Gravity in Space?

Is there gravity in space? Yes there is gravity in space, but there is much less gravity than on Earth. The reason why astronauts float around in space is because of orbit, which makes it seem like there is no gravity. There is gravity in each planet, even though it may seem that there isn't.

What is Acceleration?

Acceleration is a change of an object's speed and velocity. Acceleration measures the amount of velocity and the direction as well, since velocity is a vector, also velocity is constant. Acceleration is never always increasing speed since gravity is an acceleration, which slows objects down. If a person were to throw a pencil in the air, the pencil will slow down and fall back down. If a car were to completely stop at a very steep hill after it speeds up the hill, the car would slow down and go back down. Another example is that if a ball rolls on a floor at a fast rate, it will still slow down due to gravity.

From House to School

Questions: How far is your house from Parish? What is the average speed you experience when traveling home from school?

Parish Episcopal School is about 6.86 miles from my house. I used Google Earth to get the measurement to measure the route I take to get to school, considering that Google Maps does not have the exact route I take. To get to school, on average, it takes about 20 minutes, and the average speed my parents drive is 34.5 mph. I know the average speed is 34.5 mph because my parents keep driving at 35 and 34, which added together and divided by two will give me 34.5. If I were to use my data in the speed formula, it would come out nearly exact. The equation is 34.5 = 6.86/20, which at first will get 0.343, but you have  to move the decimal point twice to get 34.3 mph, yet it was off by a few decimal points. If I were to convert it to meters per second, I would just have to multiply  34.5 mph to 1609.344 meters (there are that many in a mile) and divide it by 3600 seconds. This would get me 15.333472 meters per second.

Pendulum Lab

Hypothesis: As the length of the pendulum increases, the amount of time will increase as well.

The Methodology: The materials necessary for this lab were a 200mg weight, string, and a timer. First, measure (in centimeters) and cut a certain amount of string. Then attach the weight to the string and use the timer to create a time trial, or simply record  the amount time (in seconds) it takes for the pendulum to swing back and forth 5 times. Finally, record at least 7 data points and divide the times recorded by 3. After dividing the times recorded, put the final, complete data points on a complete graph with a title and the units on the x-axis and y-axis. The equation shown on the graph should prove or disprove the hypothesis, in this case, the equation's exponent needed to be close to 0.5 because of the number of times the pendulum swung back and forth. 

Graph:

 

Conclusion: The data points that was gathered in the lab may have proved that the amount of time increasing as the length of the pendulum is increased, but the equation's exponent was not close to the number of required for the data to fully prove the thesis was correct. The number of swinging back and forth was 5 times, so the equation's exponent should have been close to 0.5, but unfortunately the times recorded were not exact and were either recorded to early or to late, since the equation's exponent that we got was 0.2715. In other words, our data proved a part of our thesis, but the data was insufficient to prove it fully due to the time trials recorded either a bit early or late.