In these tables I have recorded the data which I obtained during the experiment.
Section 3: Analyzing evidence
Patterns:
1. In experiment A the relationship between the deflection and the load is proportional. As the load increases the deflection increases as well. As the load doubles from 200 g to 400 g the deflection almost doubles too.
2. In experiment B the deflection increases as the length of the ruler increases. But it reaches a point where the deflection stays the same even if the length of the ruler changes
Conclusion:
The results agree with my prediction, because I predicted that in experiment A the deflection is proportional to load. In experiment B I predicted that deflection will increase as the length increases.
As the load and the length of the ruler increase, then the deflection increases. This happens because of forces acting on the particles in the ruler.
At the top the particles are pulled apart proportionately to the load because they are in tension. The forces between particles increase. But the attractive force is bigger than the repelling force in the particles so particles are held together. The particles at the bottom will be pushed together proportionately to the load because they are in compression.
The forces get larger, and the repelling force which is bigger, pushes the particles away from each other. So they are not disordered. We can also say that they obey Hooke’s Law.
Section 4: Evaluating:
From the results that I got after performing the experiment I can say that the experiment worked quite well. In the analyzing evidence section we see that the first graph is a straight line and the second a curve. On this basis I can say that the experiment worked pretty well.
In order to get these shapes in the graphs the data which was obtained from the experiment had to be accurate so I think that the data I recorded was accurate. As far as anomalous results are concerned there were not any serious of them so I can say that the straight line and the curve in the graphs are normal and as predicted
A possible improvement to this experiment should be repeating the experiment twice or more if possible. Then we would get the average results in a table and in this way our results would be even more accurate.
General Conclusion:
The general conclusion we can draw from this experiment is that as the weight that we put on the cantilever increases, the deflection increases too until the elastic point is reached where the cantilever cannot hold any more weight so it breaks. Also we see from the second graph that the larger the length of the cantilever, the larger the deflection.
