Food Fight Lab
An experiment to determine the splatting ability and density of food tested.
Sydney Geisinger
9-18-12
Period 4
Physical Science
Introduction to Research:
On September 24th 2012 Mr. Casey's 4th period science class will start our food fight lab at JMMS. In this lab we will learn the density and splatting ability of objects by using a water balloon launcher to catapult an assortment of foods on a large pice of ply wood and recording the results.
Hypothesis:
If we test Twinkies, then we will find it to be the best splattering and densest food to fight with. The gooey center will make for a messy splatter casing a large diameter that would be the most useful in a food fight. I also believe we will find the Twinkie will hit the target faster because it is so light.
Materials:
1. One water balloon launcher
2. 4'x8' pice of ply wood
3. One tapioca pudding
4. A box of strawberries
5. watermelon (cut in pieces)
5. One orange
6. A banana
7. Two Avocados
8. One peach
9. Two tomatoes
10. A box of Twinkies
11. Beaker
12. Tripple beam balance
13. Meter stick
Procedures:
1. Gather all materials listed above.
2. Find the volume and mass of the Twinkies.
3. Divide the volume by the mass to get the density of the Twinkie and record.
4. Set up target (put sheet on and place in a deserted area.)
5. Set up water balloon launcher six meters away aimed at target.
6. Pull launcher pocket one meter back and place one twinkly in pocket.
7. Let go of launch pocket and record splatter of twinkly.
8. Take off sheet and wash.
9. once washed find the diameter of the stain left by the twinkly and record.
10. Clean up test
Result and Analysis:
Food Volume(in ml) Mass(in g) Density (in g/m) Splat Diameter (in cm)
Grapefruit 600ml 494.3g .82g/ml 0cm.
Mango 280ml 300.5g 1.06g/ml 0cm.
Yogurt,Yoplait, 170ml 182.4g 1.07g/ml Missed Target
Strawberry.
Apple 280ml 213.6g .76g/ml Not Tested
(Uelen) Avocado 180ml 200.2g .1.11g/ml 71cm.
Twinkie 160ml 42.6g .27g/ml 0cm.
Yogurt,Yoplait, 170ml 178.9g 1.05g/ml 79cm.
coconut.
Banana 140ml 127.1g .91g/ml Not Tested
(Leever) Avocado 185ml 165.7g .9g/ml Missed Target
Watermelon 140ml 113.1g .93g/ml 36cm.
Tomato (Gates) 42.6ml 42.7g 1.002g/ml 42cm.
Tapioca Pudding 200ml 191.2g .956g/ml 105cm.
Tangerine 70ml 73.1g 1.044g/ml Missed Target
Tomato (Blottin) 200ml 168.2g .84g/ml 108cm.
Onion 400ml 320.5g .8g/ml 8cm.
Strawberries 495ml 535g 1.09g/ml Not Tested
The chart above shows all of the raw data (volume, mass, density, and splat diameter.) of the foods we are testing.
Conclusion:
The purpose of this experiment was for Mr. Casey's class to learn about density, metric measurement, and formal experimentation. My prediction was that the Twinkie would be the densest food that would also splatter the most. This was because the Twinkie has a gooey center and is very small making it easy to through and splatter.
With all the data the class collected we found that Lauren Blottin's tomato was the best splatter with 108cm and Cameron Wetzle's avocado was the dentist food with 1.11g/ml. This data is quite the opposite of my hypothesis and my Twinkie came in with a whopping 0cm splatter and the density of .27g/ml. In this experiment I learned about metric measurement, how to find the volume, mass, and density of an object, how to conduct a formal experiment, and write a lab write up.
In this experiment not everything went exactly as planed; some foods didn't even hit the target, like the tangerine or the strawberry yogurt. The banana and the strawberries rotted over the weekend and had to be thrown away before we could test them. Also no one brought in a sheet to cover the target. But lots of things that could have gone wrong didn't like the launcher could have broken or target could have never came which we are very appreciative about. If I were to do this experiment again I would have made either the target out of concrete or would have put the ply wood up against something harder like a wall. This is because when a food hit the ply wood it wobbled slightly taking away some of the impact. However, if the target was a wall I think It would make a better surface to splatter foods on. If I wanted to extend this experiment I could test for the staining of each food.
Some people might think that we would never use any of this in real life but we use this information every day though you might not even know it. I use metric measurement to measure how much I run and how fast I ran. I also like to cook which means I have to use metric measurement to know how much of one thing I need to put into a dish.
Sydney Geisinger
9-18-12
Period 4
Physical Science
Introduction to Research:
On September 24th 2012 Mr. Casey's 4th period science class will start our food fight lab at JMMS. In this lab we will learn the density and splatting ability of objects by using a water balloon launcher to catapult an assortment of foods on a large pice of ply wood and recording the results.
Hypothesis:
If we test Twinkies, then we will find it to be the best splattering and densest food to fight with. The gooey center will make for a messy splatter casing a large diameter that would be the most useful in a food fight. I also believe we will find the Twinkie will hit the target faster because it is so light.
Materials:
1. One water balloon launcher
2. 4'x8' pice of ply wood
3. One tapioca pudding
4. A box of strawberries
5. watermelon (cut in pieces)
5. One orange
6. A banana
7. Two Avocados
8. One peach
9. Two tomatoes
10. A box of Twinkies
11. Beaker
12. Tripple beam balance
13. Meter stick
Procedures:
1. Gather all materials listed above.
2. Find the volume and mass of the Twinkies.
3. Divide the volume by the mass to get the density of the Twinkie and record.
4. Set up target (put sheet on and place in a deserted area.)
5. Set up water balloon launcher six meters away aimed at target.
6. Pull launcher pocket one meter back and place one twinkly in pocket.
7. Let go of launch pocket and record splatter of twinkly.
8. Take off sheet and wash.
9. once washed find the diameter of the stain left by the twinkly and record.
10. Clean up test
Result and Analysis:
Food Volume(in ml) Mass(in g) Density (in g/m) Splat Diameter (in cm)
Grapefruit 600ml 494.3g .82g/ml 0cm.
Mango 280ml 300.5g 1.06g/ml 0cm.
Yogurt,Yoplait, 170ml 182.4g 1.07g/ml Missed Target
Strawberry.
Apple 280ml 213.6g .76g/ml Not Tested
(Uelen) Avocado 180ml 200.2g .1.11g/ml 71cm.
Twinkie 160ml 42.6g .27g/ml 0cm.
Yogurt,Yoplait, 170ml 178.9g 1.05g/ml 79cm.
coconut.
Banana 140ml 127.1g .91g/ml Not Tested
(Leever) Avocado 185ml 165.7g .9g/ml Missed Target
Watermelon 140ml 113.1g .93g/ml 36cm.
Tomato (Gates) 42.6ml 42.7g 1.002g/ml 42cm.
Tapioca Pudding 200ml 191.2g .956g/ml 105cm.
Tangerine 70ml 73.1g 1.044g/ml Missed Target
Tomato (Blottin) 200ml 168.2g .84g/ml 108cm.
Onion 400ml 320.5g .8g/ml 8cm.
Strawberries 495ml 535g 1.09g/ml Not Tested
The chart above shows all of the raw data (volume, mass, density, and splat diameter.) of the foods we are testing.
Conclusion:
The purpose of this experiment was for Mr. Casey's class to learn about density, metric measurement, and formal experimentation. My prediction was that the Twinkie would be the densest food that would also splatter the most. This was because the Twinkie has a gooey center and is very small making it easy to through and splatter.
With all the data the class collected we found that Lauren Blottin's tomato was the best splatter with 108cm and Cameron Wetzle's avocado was the dentist food with 1.11g/ml. This data is quite the opposite of my hypothesis and my Twinkie came in with a whopping 0cm splatter and the density of .27g/ml. In this experiment I learned about metric measurement, how to find the volume, mass, and density of an object, how to conduct a formal experiment, and write a lab write up.
In this experiment not everything went exactly as planed; some foods didn't even hit the target, like the tangerine or the strawberry yogurt. The banana and the strawberries rotted over the weekend and had to be thrown away before we could test them. Also no one brought in a sheet to cover the target. But lots of things that could have gone wrong didn't like the launcher could have broken or target could have never came which we are very appreciative about. If I were to do this experiment again I would have made either the target out of concrete or would have put the ply wood up against something harder like a wall. This is because when a food hit the ply wood it wobbled slightly taking away some of the impact. However, if the target was a wall I think It would make a better surface to splatter foods on. If I wanted to extend this experiment I could test for the staining of each food.
Some people might think that we would never use any of this in real life but we use this information every day though you might not even know it. I use metric measurement to measure how much I run and how fast I ran. I also like to cook which means I have to use metric measurement to know how much of one thing I need to put into a dish.