Reflection 2: Investigation and Experimentation

    As humans, more often than not, we let our days pass on by without really stopping and taking time to observe our surroundings-whether it be to look up at the sky or see the cars passing by on the street, to hear kids laughing, running, and playing, or to hear the howling of the wind on a windy or stormy day. We sometimes tend to forget that the basic reasons behind why these things are even possible, can be explained by science. Physics gets to the fundamental level of how and why things move the way they do. In STP, we conducted an experiment using IOLab and documented it in LoggerPro. We used our "brick" on wheels and placed it at different heights to see the relationship between height and velocity. In order to record information, however, there were a few things that needed to be agreed upon...

    We were placed in groups, and in those groups, a whole bunch of brainstorming went down on what things could potentially affect our results and what the effects of different changes could be. In my group, we had agreed or rather, kept constant, various circumstances to not only get similar results but to remain as consistent as possible to either prove or disprove our hypothesis. Some things we kept constant were establishing what variables would be considered independent, dependent, and constant. For example, a dependent variable would be our max velocity while our independent variable would be the height of our ramps. Variables or objects that would remain constant were: the release point of our brick on the ramp, the surface of the ramp, the material in which our ramps are composed of, the brick itself (the IOLab cart), and the length of our ramp. It was imperative to agree on such things to not only be as accurate as possible but like I said before, to prove or disprove our hypothesis.

    This investigation and experiment consisted of five trials (the more trials there are the more accurate one's results can be and a little more data never hurt anybody). The very process of establishing a procedure, declaring our hypothesis and materials, the recording of data, are all apart of the scientific method. Our investigation, at least I believe, is science and a way to carry out science. In a previous post, I had included my opinion and my own definition of science was. Although what we were conducting wasn't to make a new innovation or find a missing link to answer an age-old question, but we were demonstrating and proving the mechanics of physics. This, therefore, can help us make connections in answering future problems, help establish a "rough draft" of how to conduct different experiments, and how to work in a team. 




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