Method
What we will be doing is we’ll set up the equipment then pull the elastic band down starting with 1cm then adding 1cm after each pull. We will measure the tension on the elastic band by using a Newton meter and measure the height that the paper pellet reaches by using a meter stick. This will be repeated three times to gain more accurate results; this will be because we will find the average out of the three results.
Fair Testing
Our test will be kept fair by using the same rubber band, this is because some rubber bands are more or less elastic and this will affect the results by gaining or falling in height. We will also use the same pellet because different pellets have different weights and will also affect the height it reaches.
Diagram
Results
Graph
Conclusion
In our experiment everything went as planned, the more the elastic band was pulled the higher the paper pellet reached. The experiment was kept fair and was few problems.
One of the problems that we had was that the pellet was flung into the air too fast so that it was hard to get an accurate reading of the height that it reached. If ever we were within 5cm over or 5cm under.
If I was to change any thing it would be to find out how high the pellet goes under different amounts of force, for example, instead of pulling the elastic band down 1cm we could pull it down 1 Newton, this would make the experiment better because it is more scientific.
I also found that my prediction was correct as the more tension on the elastic band pushed the paper pellet to go higher. I also thought that double the length pulled on the elastic band will result in the paper pellet being forced higher than double the height, this was also correct as you can see in my table of result and my graph of results as my graph shows exactly what I predicted.
Evaluation
The good points about our experiment were that it went safely and that it was fair as we used all of the same equipment, elastic band pellet etc.
The bad points were that the results were not as accurate as I would have liked, we were within 5cm over or 5cm under of the actual height.
When the experiment was repeated the results were quite similar this may be because we were actually quite accurate.
To make our results more accurate we could do the experiment against a wall with a ruler against it, this would stop the paper pellet flying all over the room and you could get a more accurate reading if against a wall.
