Soaring Straws

During the process of this lab the relationship between gravitational potential energy and elastic potential energy was described by showing, when you have more elastic potential energy the rocket of straws has more gravitational potential energy. Such as, the rocket had 6 cm for amount of stretch, and the GPE was 23.23 mJ. But when the rocket had 8 cm amount of stretch the GPE was 42.7 mJ. By proving my point, the amount of stretch is considered the manipulated variable while the height is considered the responding variable.

Many times documentation is wrong or some equations aren't as well thought out. With my data I documented wrong the first time with the weight of the rocket by weighing the tube along with it. After seeing how high the GPE's were we went back to find the correct weight of the rocket.By doing so we discovered that we were 9 grams off which greatly effected our outcome. In order to make this lab better the directions could explain more on what to do and how to do it, so we would need less help and be independent. It would be better if the lab also showed how to change grams into kilograms to make the GPE come out into joules. That is really all that needed fixing, leaving on that note this lab was fun and a wonderful experience.