Thursday, December 20, 2012

Pre-Calc - Egg Bungee Drop!

Pre-Calculus students finished the semester by running an experiment and using their test data to make a prediction.  Each student was given 6 rubber bands, cheese cloth, a paper clip, meter stick, and an egg.  They were to build a harness for their egg and attach a rubber band bungee cord.  They took measurements of total stretch based on one, then two, three, etc. bands.  They did several tests jumps at each increment and took an average to help with human error in the trial.  They then input their data into the statistics capabilities of their graphing calculators to generate an equation that gave # of rubber bands vs. max jump depth.  They were then randomly assigned much longer lengths, up to 8 feet, and were to use their equation to determine the number of bands needed to do the jump.  They were assessed points based upon smallest distance from the ground and were also assessed if their egg hit the ground.