Indirect Measurement, Lab 1-2

In this lab, we first gathered our materials, two different kinds of aluminum foil, copper wire, a ruler, a graduated cylinder, and a scale for mass which is available in the classroom, and proceeded to experiment.  We collected the data for the aluminum foil, which included the length, width, mass, and density among other things. The length of the regular aluminum foil was 18.7 cm, the width was 13.8 cm, the mass was 1.1 grams, and the density was 2.698 g/cubic centimeter.  Then we found out the volume by substituting the mass and the density into the formula, mass equals density divided by volume. The volume ended up being .4077 cm cubed. Then, we substituted the volume into the formula volume equals length times width times height, which came out to be .0015. For the heavy duty aluminum foil, we followed the same process but with different measurements. For example the length was 24.1 cm, the width was 13.7 cm, the mass was 1.5 grams, and the density was 2.698 cm cubed. The height of the heavy duty foil was, .0017 cm. After we calculated the thickness of both types of foil, we then received copper wire in which we had to determine the diameter.  For the copper wire we determined about the same measurements as we did the aluminum foil. The length was 7.3 cm, the width was .2 cm, the mass was 5.2 grams, and the density was 8.960 grams per cubic centimeters. Then we determined the volume which ended up being .5803 cm cubed. The diameter was .028. We then proceeded to put all of our materials away.

1)      Water displacement is an inaccurate method for finding diameters and thickness, because the difference between the original water line and the new water line is minuscule so it is very hard to determine. Using the ruler is unreliable because you can very easily make a mistake with the measurements.

2)      This will represent a close measurement, but not an exact measurement. This is because mistakes in length, width, and different measurements could cause the formula to be inaccurate.

3)      The measurements used by the ruler could have been inaccurate because they could have been read wrong. This could cause an error in our diameter value.

ENRICHMENT QUESTIONS :

B) To figure this out, you can find out how large both aluminum foil rolls are, then apply the durability. Which is the thickness, and then compare that to the price and see which one is a better deal.