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Physics Unit 1 Review Solutions

Every measurement is uncertain by some amount. This amount can depend on a) the precision of the measuring device, b) the difficulty in having an event happen the same way more than once, and c) the quality of one's measuring technique. Explain your understanding of each of these sources of uncertainty and give an example of each from one of the labs we did during this unit.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
520 views2 pages

Physics Unit 1 Review Solutions

Every measurement is uncertain by some amount. This amount can depend on a) the precision of the measuring device, b) the difficulty in having an event happen the same way more than once, and c) the quality of one's measuring technique. Explain your understanding of each of these sources of uncertainty and give an example of each from one of the labs we did during this unit.

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saevans18
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Physics - Unit 1 - Scientic Modeling

Scientific Modeling Review Questions


1. Every measurement taken is uncertain by some amount. This amount can depend on a) the precision of the measuring device, b) difculty in having an event happen the same way more than once, and c) the quality of ones measuring technique. Explain your understanding of each of these sources of uncertainty and give an example of each from one of the labs we did during this unit. a) Device uncertainty is caused by the calibration of the measuring tool youre using. Using a stopwatch calibrated in hundredths of a second will give us less uncertainty than will a stopwatch calibrated in hours. b) Event uncertainty is caused by the event unfolding differently each time you measure it. For example, the pendulum did not swing exactly the same way each time...it may be twisting, it may have been pushed or pulled during the drop, air currents could affect it. This causes a small amount of uncertainty. c) Measuring technique uncertainty is caused by how the measurement is being taken. For example, having the person timing the pendulum be the dropper caused less uncertainty in the time measurement, than if the dropper had to react to the timer saying Go!.

2. If a measurement is uncertain by some amount, then which number do you graph!? What happens to the appearance of a graph when you graph different values in the uncertainty range? Give an example. Graphing the averages of your trials is a good technique, as long as you indicate how much uncertainty there is in the average. You could do this by putting small uncertainty bars above and below the averaged point you graph. Or you could graph a small range or zone instead of just a single point. This gives us a better idea of what the pattern in the graph might be. If you graph the upper limit of the uncertainty range, the graph could shift up and/or right depending on which variable (vertical or horizontal) is being graphed at the upper limit.

3. Based on your experience with the bouncy ball lab, describe which tasks you did that you would consider to be part of the experiment and which things you developed you would consider to be a model. In the pendulum lab the experiment - changing the length and measuring time for one swing, changing angle and measuring time, etc. The model - as length increases so does time for one swing (in a curved pattern), angle below 10 degrees doesnt matter, mass doesnt matter, etc. What is an experiment? Experiment - the doing, the measuring and controlling of variables, graphing, etc. What is a model? Model - the rules for the phenomena we studied we develop after the experiment. Think of the board game analogy here.

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from Modeling Workshop Project 2006

Physics - Unit 1 - Scientic Modeling

4. a)Explain at what points during the unit you were using a model to make real predictions about the world. Pendulum music challenge, and bouncy ball Rectangle of doom challenge b) Why would a scientist consider a model to be useful instead of correct? Is it important to make this distinction? Useful because they can be applied to other situations to make predictions. They are not always perfect and will not predict perfectly what will happen, so saying they are correct may be misleading. Secondly a model may be modied or improved (think pendulum lab) so that it is MORE useful but still not correct. 5. Create a properly scaled and labeled graph of the data below. If it is linear, draw a best t line, calculate and describe the meaning of the slope, and describe the meaning of the y-intercept. Write a math equation to describe the data and point out which parts of the equation are variables, numbers, and units.

b) Using the information above...How much money would 10 CDs would cost? How much would 1 cost? Approximately 135 dollars for 10 cds. Approximately 15 dollars for 1 cd. c) Using the information above...approximately how many CDs you can get for $250?

Approximately 19 cds. d) You and your friend are buying CD's. You notice that your stack is three times as tall as your friend's stack of CD's. How much more will your's cost? 3 times as much.

from Modeling Workshop Project 2006 !

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