Project Physics

Hyugo and Nadia's science experiment log

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Process Paper

SCIENCE PROCESS PAPER

 INTRODUCTION

The basis of my investigation was the following question:

Transparent Film

If you cover printed text with a piece of transparent polyethylene film you can still easily read it. As you gradually lift up the film, the text becomes increasingly blurred and may even disappear. Study the properties of the film. On what parameters of the film is the phenomenon based?

My investigation was about how different properties of polyethylene affected its transparency.

 CHOICE OF TOPIC AND EXPERIMENT

I decided that since the question was about the visibility of something underneath a material, the investigation should therefore revolve around transparency, and its relationship with different properties of polyethylene.

For the experiments supporting this theme, I used the research I conducted (and the results of the previous experiment I had carried out in the case of the second experiment) to test the transparency of different densities of polyethylene in different ways. I changed the dependant variable from the legibility of text to the amount of light sensed by a light sensor in order to more fully explore the topic and approach transparency from a different angle.

 CONDUCTION OF RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENT

Firstly, I did preliminary research to gain a basic understanding of polyethylene, its uses and most importantly its properties. I found that the main difference between different types of polyethylene (and affected its transparency) was density. This helped me design and evaluate the results of my experiments and ultimately come to my conclusion. For example, the independent variable throughout my experiments were the density of polyethylene.

I carried out two experiments to gather findings in order to find out which ‘parameter’ of polyethylene affected its transparency, using different dependant variables to attempt to find out how the density of polyethylene affected its transparency. I tested different densities of polyethylene for how visible text was underneath different heights and how much light passed through them at different heights.

Due to time constraints, I was not able to carry out a third experiment, but in my documentation of the investigation I outlined a theoretical third experiment that I would have carried out given the opportunity.

A full documentation of my investigation can be found here: http://project-physics.tumblr.com/tagged/nadia's/.

 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

My general findings indicated that text was more visible under lower densities of polyethylene, and more light passed through lower density polyethylene. For example, high density polyethylene made text underneath it illegible at the lowest height (2.5 cm) and the other lower densities were still transparent after 1m. Additionally, the general trend was that the light sensor in the second experiment sensed the most light through low-density polyethylene. From that, I concluded that the denser the polyethylene, the less transparent it would be.

More detailed versions of all my results and conclusions can be found here: http://project-physics.tumblr.com/tagged/results/.

 SIGNIFICANCE OF FINDINGS TO THEME

Since my findings indicated that the density of polyethylene is what affects how transparent it is, I then concluded that the property of polyethylene that causes the phenomenon described in the question was its density. This links to the themes of transparency, the properties of polyethylene and the relation between the two.

 REFLECTION

           Although many aspects of my investigation were successful, others were not. My method for experimentation was not always very accurate or effective, although to my credit I did go on to design further experiments that fixed the issues I identified. On the other hand, I still did not manage to gather as many accurate and easily interpretable results as I had hoped, and therefore my conclusion was not as solid as I wanted it to be.

           Additionally, my management of time was not optimal. I did design a schedule near the beginning of my investigation for what I should do and what (shown below).

Research polyethylene and its properties

Form an initial hypothesis based on research

Design an experiment to test ‘on what parameters of the film is the [disappearance of the text] based’

Carry out a scoping exercise for the aforementioned experiment

Carry out and write out in detail the experiment and its’ results

Form a conclusion based on the results of the experiment and compare with hypothesis and research

Proceed as necessary (this could be carrying out the same experiment again, designing and carrying out a new experiment, or doing further research into results)

Although this schedule helped me structure my investigation, I did not use all the class time I had effectively, and often wasted time being unproductive. This is part of the reason I was unable to carry out a third experiment, and if I were to re-do the investigation, this is an important factor that I would change.

           I believe that in general, my approach to the investigation was positive and curious. I was diligent in my documentation of the investigation, but at times I did not investigate further where I could have, and I would also change this.

           Finally, I believe Hyugo and I worked well together on his experiment, but seeing as I did not need a second member to help me carry out my experiment, we did not work together on mine. If I were to do the investigation again, I would make sure Hyugo was more aware of my experiments and try and find a way to incorporate him into helping with my experiments.

          A complete evaluation of my investigation can be found here: http://project-physics.tumblr.com/post/143713590485/overall-conclusion-to-polyethylene-investigation/.

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HYUGO UEDA EXPERIMENT: Sand in  a Tube (4)

Our aim is to find out the change in the time it takes for the sand to flow out completely depending to the perimeter of the tube. This will be a long term IA and we have the question but our teacher didn’t give us a way to do the experiment so we have to conduct and make our own IA and experiment. So I will follow this timeline:

1.Search and research about objects or experiments similar to this

2.Using the sources or information you have used, make a hypothesis (Make sure to back it up)

3.Create perimeters of the experiment (Independent Variable, Dependent Variable ext..)

4.Do a test run (Checking if this experiment even works), restart if it fails

5.Receive all the Materials needed, check with teacher

6.Do the experiment

7.Write up a results table, conclusion and compare with hypothesis

8.Repeat if necessary

I will first look for similar examples of this (Sand flowing out of a tube). The first example that comes to mind is the flow and the movement of the sand inside a hourglass. Of course if the perimeter of the tube is bigger then this means that the hole of the opening or the height or width of the hole will be larger meaning that the sand will flow out quicker. So this is the difference. The flow of sand in a hourglass can be affected by  

1.The amount or volume of sand used

2.The size and angle of the glass bulbs

3.The quality of the sand or granular material. It must be fine, dry and consistently formed so it can flow smoothly. (Some substances used in the past were fine grain sand, powdered eggshells, and powdered marble.)

4.The width of the neck

5.A tight seal so no moisture can get into the chambers. Moisture can add weight to the sand or clog up the neck.

6.A flat and level surface on which to rest the hourglass

An Average grain of sand is around 0.001cm^3. There are many types of sand like:

Coral sand

“Coral sand” has several meanings. Find out what it really is.

Volcanic ash

Volcanic ash is a fine mixture of minerals and rock fragments thrown out of a volcano during exposive volcanic eruption.

Glass sand

Traces of human activity are visible almost everywhere. Even sand may sometimes contain artificial fragments in quantities that justify the creation of a separate sand type.

Immature sand

Sand composed of the same minerals that made up its parent rocks.

Gypsum sand

A rare sand type composed of gypsum grains.

Ooid sand

Ooids are rounded pellets formed in a shallow wave agitated water.

Silica sand

Silica sand is almost pure quartz.

Black sand

There are two types of black sand.

Greensand

Greensand and green sand. What is the difference?

Desert sand

What are the characteristic features of dune sand?

Lithic sand

Sometimes sand is composed of tiny rocks.

Mixed carbonate-silicate sand

Some sand samples are mixture of organic and inorganic sand grains.

Biogenic sand

Sand may be composed entirely of tiny skeletons — sea shells, corals, forams, etc.

Garnet sand

Garnet is a common mineral in sand but sometimes it forms the majority of it.

Olivine sand

Olivine is very unstable in the weathering environment. Still, it is surprisingly common sand mineral in some regions and sometimes makes up major part of the sand.

Volcanic sand

Volcanically active regions have their own unique type of generally dark-colored sand with a characteristic mineral assemblage.

Heavy mineral sand

Heavy minerals are present in most sand types. However, they rarely make up more than few percent of it. Sometimes heavy minerals get concentrated enough to form heavy and usually very beautiful sand.

Sands with hematitic pigment

Hematite is the mineral that gives reddish color to desert sands and sandstone formations all over the world.

Continental sand

The name says it all. This sand is common weathering product of the continental landmasses.

Quartz sand

Quartz is the most common sand forming mineral. This sand type consists little else than this mineral.

The most common sand is the continental sand which is the sand you see in most beaches around the world. Sand is mainly made out of silicon dioxide in the form of quartz.

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Question

What is the change in the time it takes for the sand to flow out completely depending to the perimeter of the tube

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Introduction

I will be using tubes with different perimeter to find the change in the time it takes for the sand to flow out completely depending to the perimeter of the tube. I will name the four tubes, tube A, B, C and D. I will use all four tubes three times and see the difference in the time it takes for the sand to completely leaks out. I will use each tube three times so it’s more reliable.

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Hypothesis

I predict that the larger or bigger the perimeter of the tube, the faster it takes for the sand to leak out completely. I think this because the bigger the circumference of the tube is, the more grains of sand it can leak out at once because there is more space.

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Group

Hyugo Ueda

Nadia Vaillancourt

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Materials

1.4 Tubes with all different perimeter

2.Sand

3.Iphone (Slo-mo Camera)

4.Bowl (Cleaning up)

5.Test tubes

6.Beakers

7.Cap or cover

8.Clamp Stand

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Safety Rules

1.Don’t get your hand stuck when you're trying to place the cap because that may hurt. Just check before you do it

2.If you drop one of the test tubes and break them, don’t panic or start picking them up because the shards of glass may cut you and that may hurt you

3.Don’t use sand that lies around a public area because that may be infected or extremely dirty and that might get you sick or infect one of your wounds

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Method

1.The Type of Sand that I will be using is Continental

2.Receive all the material

3.Set it up like the diagram

4.Pour 20ml of sand into the beaker

5.Then pour the sand contained inside the beaker into the test tubes

6.Put the cover or cap on top of one of the ends of one of the tubes

7.Pour the sand contained inside the beaker into one of the tubes

8.Get the slo-mo cam ready then slowly take of the cap

9.Start Slo-mo Cam when you start to take off the cap

10.Stop Slo-mo Cam until the sand completely leaks out

11.Record results

12.Repeat

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Conclusion

Looking at the data there is a correlation in all the tests but in the second and third test there are a lot of anomalies but there is a correlation. The Correlation is that the smaller the circumference of the tube, the longer it takes for the sand to leak out, for example in the first test, when the circumference of the tube is 9.42cm, the time it took for the sand to leak out was 0.42 seconds and after that it went down, 0.84, 3.22 and 3.86. So you can clearly see that the bigger the circumference of the tube, the lesser or faster it takes for the sand to leak out of the tube completely. There are some anomalies like in the second test, the second biggest tube result was faster the smaller tube (1.02 and 0.98). But if you see the average of all three test then you can see a  The reason why this happened is that there is more space for the sand to spread out which means that there is less height of the sand covering the tube. I will explain this or present this easier by a diagram.  

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Evaluation

The timing and how to record the results was easy because the we recorded the experiment in slo-mo which meant that it was easy to see when I started taking off the cap and when the all the sand leaked out of the tube. The apple company and a few other sites stated that the slo-mo camera records at 120fps and the normal camera records at 30fps. This means that the slo-mo cam records videos 4 times slower than normal camera. So all I needed to do is to subtract the time taken for the sand to land by the time taken for someone starting to take off the cap then divide it by 4 which will make the result into the actual time. So this was really effective and I didn’t find any problems. The one thing we did have problems with putting sand into the smallest tube. We tried to make sure that we didn’t spill any sand when we pour the sand into the tube because this would affect the time. It was extremely hard to pour the sand into the smallest tube because the circumference was so small and pouring sand into the smallest tube with a beaker. How i fixed the problem by using a filter, this did make it easier and this fixed the problem. Probably the hardest and biggest problem was how to make a decent cap that works. If we just used a piece of paper then there was a risk of the sand leaking out when I trying to keep it still because the paper started getting crumpled. But Nadia found a idea to fix it. She made a two layered cap that had a clay wall that surrounded the circumference of the tube. So this meant that we could keep the sand from leaking out from the tube’s surroundings. We needed to make four of them, one for each tube.This did work and that problem was over. After that, there wasn’t any other problem.