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Example Lab Report

This lab experiment tests the hypothesis that the circumference of a circle is directly proportional to its diameter. Students measure the diameter and circumference of various objects and graph their results, finding the slope of the best fit line agrees closely with pi, supporting the hypothesis.

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arvind kumar
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28 views

Example Lab Report

This lab experiment tests the hypothesis that the circumference of a circle is directly proportional to its diameter. Students measure the diameter and circumference of various objects and graph their results, finding the slope of the best fit line agrees closely with pi, supporting the hypothesis.

Uploaded by

arvind kumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CIRCUMFERENCE OF

A CIRCLE
PHYXXX
WED 2-4PM
A. EINSTEIN

LAB P ARTNE R: I. NEWTON


INTRODUCTION:
Introduction: How is the circumference of a circle related to its diameter? In this lab we test a
hypothesis about the geometry of circles. This activity is an introduction to physics laboratory
investigations. It is designed to give practice taking measurements, analyzing data, and drawing
inferences without requiring any special knowledge about physics.

Hypothesis: The circumference (C) of a circle is directly proportional to its


diameter (D). To verify we expect a graph of circumference vs diameter to be a
straight line. (R2 > 0.96)

APPAR ATUS:
• Metric ruler
• Vernier calipers
• At least 5 objects with diameters ~1 cm to ~10 cm: (penny, marble, “D” cell, PVC cylinders)

PROCEDURE:
1. Measure and record in a table the diameter of each cylinder
2. Tightly wrap a small piece of paper around each cylinder, marking the circumference on the
paper with a pencil, and measuring this distance with the ruler or caliper. Record in your
table.
3. Include the uncertainty of your measurement
4. Use Excel to construct a graph of C versus D. Use Excel to display the equation of the best
fit line through your data. Make sure you interpret the meaning of both the slope and
intercept. A checklist for graphs is in the grading rubric.
5. Fit a linear trendline

DAT A:
Object Description Diameter Circumfer. Measuring Device
(cm) (cm)
Penny coin 1.90 ± 0.01 5.93 ± 0.03 Vernier caliper, paper
“D” cell battery 3.30 ± 0.02 10.45 ± 0.05 Vernier caliper, paper
PVC cylinder A 4.23 ± 0.02 13.30 ± 0.03 Vernier caliper, paper
PVC cylinder B 6.04 ± 0.02 18.45 ± 0.05 Plastic ruler, paper
Tomato soup can 6.6 ± 0.1 21.2 ± 0.1 Plastic ruler, paper
AN ALYSIS:

Circumference Vs Diameter
25

20
Circumference (cm)

15

10
y = 3.1527x - 0.0502
R² = 0.9967
5

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Diameter (cm)

The Excel equation is: y = 3.15x – 0.05


The functional relationship is: C = 3.15D – 0.05

If C is proportional to D, we should get a straight line through the origin. From our numerical results,
we would expect the slope of the C vs. D graph to be equal to π. The slope of the best fit line is 3.15
which is has a percent error equal to 0.3% from the expected π. The intercept is essentially zero: (-
0.05).

DISCUSSION
Graphical analysis supports the “directly proportional” hypothesis. The line has a slope that agrees
with the expected value (3.15 which is less than 1% error from π). The R squared statistic shows
that the data all fall very close to the best fit line. If all the data lie exactly on the fitted line, R squared
is equal to 1. If the data are randomly scattered, R squared is zero. The R^2 value of 0.997>0.96 so
our hypothesis is verified.

A more extensive investigation of this C/D relationship over a wider range of circle sizes should be
performed to verify that this ratio is indeed constant for all circles.

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