Graphing Lab Data: Confusion with X-Value (h or h/l) - Results Included

[bumbajonny]

I'm graphing my data for a lab and I'm not sure if the x-value is h or h/l. My results from the experiment are here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17HwXGVY1c0fDeHNIp2tk7SO9QrM2Ej_TrUOXTdSBrGs/edit#gid=1025222507

 

[Ray Vickson]

I'm graphing my data for a lab and I'm not sure if the x-value is h or h/l. My results from the experiment are here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17HwXGVY1c0fDeHNIp2tk7SO9QrM2Ej_TrUOXTdSBrGs/edit#gid=1025222507

Do not post spreadsheets like that; my system will not permit me to open it, for security reasons, and I will not manually over-ride the firewalls. You should either just type out all the data directly, or copy and paste an image of the sheet (not the actual sheet itself).

 

[bumbajonny]

Do not post spreadsheets like that; my system will not permit me to open it, for security reasons, and I will not manually over-ride the firewalls. You should either just type out all the data directly, or copy and paste an image of the sheet (not the actual sheet itself).

http://imgur.com/zfU5i17. Thanks for taking a look. I'm pretty sure its supposed to be h/l now though.

 

[Ray Vickson]

http://imgur.com/zfU5i17. Thanks for taking a look. I'm pretty sure its supposed to be h/l now though.

I don't know what "h/l" is supposed to mean, but when I open the document I can see only the first 2.5 lines of data; the rest of it lies below the bottom of my screen, and I am unable to scroll down. I have already suggested you type it out---or at least, type out a more detailed description of the nature of the recorded data, the units, etc., without necessarily typing out all the data themselves. For example, you could type out, say 2 or 3 lines of data and then say something like "there are 25 similar additional lines of data", or however many lines there are in actuality.

I will not look again at spreadsheets or screen shots.

 

[bumbajonny]

I don't know what "h/l" is supposed to mean, but when I open the document I can see only the first 2.5 lines of data; the rest of it lies below the bottom of my screen, and I am unable to scroll down. I have already suggested you type it out---or at least, type out a more detailed description of the nature of the recorded data, the units, etc., without necessarily typing out all the data themselves. For example, you could type out, say 2 or 3 lines of data and then say something like "there are 25 similar additional lines of data", or however many lines there are in actuality.

I will not look again at spreadsheets or screen shots.

Sequence Height h (cm) Track Length l (cm) Sin θ h/l Acceleration a ⃗ (m/s^2) a_AV ⃗ (m/s^2) / sin θ
Trial 1 Trial 2 Avg
1 6.0 206 0.03 0.18 0.20 0.19 6.33
2 9.0 206 0.04 0.34 0.33 0.34 8.50
3 12 206 0.05 0.47 0.44 0.46 9.20


there's 3 more lines of data after this. The height is how high one end of the incline plane is and l is how long it is. The acceleration measured is from a small car rolling down the track. Also, I've typed out the info, but the format will change after I post it. Are you sure you don't want me to take a different screen shot?

 

[Ray Vickson]

Sequence Height h (cm) Track Length l (cm) Sin θ h/l Acceleration a ⃗ (m/s^2) a_AV ⃗ (m/s^2) / sin θ
Trial 1 Trial 2 Avg
1 6.0 206 0.03 0.18 0.20 0.19 6.33
2 9.0 206 0.04 0.34 0.33 0.34 8.50
3 12 206 0.05 0.47 0.44 0.46 9.20


there's 3 more lines of data after this. The height is how high one end of the incline plane is and l is how long it is. The acceleration measured is from a small car rolling down the track. Also, I've typed out the info, but the format will change after I post it. Are you sure you don't want me to take a different screen shot?

No, just a clearer description will do. For example, in line 1 is the height 6.0, the track length 206, sin θ = 0.03, acceleration 0.18 in trial1, then the height and track length the same but acceleration = 0.20 in trial 2? Do you then take the average acceleration and compute the final column as (average acceleration)/sin(θ)? Can we assume the spreadsheet keeps full numerical accuracy, so it does not really use 0.03 as sin(θ), but rather uses the more accurate version 0.02912621359?

Anyway, if that is what you are doing, then what are you plotting? Any plot needs something to go along the X-axis and something else along the Y-axis. You are free to choose X and Y in any way you want to, but when you do that you need to tell other people what choices you have made. (You said you were graphing the results; surely you know what you did to get your graph!)