The Map Project
In the map project we took measurements on a park north of school. We made a map of area out of them then added topographic lines so that we could create a accurate map of the area.
The Mirage lab
- Purpose: Our purpose was to see what causes a mirage; is it more likely to reflect off white sugar (lighter deserts) or brown sugar (red deserts; red rock)?
- Hypothesis: I think that when we shine the laser pointer through the cup it will shine off the sugar creating a “disco ball effect”. I think this will be similar to what happens in a desert environment.
- Materials: A measuring cup, a clear glass of water, brown, organic, and white sugar, measuring tools, and a laser pointer.
- Procedures:
1. Pour 1 and 1/2 cups of water into the cup so the cup is full.
2. Add one tablespoon of sugar to the water, let the sugar settle at the bottom.
3. Shine the laser through the glass full of water and sugar. Record the results.
4. Repeat the test two more times each time adding one tablespoon of sugar to the mixture.
5. Repeat the entire process again but stir the mixture each time to mix up the particles to see if you get different results.
6. Repeat this process with each kind of sugar you have on hand.
- Data:
Brown sugar Organic sugar White sugar
1 tbs not stirred: No reflection1 tbs not stirred: Some reflection with difficulty1 tbs not stirred: Lots of reflection
1 tbs stirred: No reflection1 tbs stirred: No reflection1 tbs stirred: Almost no reflection
2 tbs not stirred: No reflection2 tbs not stirred: Sugar is too dense to get reflection2 tbs not stirred: Even more reflection
2 tbs stirred: No reflection
2 tbs stirred: Slight reflection2 tbs stirred: Slight reflection
3 tbs not stirred: No reflection3 tbs not stirred: No reflection3 tbs not stirred: Too much sugar; no reflection
3 tbs stirred: No reflection3 tbs stirred: Moderate reflection3 tbs stirred: Barely any reflection
6: Response to hypothesis:
The hypothesis, I think, was rejected because the only time we go the “disco ball effect” was when we used the white granulated sugar. The reason for this I believe is the fact that the light reflects better off something white, rather than brown. This might be one reason we see more mirages in the Sahara where the sand is lighter colored than in the canyon lands where it is a dark color.
7: Analysis questions:
1. The lighter the sugar we had, the better it reflected until there was too much sugar to reflect.
2. To make our lab work, we had to kind a dark room which we did not expect we had to do. We also had to shine the laser through the side of the cup instead of the bottom.
3. During the experiment, we failed to do things like stir the cup a set amount of times; this might have made the sugar particles inconsistent. We had things like having the door open for part of the experiment and closed for others; this might have varied the light shining from the laser into the cup, making it lighter or darker. We did not clean out the glass after each measurement to make sure it was clean and all the sugar was gone; this might have given us more sugar in the third test and made our results not as reliable.
4. Try to control the darkness in the room more than we did, we could thoroughly clean the cup to make sure it’s clean, and we could’ve also had a set amount of times we stirred the sugar in the water.
Conclusion:
From what I’ve seen, the lighter the sugar, the more reflections we got, and from that, I’ve concluded that the lighter the sand of the desert or sand/dirt blown onto the road, the higher chance of light reflecting off of it and creating a mirage. I did, wonder how the light reflects and create the water effect in heat. Possibly, the laser pointer’s narrow beam could have only reflected a little bit, while direct sunlight against the grains could’ve reflected more. We could get grains of light and darker sand and test it with more light, seeing if it reflects more and create the mirage effect.
A good experiment is something that can be completely controlled, with a variable only you can change. From that, you should test each variable multiple times to see if you get the result (or close to it) multiple times, and then move on to the next. You should be able to get data from it and numbers, and make sense of it all and learn something about the world from it. My experiment, however, doesn’t have numbers, but we did get data and learned that the lighter the sugar (or ‘sand’), the more reflection we got. We learned something about mirages that led us to a greater understanding of it.
Samantha Duncan 9-21-12
Drew Allsopp
Rocket log reflection
The thing with our rocket that went best was our height we designed it tall enough that it would fly straight and it worked well our rocket went the highest in our period and this made our rocket feel successful. One thing that didn’t work so well was the fact that our parachute didn’t open all the way, but it did open. If I was able to redo my rocket completely I would take more time to create a perfect parachute and more stream lining nose cone. Our more cone was kind of flat on the top so I think thank proved to create some wind resistance and that slowed our rocket down quicker and make it not go as high and once it reached the top of its arc and the chute tried to open the strings were song long it needed a longer hang time and more height for the rocket to open correctly but I would have also made the actual parachute wide to slow it down more. I don’t think I would take anyone else’s design but I might use Dylan kroes’s idea and make my rocket just a bit longer so that it would fly that much more straight. Nothing on our rocket was a “total fail” it all work pretty well I have no complaints If it had only gone higher than It did our parachute would have worked fine and It would have been perfect. There was nothing wrong with this exhibition except the wind which interfered with how high all the rockets went but that could easily be fixed by rescheduling the launch If we didn’t have the wind to contend with our rockets would have been that much more impressive. As far as the project went the only thing I wanted was to have more time to build and make our rockets perfect but I understand that we can’t dedicate too much time to building soda bottle rockets. All in all this was a very good project I enjoyed the building process and exhibition this was a very fun interactive way to integrate physics and real life into a project the math that we learn no doubt has a real world relevance and if we follow a career we would use something as a professional that we learned in our freshman year of high school. I liked the process by which we built our rocket was cool it depended on us being creative rather than a teacher telling us exactly how to do it made all the rockets much more unique and individualized. |
Rocket Physics
By Steve Jobson and Drew Allsopp
Newton’s first law states that an object at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts upon it, and an object in motion will remain in motion unless an outside force acts upon it. This prompts the question, “Why isn’t our rocket outside the Earth’s atmosphere?” The answer is more direct than it seems.
Our rocket had a wonderful variety of outside forces acting upon it. Firstly was gravity, pulling our rocket back to Earth. This could’ve been fatal, except for our cunningly designed parachute, which brings us to our next topic: air resistance. Air resistance slowed our rocket going up, and down. The wind also blew it sideways. Air resistance took our parachute out, and kept it open.The reason our rocket was so easily manipulated was because of it’s lack of mass. If our rocket was heavier, it would’ve gone much straighter. On the other hand, the launch velocity wouldn’t have taken our rocket anywhere near as high.
The question is, why did our rocket launch? Newton’s third law, in it’s statement that for every force and action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, explains our situation perfectly. As the pressure in the bottle builds up, the rocket begins to expand. As the plug is removed from the nozzle, all this pressure seeks to escape through the nozzle. The rocket then is propelled by this thrust in an opposite direction. With these three primary factors acting upon our rocket, it was only natural that it didn’t exit the atmosphere.
Video filmed and made by al thompson
Contact
Address: Animas High School 3206 North Main Street Durango CO 81301
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 970-247-2474
Address: Animas High School 3206 North Main Street Durango CO 81301
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 970-247-2474