Assignment #3: A Science Experiment Current Event

As we discussed in class, for this report, I want you to focus on an article that talks about a science experiment. When you summarize the article I want you to name the independent and dependent variables and discuss the conclusions reached. In reflecting on the article explain why if was/was not a good experiment. How do you think the experiment could be improved? What would you suggest to be a follow-up experiment?

Be sure to hyperlink the title of the article (which is written at the top of your post) to the actual article. Remember to put your name (first + last initial) in the title line.

The article post is due Tuesday, Dec. 15. Your responses to 2 other student’s articles are due Friday, January 8. When you post your responses, include your ideas for follow-up experiments if you have a different idea and if you disagree with anything the student said, explain why you disagree.

As always, be sure the article was written in the last 6 months and be sure to use an appropriate news site.

Charlotte Maurno

My roller coaster project was a challenging experience. First I had to change the whole design because my original one didn't work. The hardest part was building the base part because I couldn't find a way to get the wooden sticks on the board. It was a stressful project, but it was also fun to do.

Bobby Rogerson

My roller coaster project was fun and kept me intertained through out the whole unit since while learning physics I could compare it to my roller coaster. The promblemms i ran into were my tubing was kinked and the ball would not go through and we went out and bought hard plastic tubing. The other promblem I had was marking my roller coaster so i googled most of the words and found a diagram to help me label it. This project was fun and it also taught basic physics in an easy and fun way.

Roller Coaster Project-Wim Quier

My Roller coaster was both challenging and fun at the same time. Some of the problems I had were the tubing kinked up and the large ball bearing wouldnt go through and finding the correct angle for the hill and loop. There was also some fun parts though like when we test them in clase and time how long it took for the ball bearing to go through. I also liked how the different segments were spread out and had different due dates. This was a fun and challenging project.

Jessica Pieroni

This roller coaster project was a lot easier and more fun than I expected. While building my coaster the first problem I had was the tubing already had a lot of kinks in it when I got it. To fix that I stretched the tubing out across the floor and taped both ends, this got most of the kinks out. In my first design, I had a loop in it. Once I started to work on it I realized that the ball might not have enough force to make it through with a loop. Instead of the flip I did cork screws down the hill and that worked well. The ball bearings worked well, and I tested it a lot of times to make sure I ran smoothly. It actually suprised me how quick the ball went through. Over all I thought this project was pretty easy and fun.

Bennett Artman

Will Our Universe Collide With a Neighboring One? by Zeeya Merall, Discover Magazine, November 4, 2009 http://http://discovermagazine.com/2009/oct/04-will-our-universe-collide-with-neighboring-one

The article I have read says that our universe went through an enormous expansion at an unbelievable rate. The universe now bears the scars of that incident and of a possible impact with another a very long time ago. The question of many scientists is if it will happen again. The scientists pose a multiverse theory which says that there are more universes than ours. Some universes expand at rates faster than the speed of light and this extremely gast motion would create a mirror of the light. These future universes may contain physical forces the likes of which have never been expierienced in ours. Howecer the possible death by bubble fate for our universe is rare according to the calculations of Alan Guth a scientist from the Physical Institute of Moscow. Guth and other scientists have considered trying to find a way to see an impending attack on the galaxy. The scientists plan to use a microwave probe to detect an oncoming universe. The death by bubble thought is indeed a scary one, thankfully, the chances of this ever happening is extremely low.

I thought that this article was very informing and complex. I was before familiar with the multiverse theory which I never really paid much attention to. After I had rad this article I was feeling a little anxious to realize that we could be vaporized at any second. This fear along with the Sun expandiong to far and vaporizing Earth. I am just so glad that this explains the slim chances of this incident ever happening. I enjoyed the article because of my new found knowledge gained from it.

Jessica S.

Making this roller coaster project had its ups and downs. Things like finding the materials and creating a good design was easy. My Dad had most of the tools I needed and materials were not hard to find at Lowe's. Drilling the holes in the base was fun for me because I got to use the drill for the first time. After I glued the wooden dowels into the base, using Gorilla glue, and letting it dry overnight, I began to build the design I had created. It was then that I came across a few problems. The polythene tubing I had bought had a lot of kinks in it and would not let the ballbearing go through in certain places. I tried heating out the kinks with a hair drier but it didn't make much difference. Later on, after letting it sit for a while to relax the tubing it began to do what I wanted it to do. The design had to be changed a little because of sizing and getting the ballbearing through to the end of the roller coaster would have been impossible if I had the second hill. I took out the second hill and made the loop smaller. The way the loop went around needed to be changed so instead of taping it down I had to let one side stick out. After every change I made I tested it three times to make sure it would work and when I eventually found a good design I taped it down. The labeling was not hard and did not take very long. All that was left to do then was to copy the key, and tape it and my name onto the base. Even though making this roller coaster was hard I still had a blast doing it.

Ginny Blair

Doing the roller coaster project had difficult parts and easy parts to it. The biggest ball bearing was tough to get through all the tubing. All the other balls were a breeze when I got the track to work right. The tubing did not kink for me so that was a plus. After I finished the project, I had a party at my house and little would blow into the tubing when I wasn't looking, so i had to take the whole coaster apart and attach a piece of a paper towel to wire and get all the water out. It was gross but the ball would not run through the track unless i dried it. I got to use some power tools so that was pretty fun. The rollercoaster was easier than i thought. The downward spiral was a difficulty because i drilled the holes into the wood in the wrong places. That was the most difficult problem I had. I think the project was very stressful along with all our other school work. I think that NSA should have supplied the tubing instead of making the parents go out and buy it. Overall, it was a very creative and fun project. I enjoyed it.

Drew Cowen

The roller coaster project was a lot easier than I thought it would be and even though I ran into a few problem building it, I thought it was a fun project. My original plan was to tape a bunch of paper towel containers on top of each other as the main support and even though it stood up it was not sturdy enough to get the ball over the hill. So my dad came up with the idea to tape and old lacrosse shaft to the paper towels and even though it made it sturdier the ball would still not go over the hill. We finally came up with the plan to drill three hooks into the base of the roller coaster and tie strings around the support that made it just sturdy enogh to get the ball over the hill! Though it was difficult at times I really enjoyed building the coaster.

Anne Hayes M.

The roller coaster project was a lot easier then I thought. In the process of working on it i had a little trouble with kinks in the tubing. Although the kinks were one of the major problems I was able to get the ball bearing through the entire roller coaster more then once. I had more problems in the kinks with the largest ball bearing. It stopped a couple of times in the middle of the project but I was able to blow out the ball. This project a lot of work but a lot more fun then I had expected.

Sarah Alnaif

While doing my roller coaster project I did not run into too many problems at home, but the problem I did run into was when I had too many loops. This cause the ball to stop in the middle of the coaster. Another problem i ran into was all those kinks. Because of these kinks I had to cut a lot of my tubing, but luckily I had bought 20ft. so cutting of a few kinks did not affect the length so that it would be too short to even use. My roller coaster worked perfectly at home, but I think the bus ride did greatly affect the outcome because of all the bumps and taking it on and off the bus. Doing this project did teach me a lot of how much trouble real engineers have with making a real roller coaster. Overall, I liked it because it was fun and taught me many things about physics.

Emily Neuburg

While doing my roller coaster project I did not have many problems. The main problem was the tubing. At Lowes the tubing was sold already wound up in a circle shape. This caused kinks in the tub. It make the ball bearing stop in random places along the track. I think many people had problems with this as well. Another problem I came across was that the ball had to have enough speed on the first drop to get through the whole coaster. I had rearrange my loops and turns a couple of times but, it turned out okay. This project gave me a little idea of what real roller coaster builders go through in there everyday life. This project was very fun and interesting. :)

Ben W.

Building the roller coaster for science was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I hit a couple of bumps in the road when my coaster would not make it all the way through. I figured out that the kinks in the tubing were slowing the ball bearing down, making it difficult for it to get all the way through it. I did not even think to use a blow-drier so I just held the tube until the kink was gone. The kink and the failed attempt were the only problems I faced in the construction of my roller coaster.