Collect the following data:

Lab report
First Part (criterion B): Inquiring and designing

Experimenting motion and how to increase or

decrease speed
How can a speci c shape change the speed of an object?

Hypothesis:

In the rst set of experiments, my hypothesis is that the

bigger balls will take more time to travel to the bottom of the
cylinder and the smaller balls will be faster to get to the
bottom. I think that depending on the amount of mass, it will
travel faster or slower. The lower the mass, the quicker the
speed. This is because, although mass does not a ect speed
directly, it can determine how quickly an object can
accelerate, or change its speed. (1) So in our case, the
smaller balls will need less time to accelerate and will
become faster quicker, therefore it will have more speed if it’s
lighter. (2)

In the second set of experiments, my hypothesis is that the

shape of the ball, given an equal mass, will have an e ect on
speed. That is, to decrease the speed we made the surface
of the clay much atter and larger. On the other hand, to
increase the speed we made a thinner, longer and narrow
body, an overall more hydrodynamic shape. When an object
falls through a uid, like water, the shape can create a lot of
air resistance or drag. (3)
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Variables of the experiment:

A)
Independent variable:
The volume and weight of the clay.
Dependant variable:
The speed that changes because of the change of shape or
size.
Control variable:
The density of the clay, the material we used (the clay), or the
water.

B)
The shape or form and size were modi ed in order to test if
size and weight or di erent shapes can e ect the speed they
travel in. For example, we mad a thin, long shape to see if it
would increase the speed and on the contrary, to decrease
the speed, we tried making a larger and atter surface.

C)
In this experiment, the data was collected by rst, measuring
the distance the clay would cover and then, with a
chronometer, calculating the time it took for the clay to fall
the distance. With this information, we put the data of each
ball measured in the graph. Finally, we used the formula of
speed = distance traveled / time elapsed to complete the
graph with the speed of each ball. With the small ball, we
also calculated its density, as all the clay forms would have
the same amount of mass. We repeated this to nd out the
speed of the bigger ball and the speed of the two di erent
shapes we made to increase and decrease speed. In total,
we collected data for the 5 tables.
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 Materials:

1. Lab coat
2. Notebook or laptop (Optional for taking notes)
3.Clay (For making various shapes)
4. Big measuring cylinder
5. Small measuring cylinder
6. Chronometer (to calculate time)
7. Measuring tape (To claculate distance)
8. Precise scale. (To weigh the shaps)
9. Calculator (To calculate the speed)

Methods:

The rst step is to grab a measuring cylinder high and big

enough to allow a falling distance of around 50cm and ll it
up with water. Secondly, using a measuring tape, measure
the distance of the cylinder (Clari cation: Only measure from
the surface of the water to the bottom of the cylinder.) Then,
take the clay and shape them into small balls. Measure the
weight of each ball precisely on a scale and make sure that
they all weigh the same. Once you have about 4 balls of the
same size, set up a chronometer to calculate the time it takes
for the ball to travel the distance to the bottom of the
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 cylinder. (Clari cation: So the timing is precise, make sure to
have one person timing and watching the ball and another
one dropping it.) When this has been repeated with all of the
small balls, collect all the data and put it in a chart. By
dividing the distance by the time, the speed of the ball can be
discovered.

In order to nd out the e ect the size and weight have on

speed, the setup above is repeated, except for increasing the
size of the balls. With around 4 balls of a larger size, repeat
the experiment and chart the results.

To investigate if the speed can be decreased or increased by

varying the shape of the clay, modify the balls shape into a
larger, or atter, thicker or even longer object. Lastly, to put
these shapes to the test, repeat the experimental process
one more time. Uncover which object increases the speed
and which one decreases it and write all the data in the chart.

Safety Materials and Precautions:

In this experiment we didn’t use many forms of protection

because the devices and substances we used were not very
dangerous. In this experiment we followed all the safety
precautions. The most important one was wearing our lab
coats during the experiment and when in the lab. We also
followed all the instructions given, so nothing would go
wrong in the process.
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Second Part (Criterion C): Processing and
Evaluating

RESULTS:

Graph 1- Density (mass vs volume graph)

Graph 1. Interpretation and explanation of results:

In this graph, you can see the density of the clay we used through out the
whole experiment. By looking at this graph, you can interpret that the
higher the density, the more inclined upwards the slope is. In the Y axis,
the mass in grams is represented and in the X axis, the volume in milliliters
is represented.
Graph 2- Speeds plotted in a bar graph

Graph 2. Interpretation and explanation of results:

In the graph, the average speeds of all the shapes and balls are
represented together in a graph. You can see the speed of the small ball,
the big ball, the increasing speed shape and the decreasing speed shape.
On the Y axis, the speed in centimeters per second represented and on
the X axis, all the shapes and their volumes/mass are represented. This
graph is layered out in a way that makes it very easy and clear to compare
the speeds of each shape. The fastest speed is the increasing speed
 shape (shown in the graph by the yellow bar) with a speed of 92,25 cm/s
and the slowest one is the decreasing speed shape (shown in the graph by
the pink bar) with a speed of 12,28 cm/s.

Evaluation of the validity of my hypothesis:

My inicial hypothesis were several, and partially incorrect. In

rst place, I thought that speed does depend on mass and
that the lower the mass, the quicker the speed. This was
because I thought if a ball was lighter, it would accelerate
faster and therefore have a higher speed, but I was proved
wrong when we looked at the results. You could see very
clearly that the ball with a larger mass was faster. After
furthermore investigating, I found out that the drag or forces
will be the same for both balls, but that the gravitational force
will be much greater for the heavier object. (4)

In second place, my hypothesis was that the shape of the

ball, given an equal mass, will also have an e ect on speed,
and with this hypothesis the results did match up with what I
expected. The shape of an object can determine how much
air resistance is created but also can accelerate or slow down
an object. My hypothesis was veri ed because in the results,
you can clearly see that there is a big di erence in time
between the bigger and smaller balls speed. The smaller balls
got a lower time result than the bigger balls. We also
successfully created di erent shapes to increase and
decrease speed. This is shown in the graphs because there is
a drastic di erence in speed and time.

In conclusion my hypothesis was veri ed by many di erent

sets of experiments, although it was not completely what I
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 expected. Having di erent results from the one I expected
helped me investigate more about the topic and nd out why
my hypothesis was wrong, making me think more about the
topic in general and gain new information.

Methods and conclusions of my work:

A) Method evaluation

Taking into consideration that the objectives of the

investigation were to experiment how shapes and sizes can
e ect speed, I consider that the procedures was e cient
because it allowed us to measure both the dependent and
independent variables and evaluate if the variables were
associated in the way that we thought. Moreover, the
experimental process allowed us to investigate about how
di erent aspects of the objects can a ect speed.

A) Conclusions of work

In this experiment, we tested multiple hypothesis. One of

them was that the mass and weight have an a ect speed,
we experimented this by calculating a small ball’s speed and
then a bigger ball’s speed. On the contrary to my hypothesis;
the results clearly showed that the bigger ball having more
mass a ected the speed in which it travelled in, it had more
speed that the smaller balls. Another hypothesis was that
depending on the shape, the speed can increase or
decrease. This was veri ed by making two di erent shapes in
the experiment, to decrease or increase the speed. To make
it faster, we made a thinner more narrow shape and on the
other hand, to make it slower, we made a larger and much
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 atter surfaced shape. This made us see that the shape does
a ect the speed. This meant that the narrow shape was
faster than the other one, this is because when an object like
this falls through the water, a more hydrodynamic shape
creates less air resistance. In conclusion, this experiment
made us gain a lot of knowledge about speed and motion
itself.

Improvements or extensions to the method that would

bene t the scienti c investigation:

A) Improvements

This investigation could be improved by being more precise

when using the chronometer. When we were timing each ball
or shape, if we would have been more accurate, the results
could have been clearer.

B) Extensions

I have many ideas as to how to extend this experiment, rstly

As an extension, I have many ideas that could expand our
knowledge of motion and speed.

First of all, I would test this experiment again, but using many
more materials. An example of the di erent materials we
could use are: wood, plastic, paper, metal, etc. Since all the
experiments were designed using objects made out of clay,
which all have the same density, I propose to investigate if
other materials would lead to the same results. We could also
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 test if those new materials would react in the same way as
clay or not. In addition, also the speed could be compared
between materials.

Secondly, we could experiment using di erent substances,

other than water. For example, we could use oil, dishwasher
soap or honey. Finding out about how di erent liquids a ect
speed can help up compare which liquid is the fastest to
travel in or why a liquid slows down an object more than
another.

Lastly, the distance is also an important variable in this

experiment. Changing the distance the objects are thrown in
could change this experiment completely. Investigating why
or why not the speed varies when the distance is increased
or decreased could also be a very interesting extension to
this experiment.

REFERENCES:
1 and 2 :
https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/29190/how-exactly-does-mass-
a ect-
speed#:~:text=Mass%20doesn't%20a ect%20speed,amount%20under%20a
%20given%20force.

3:
https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-shape-of-an-object-affect-the-speed-at-
which-an-object-fall

4:
https://www.maplesoft.com/support/help/maple/view.aspx?
path=MathApps%2FTheFallingBodiesExperiment#:~:text=Given%20two%20obje
cts%20of%20the,greater%20for%20the%20heavier%20object.
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