For our experiments to assess the health and safety at TAS, we decided to investigate the calorie count in some of the food available at the snack bar and the shock absorption provided by the various surfaces around school.
Group Members -Catherine, Purna, Karishma, Ming-Ray, Tiffany, Sony Question: How much shock will different surfaces absorb?
Dependent Variable-height of ball that bounces back ; amount of energy lost in system
Controlled variable:
Height in which the ball is thrown :74cm. (height from the top of the ball to the ground)
Type of ball: tennis ball (the amount of air inside the ball must be constant, the more air that is inside an object, the higher the rebound will be)
Equipment used to measure change in height (so the fluctuations of minute measurements will be kept constant, and so allows us to compare the data accurately.)
Procedure:
Set up stand at 77cm ; with motion detector on the top
Drop the tennis ball and start the motion detector
Get the recordings and calculate the energy lost
repeat for different surfaces
Data Calculation and Processing:
Ep= mgh
Potential energy is lost as the surface of the floor absorbs energy thus the calculation of lost energy could be found from finding Ep =mgh1- Ep = mgh2.
Table 1-average height of first bounce of tennis ball
Surface
trial 1 (m) 0.05
trial 2 (m) 0.05
trial 3 (m) 0.05
average (m) 0.15
Brick
0.705
0.707
0.735
0.716
Carpet
0.620
0.616
0.640
0.625
Grass
0.624
0.670
0.696
0.663
Cermanic tile
0.640
0.641
0.625
0.635
Track
0.761
0.741
0.686
0.729
Turf
0.681
0.684
0.692
0.686
Table 2-Calculated Data for energy lost
Surface
Mass (kg) 0.0001
Gravity (m/s)
Initial height (m) 0.05
Final height (m) 0.05
Difference in height (m) 0.1
energy lost (J) 0.05
Brick
0.0568
9.8
0.74
0.716
0.024
0.013
Carpet
0.0568
9.8
0.74
0.625
0.115
0.064
Grass
0.0568
9.8
0.74
0.663
0.077
0.043
Ceramic Tile
0.0568
9.8
0.74
0.635
0.105
0.058
Track
0.0568
9.8
0.74
0.729
0.110
0.061
Turf
0.0568
9.8
0.74
0.686
0.054
0.030
Conclusion: If the average height of the returning bounce on a certain type of floor material is lower than that of another floor type, the shock absorption is higher, thus more energy is absorbed in the process. From the processed data, it can be seen that of the surface types that were collected within Taipei American School; carpets absorb the most shock therefore it is less damaging to the body compared to other surfaces. This can be useful in daily life as the more shock absorption that a certain surface has, it allows for less strain put on the knees and less pain will be felt if one accidentally trips or is tackled in sports.
Evaluation : Possible sources of errors would be when the ball was dropped, it was unable to make an air vacuum such that there was no air interfering with the ball as it dropped to the ground. This experiment is unable to be related to the actual shock absorption by the different surfaces as the tennis ball is not representative of a human body, and the tennis ball which was used in the experiment was an old one, which has a elasticity that differs with a new tennis ball.
Question: How much calories do foods in TAS give off?
Dependent variable- Amount of energy produced(measured by the temperature change.)
Controlled variable: Amount of ethanol, amount of water
Procedure: 1. Break food up into 1g pieces 2. Measure 5mL of ethanol into a beaker 3. Place food into 5ml beakers of ethanol 4. Pour 80mL water into the calorimeter 5. Place the beaker with ethanol and food into the calorimeter 6. Start the temperature probe and place the beaker with food and ethanol into the water 7. Let the water sit for 60 seconds to equalize the temperature 8. Light the match, and put it into the beaker with ethanol and food (stir while the reaction is occuring) 9. Collect the temperature until the mixture has finished burning (until ethanol runs out) 10. Measure the change in mass after combustion 11. Repeat the procedure with other foods 12. Provide the control-burning ethanol with the same process as above
Processed data:
q=mcdt e= q/m
Table 1-Calculated energy of different foods
Food
Energy (kCal/g)
Banana Bread
0.68
Power Bar
0.08
Chicken Nuggets
6.07
Muffin
1.27
Quesdilla
1.43
Tortilla chips
1.33
Conclusion: From the calculated data, it was found that chicken nuggets had the most energy while the power bar had the least. The reason for the chicken nuggets to have a high amount of energy is because it is fried and has oil which is highly flammable, releasing lots of heat; from a biological view point, oil is a lipid and is a form of long term energy storage so it contains significantly more energy than basic starch or protein.
Evaluation: When the experiment was conducted inside a calorimeter, the lid was opened such that the fire was able to burn. This allowed for the oxygen to burn as if a flame was started with a lid on it, the flame doesn't have enough oxygen to burn. This caused for the flame to lose its energy and threw off the data that was collected. A method to improve this will be to have a tube which pumps oxygen inside the calorimeter to allow for the flame to burn. It was also hard to make for the all parts of the food to burn and therefore it cannot be said that the collected data is precise; such examples of this were the jalapenos of the quesedilla and the nuts from the muffin weren't burnt in the process.
Group Members -Catherine, Purna, Karishma, Ming-Ray, Tiffany, Sony
Question: How much shock will different surfaces absorb?
EXPERIMENT 1
Materials
Variables
Procedure:
Data Calculation and Processing:
Ep= mgh
Potential energy is lost as the surface of the floor absorbs energy thus the calculation of lost energy could be found from finding Ep =mgh1- Ep = mgh2.
Table 1-average height of first bounce of tennis ball
Table 2-Calculated Data for energy lost
Conclusion: If the average height of the returning bounce on a certain type of floor material is lower than that of another floor type, the shock absorption is higher, thus more energy is absorbed in the process. From the processed data, it can be seen that of the surface types that were collected within Taipei American School; carpets absorb the most shock therefore it is less damaging to the body compared to other surfaces. This can be useful in daily life as the more shock absorption that a certain surface has, it allows for less strain put on the knees and less pain will be felt if one accidentally trips or is tackled in sports.
Evaluation : Possible sources of errors would be when the ball was dropped, it was unable to make an air vacuum such that there was no air interfering with the ball as it dropped to the ground. This experiment is unable to be related to the actual shock absorption by the different surfaces as the tennis ball is not representative of a human body, and the tennis ball which was used in the experiment was an old one, which has a elasticity that differs with a new tennis ball.
Question: How much calories do foods in TAS give off?
EXPERIMENT 2 :
Materials
Procedure:
1. Break food up into 1g pieces
2. Measure 5mL of ethanol into a beaker
3. Place food into 5ml beakers of ethanol
4. Pour 80mL water into the calorimeter
5. Place the beaker with ethanol and food into the calorimeter
6. Start the temperature probe and place the beaker with food and ethanol into the water
7. Let the water sit for 60 seconds to equalize the temperature
8. Light the match, and put it into the beaker with ethanol and food (stir while the reaction is occuring)
9. Collect the temperature until the mixture has finished burning (until ethanol runs out)
10. Measure the change in mass after combustion
11. Repeat the procedure with other foods
12. Provide the control-burning ethanol with the same process as above
Processed data:
q=mcdt
e= q/m
Table 1-Calculated energy of different foods
Conclusion: From the calculated data, it was found that chicken nuggets had the most energy while the power bar had the least. The reason for the chicken nuggets to have a high amount of energy is because it is fried and has oil which is highly flammable, releasing lots of heat; from a biological view point, oil is a lipid and is a form of long term energy storage so it contains significantly more energy than basic starch or protein.
Evaluation: When the experiment was conducted inside a calorimeter, the lid was opened such that the fire was able to burn. This allowed for the oxygen to burn as if a flame was started with a lid on it, the flame doesn't have enough oxygen to burn. This caused for the flame to lose its energy and threw off the data that was collected. A method to improve this will be to have a tube which pumps oxygen inside the calorimeter to allow for the flame to burn. It was also hard to make for the all parts of the food to burn and therefore it cannot be said that the collected data is precise; such examples of this were the jalapenos of the quesedilla and the nuts from the muffin weren't burnt in the process.