Sample Laboratory Report

                                                                                          Alex, Oksana & Liane

                                                                                                                                                09/13/04  

 Observing Falling Motion

PROBLEM  

       Our task was to design and construct a rotocoper that will take the longest time to fall to the ground from a height of 2 m and that will remain intact for three trials.

 HYPOTHESIS

We believe that by making the blades of the rotocopter wide as well as long, only adding one paper clip, keeping the stem fairly short and using thin paper will help slow down the rotocopter’s fall.  We can make these assumptions based on our experiences of constructing rotocopters in our last experiment.  All of the above are independent variables which influence the rate at which the rotocopter falls (the dependent variable).  We presume that with these small modifications, (i.e. making the rotocopter light, lengthening the blades) there will be more air resistance, therefore slowing down the fall of the rotocopter.

MATERIALS

·        Paper (We used normal printing paper)

 APPARATUS

• Pencil

• Ruler

•  Paperclip(s)

•  Scissors

• Stop watch or a watch with a second hand

PROCEDURE

1.      A rotocopter was built.

2.      The rotocopter was dropped for 3 consecutive trials approximately 2 m above the ground.

3.      Quantitative observations were made.

 OBSERVATIONS

            Our observations are recorded on the chart below.

CONCLUSION