understanding shock levels and packaging principles

[winter]

In this project I will be using one type of metal at three different weights dropping on three different surfaces. without packaging material and without a box .Testing the shock damage with an egg. The second part of this experiment. I will be using one type of metal at three different weights dropping on three different surfaces with three different packaging materials ,and a box to hold metal and packaging in. Can you tell me if I am doing this project right? Also I need help in knowing what the variables are in this project. Thank you very much....
Jess.

[deleted-71487]

The experiment procedure is a bit unclear about how you will use an egg to measure shock, so the first thing you'll need to do is decide on that. I'm guessing that they intend you tape the egg to the top of the object before dropping it. Note: you'll probably break a lot of eggs in this experiment, and you should take precautions to contain the mess. I suggest performing the experiment outdoors.

The variables you'll want to measure at the things that you vary during the experiment. So, for example, in your tests at different heights, the independent variable would be the height you drop the object from, and the dependent variable would be whether or not the egg breaks. Try to make sure you only vary 1 thing at a time. So for example, don't change both the height and packaging material in the same test. Measure all the heights with 1 packing material, and then move on to the next packing material.

I think you're on the right track. Please feel free to ask more specific questions and we'll try to help you.

[winter]

Dear Science Buddies,
I am still a little confused on the variables. My project is listed on the science buddies web site for ideas. It said for variations an egg could be used, instead of a shock indicator. I cannot find any single resettable shock indicators for this project anywhere. I think my independent
variables in first part of the test are the 3 different weights, different heights dropped, 3 surfaces to be dropped on. The controlled variable then would be what? Would it be the egg? The second part of test is all the same except for adding 3 different packaging materials and 1 cardboard box.Do I have too many variables?
My problem question for my science fair board is: How far will a project drop with and without packaging material before its damage? This experiment is listed as Understand Shock Levels and Packaging Principles on your web site. Does my question sound good for the display board?
Thank you for your help...
Jess

[deleted-71588]

Have you read https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml?
You have a LOT of variables and even more combinations. 3 weights X <number of heights> (I'll assume 2 because you didn't specify) X 3 surfaces X 4 packages (none, cardboard box with material 1, 2, and 3). This means 72 tests per trial. In order to see if something is repeatable, for K-5 the usual recommendation is 3 trials. That is 216 which is a LARGE number of experimental trials to use and I'm not sure you want to have to use 18 dozen eggs in your actual trials and another half dozen or so to try out your setup before you do the actual trials.

You have 4 independent variables (weight, height, surface, and packaging). You have at least one uncontrolled variable, what it takes to break each different egg. You have one dependent variable, whether the egg cracks/breaks or not.

In this experiment, the controlled variables are less obvious and you are going to have to think about them. The shape of an egg might make it so that how it is oriented when it lands might affect how much force it takes to break it. You probably want to control the orientation as best you can. The size and shape of your weights and how the egg is attached might affect any bouncing and what the initial shock force might be. You probably want to control these as best you can. There are probably more but it will take some time to figure them out and you probably need to ask a couple of different people to see if they can think of something that you didn't think of.

What is your hypothesis? Depending on exactly how you word it, you can turn one or more of the independent variables into a control variable. Sometimes you have to do some initial experimenting to determine what a good value is for these control variables. For example, if your goal is to prove a hypothesis that involves one type of packaging outperforming another, because your shock indicator is break/no-break, you will probably have to do some initial tests to find a height that will demonstrate something besides they all survived or they all failed. You really need to work in this area to reduce the number of combinations you need to test.

Have you tried putting "Shock indicators" into a search engine like google? It quickly came up with a lot of shipping indicators. I'm not sure where you can buy them in small quantities. They are available and they will be more consistent than the eggs. As long as they haven't exceeded their shock limit and show an indication, they can be reused unlike the eggs. With eggs, you don't know if you have caused a stress fracture that has weakened the structure that isn't visible yet which means you can't reuse it reliably for fear of getting a break at a lower shock condition than what caused the stress fracture to form.

[winter]

Dear Science Buddies,
My hypothesis is I think the material bubble wrap is a better packing material in shipping. And I think the metal falling on carpet would be less damaged. Should I use only one size metal dropping on three surfaces? Then try one metal dropping on three surfaces with three packaging materials? Thank you
Sincerely ,Jess

[deleted-71588]

the material bubble wrap is a better packing material in shipping. ...the metal falling on carpet would be less damaged.

There are two very different hypothesis here. They require two independent investigations, two seperate presentations, two separate reports, two sets of notes, ... . Why are you trying to do two Science Fair Projects?

Pick one or the other so that you can devote more time and thought into proving / disproving the hypothesis. Post back with the one you choose and we can help with some suggestions on how to refine your hypothesis and your trials to give you a better chance at gathering scientifically rigorous data that is definitive.

[amyC]

Hi Jess - I'm posting the link to the Science Buddies project idea here so that experts trying to help can easily reference the project on which you are basing your experiment.

Understand Shock Levels and Packaging Principles
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p009.shtml

Amy
Science Buddies

[winter]

Dear Science Buddies,
I did not realize this was two projects. So I have changed some things. My problem ,question to answered is Which packaging material protects the most against shock damage during shipping? My hypothesis is I think the Bubble wrap will protect against shock damage at a higher distance, than Kraft paper or, Packing peanuts in shipping. In this test I will have one metal and three packaging materials, one cardboard box and an egg. Dropping onto three different surfaces. I will have to drop at a distance, may have to increase distance until the egg cracks or breaks. Do you think I should use one size metal and or should I only use one surface to be dropped on?
Can you tell me the independent, dependent, and controlled variable? Also does the question and hypothesis seem right? I also have did a
lot of research on this. I have found out the shock indicators are sold to manufactures in large sizes only. This is why I will have to use the egg.
Sorry for all the questions . Thank you.
Jess

[deleted-71712]

Hi Jess,

Which packaging material ...

The type of packaging material is your independent variable.

... protects the most against shock damage during shipping?

The shock damage experienced during shipping is your dependent variable, which you are approximating by dropping eggs inside each type of packaging, correct? You do need to define something quantitative regarding the egg drops as the DV, perhaps something like 'maximum height from which an egg can be dropped without cracking'. A possible issue here: Once you drop a particular egg, even if you don't see cracks, its structure may have been weakened so that it will crack (visibly) more easily on subsequent drops. So, if an egg survives a fall from 50 cm, but then breaks when dropped from 60 cm, that doesn't necessarily tell you that a fresh egg dropped from 60 cm would have broken. (Craig also discussed this earlier. Also, you don't know what the eggs have experienced before you acquired them -- it's not uncommon to find broken eggs at the grocery store, which is why so many people open the boxes and examine them. And hens probably have genetic variations causing them to produce eggs with varying physical properties...) You should also think about the precision with which you want to test heights -- e.g. every 10 cm, every 20 cm, etc. Once you find the max height for a given package, to demonstrate repeatability you'd probably want to repeat that with a few more fresh eggs. Bottom line, I see you going through a lot of eggs.

Control variables: everything else. This includes the surface onto which packages are dropped, since testing the surface is not mentioned in your hypothesis or question. To be more precise, you could include a phrase like when dropped onto a metal surface in the question or hypothesis. Using the same box for all the trials is a good control. If you do use eggs, you want to control as much as possible about them -- temperature, brand, grade, color -- and avoid using any with visible irregularities. When you drop the box, you want to use the same method of measuring the height, make sure you don't toss it up or down, etc. How will you pack/wrap the eggs in the peanuts, bubble wrap, and paper to make sure it's the same every time?

Best wishes,
Amanda

[winter]

Dear Science Buddies,
I am testing how different packaging material will affect the distance the project can be dropped before shock damage occurs.
I need help forming a hypothesis on this. Can you help.
I am using 1 piece of metal to be dropped on 3 surfaces which are carpet, tile, and wood , 3 packaging materials which are peanuts, bubble wrap and paper. Eggs, and a box. I will tape the egg inside the packaging material to one side so that it does not move. I will test a few distances out , to find the distance where shock damage has occurred . this by the egg breaking .
The independent variables are: 3 surfaces, heights, 3 packaging materials,eggs.
The dependent variable is: When damaged has occurred to the egg.
the controlled variable: are metal and box. Are these variables right?
Thank you,Jess

[deleted-71712]

Hi Jess,

The dependent variable is: When damaged has occurred to the egg.

The dependent variable is the quantity that changes, depending on what value of your independent variable is used. To be a bit more precise, by 'when' you actually mean 'the minimum height at which' the egg is damaged. So, your dependent variable will be a measure of height.

The independent variables are: 3 surfaces, heights, 3 packaging materials,eggs.

OK, you need to define one independent variable.
--Height is your dependent variable, so it's not that.
--Additionally, you are making the approximation that all eggs are the same (or it doesn't mean anything to compare the height at which egg A breaks to the height at which egg B breaks), so the eggs are a constant. The alternative would be wrapping, for example, an egg in bubble wrap and an ice cube in paper -- comparing the heights at which they broke wouldn't tell you anything about whether the bubble wrap or paper was more effective.
--Surface OR packaging material. You need to pick one of these to test and keep the other one constant. For example, you could make dropping onto a tile floor a constant, and vary the packaging material used: first paper, then bubble wrap, then peanuts -- and this would not involve the use of a carpet or wood floor.

I am using 1 piece of metal to be dropped on 3 surfaces which are carpet, tile, and wood , 3 packaging materials which are peanuts, bubble wrap and paper. Eggs, and a box. I will tape the egg inside the packaging material to one side so that it does not move.

Where does the piece of metal come in? You are placing the egg inside the box (along with one of the three packaging materials each time). Why would you also drop a piece of metal?

Hypothesis: This will be about what effect the independent variable will have on the dependent variable -- that is, which packaging material you think will require dropping from the highest height in order to break the egg. It should be based on your understanding of how the packaging materials work and what causes an egg to break. So, which packaging material do you think will work best, and why?

Amanda

[deleted-71712]

Also, if you haven't looked at our project guide, it will help with defining variables and developing a good hypothesis and procedure:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml

Amanda

[winter]

Dear Science Buddie,
Thank you for all your help. This project was confusing from the beginning the way it was written . So my independent variable will be the packaging materials, the dependent variable will be the height dropped, the controlled variable will be the surface, tile.
The metal was supposed to be the object to be dropped in the box with the packaging material. Is this wrong? All the eggs will be the same size, color brand and temp. I have looked over the science buddies site at things. I think one of the problems was I had too many variables and trial test going on. Would a bar graph or a table be good for the data results?
Thanks Again
Jess

[deleted-71588]

Your "independent variable" is related to what you are testing, which is your packaging material per your latest posted hypothesis.

Your "dependent variable" is what you measure or detect in order to evaluate your hypothesis, in this case whether your egg broke/cracked or remained in one piece.

Your "control variables" will be those things that you attempt to keep the same between tests as you change the independent variable. In other words, everything else, the drop height, the surface, the "metal", the eggs as best you can, ....

Because your dependent variable is a Yes/No kind of indicator (egg damaged, egg apparently undamaged), you will have to run a set of tests at different heights so that you can demonstrate differences in your packing material (independent variable) ability to protect the egg (reduce shock).

Again, because your dependent variable is broke/cracked/apparently undamaged and not a numerical result, my opinion is that a table with rows for different heights and columns for different packing materials is the appropriate way to display your results to demonstrate if your hypothesis is correct or not.

Alternatively, you could use pairs of bar graphs showing the percentage of eggs that were apparently undamaged for each height or you could use a multi-color line graph where the horizontal axis is the height of the drop and the vertical axis is the percentage of the unbroken eggs in the trials and each color line/point represents a different packaging material.

[kevvenl]

What do you guys think of the Article about the new packaging materials? Are you happy with our decision? Let us know here!