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.

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Sanjayan Ravi         Page  of         4/20/2007        

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.

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Fair test

The variables we didn’t change in order to make this as fair test were the equipment and the place we did the experiment. We did this by writing our name in the equipment we used.

Diagram

Safety

When we were doing the experiment we made sure no one stood in front of the wood which was going to be released. We wore goggles so our eyes won’t get damages if the rubber band flies at us.

Other Precautions

During ...

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