the turbine is, when the water is rising it forces air out of the chamber. Then the moving air turns the turbine. That is only one of the three ways that you can make electricity by using ocean energy.

   The second way that you can use ocean energy is by using the tide.  When the tide comes up it onto the shore, they can be trapped in the reservoirs behind dams.  Then when the tide drops, the water behind the dam will be let out just like hydroelectric power plant.  That is only the second way that you can use the ocean to make electricity. 

   Thermal energy is the last way and it can be made by using the ocean.  By using the temperature of the water to make energy is actually one of the oldest ways to make electricity using ocean energy.  If you ever went swimming in the ocean and dove deep under the water's surface, you would have notice that the water is colder the deeper down you went.  The reason it is warmer near the surface is because the sun heats the water at the surface and it can't reach the deeper part of the water.  Power plants can use the temperature of the water to make electricity.  The difference of the surface temperature and the deeper water has to be at least 36 degrees Fahrenheit.  That is the last way you can use ocean energy to power your homes.

   Overall I think the world should use more ocean energy because it is a resource that we already have and it is health for the environment.  The best way out of these three is ocean thermal energy because it is the one that produces the most and it also is the most researched.  Since it’s the most researched, they already know all the things that they have to do in order for it to work.  So hopefully one day ocean energy will power most of the world.