An investigation to find the stopping distance of a margarine tub Essay Example

the margarine tub.

I will collect accurate results by repeating results and calculating the averages. I am going to do this because although I will measure as accurate as possible it is possible that the margarine tub may not travel in a straight line etc.

To make the experiment safe I will do it on the floor so that nothing i.e. masses/stool, can be dropped. I will also take extra care when using the elastic band and make sure that it is secure around the stool.

The graph shows that the bigger the mass the shorter the stopping distance.

On the basis of my results, I am satisfied that my prediction has been proven. I knew that this would happen because my research shows that the acceleration produced by certain force acting on a body, is directly proportional to the magnitude of a force, and it is inversely proportional to the mass of the body.

Also that F (force from elastic band) = ma, this means that as the mass increases, the acceleration will decrease.

The graph also showed that there was a big difference between the stopping distance of 50g - 58.6cm and 100g - 24.6cm. This also meant that the best fit line was a curve.

Evaluation: What went right?

My results showed a clear pattern (the bigger the mass

the shorter the stopping distance.)

I believe that my results were quite accurate. There were no obvious exceptions, as all my results fall close to the best-fit line on my graph, and this was quite easy to draw. To make my results more reliable I also took an average of 3 readings for each mass.

I think that my results are quite reliable. For example the results of the mass 250g were 10cm, 9cm, and 8 cm, when a force of 5n is applied. These are quite consistent, because all 3 are close to the average of 9cm.

What went wrong?

The experiment went fine. The only main problem we had was that we found it hard to get the margarine tub to travel in a straight direction. To overcome this we did 3 tries rather than1 or 2 to try and make the results more accurate.

How could you improve then investigation?

To improve the investigation we could measure the results to the nearest 0.5cm, making the measurements even more accurate.