Sanjayan Ravi Page of 5/2/2007
A Catapult Investigation
Planning
Aim
The aim of this experiment is to investigate how far a piece of block would travel using a catapult with different weights on the block and different force applied to the catapult.
Friction
I know from text books and from lessons that friction will affect how far certain object travels. Since I’m not going to change the friction or not going to change where I will do my experiment I don’t need to worry about this factor.
Hypothesis
My hypothesis for this experiment is ‘the more force you apply to the rubber band the further the wood will travel but the more weight you put on the block of wood the less distance it’s going to cover.
Apparatus
- A stool
- Rubber band
- Newton meter
- Weights
- A metre stick
Method
I will do tests of 5, 10, 15 and 20 newtons force each with and without weights. I will put up to 3 weights on the block. I will do 5 repeats for each test. Firstly we had to set up the stool then we had to find a place to do the experiment but we made sure that we did the experiment in the same place throughout. We recorded our results on a book and put it on to a table.