Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Alright, my science project is, What is the Effect on Materials put in Sandbags on the Stoppage of Floods. Which basically means, if there is a flood, then does the materials in sandbags effect the stoppage of water? We plan to learn does the effect on different types of sandbags play a role when it comes to stopping floods.

-On plan was to pour 500 ml, of water down a ramp, into a bucket for 5 Seconds, then take the bucket away, and measure the water left in the bucket at the end of the ramp, and see how much water was recovered. The sandbags, with the least amount of water recovered shows that, that sandbags holds back more water over a period of time.


Experimental Design:

IV: Materials Used
Rice| Sand| Sand "n" pebbles| Pebbles| Rocks|
(20 trials for each)

DV: the amount of water held back by sandbags

C: amount of water used


Results: On Averages (over 10 trials)'

Rice: 326 ml
Sand:77 ml
Sand "n" Pebbles: 113 ml
Pebbles:246.4 ml
Solid Rocks: 416.5 ml
No Sandbags (control): 500 ml

Question 1: Does everything here look in shape? Look good? Any comments, or anything I could do better.

Question 2: What type of graph should I use to graph the averages of all the total data I found. Give me some idea, on different ones, and how each type of graph could be useful in its own unique way on this situation given, and which one you would thing be suited best here.

Thank You

LeeeeeroyJenkins wrote:What is the Effect on Materials put in Sandbags on the Stoppage of Floods. Which basically means, if there is a flood, then does the materials in sandbags effect the stoppage of water? We plan to learn does the effect on different types of sandbags play a role when it comes to stopping floods.

-On plan was to pour 500 ml, of water down a ramp, into a bucket for 5 Seconds, then take the bucket away, and measure the water left in the bucket at the end of the ramp, and see how much water was recovered. The sandbags, with the least amount of water recovered shows that, that sandbags holds back more water over a period of time.

Results: On Averages (over 10 trials)'

Rice: 326 ml
Sand:77 ml
Sand "n" Pebbles: 113 ml
Pebbles:246.4 ml
Solid Rocks: 416.5 ml
No Sandbags (control): 500 ml

Question 1: Does everything here look in shape? Look good? Any comments, or anything I could do better.

Question 2: What type of graph should I use to graph the averages of all the total data I found. Give me some idea, on different ones, and how each type of graph could be useful in its own unique way on this situation given, and which one you would thing be suited best here.

Leroy, ok! First, I'm a tad unclear about the experiment setup... you describe the bucket, the material, the water, but don't mention the sandbags... are they on the ramp? one sandbag per trial? any difference in quantity of sandbag or quantity of material in them? That information is important to describe and understand. Knowing that would help answer your question 1.

Regarding your question 2 (graphing), first what axes are you using? That would be good to know too.

Regarding the type of graph, assuming you have Excel (?), you might look at the "stock chart" type in Excel. That idea of showing the high/low and average might be a good one to use. Otherwise, a graph with averages only, a graph showing the outliers (like the high/low stock-type one) would be useful. In addition, for backup, one graph per material with all trials for that material on the graph should be done. Be sure to keep the axes scales the same for these to allow the viewer to make quick visual comparisons.

If any couple of materials stand out as exceptional, you could do some further graphs on only those materials to highlight the key differences.

Llooking forward to your thoughts!

Hi,

I'd say the data look as expected. For plots, I think it might be interesting to plot your results (ml) vs the typical size of the material in the bag. Get a micrometer or a caliper and measure several of the typically-sized components of each bag. Don't get too wrapped up in getting really accurate numbers here...just pick out a few mid-sized samples and measure them.

Then try plotting your results against the sizes. Try both linear size (average the two dimensions of the rice) and volume. My guess is that volume will make a better plot but that's only a guess.

It'd be nice to hear what the results of this are.

Ceal Craig wrote:

LeeeeeroyJenkins wrote:What is the Effect on Materials put in Sandbags on the Stoppage of Floods. Which basically means, if there is a flood, then does the materials in sandbags effect the stoppage of water? We plan to learn does the effect on different types of sandbags play a role when it comes to stopping floods.

-On plan was to pour 500 ml, of water down a ramp, into a bucket for 5 Seconds, then take the bucket away, and measure the water left in the bucket at the end of the ramp, and see how much water was recovered. The sandbags, with the least amount of water recovered shows that, that sandbags holds back more water over a period of time.

Results: On Averages (over 10 trials)'

Rice: 326 ml
Sand:77 ml
Sand "n" Pebbles: 113 ml
Pebbles:246.4 ml
Solid Rocks: 416.5 ml
No Sandbags (control): 500 ml

Question 1: Does everything here look in shape? Look good? Any comments, or anything I could do better.

Question 2: What type of graph should I use to graph the averages of all the total data I found. Give me some idea, on different ones, and how each type of graph could be useful in its own unique way on this situation given, and which one you would thing be suited best here.

Leroy, ok! First, I'm a tad unclear about the experiment setup... you describe the bucket, the material, the water, but don't mention the sandbags... are they on the ramp? one sandbag per trial? any difference in quantity of sandbag or quantity of material in them? That information is important to describe and understand. Knowing that would help answer your question 1.

Regarding your question 2 (graphing), first what axes are you using? That would be good to know too.

Regarding the type of graph, assuming you have Excel (?), you might look at the "stock chart" type in Excel. That idea of showing the high/low and average might be a good one to use. Otherwise, a graph with averages only, a graph showing the outliers (like the high/low stock-type one) would be useful. In addition, for backup, one graph per material with all trials for that material on the graph should be done. Be sure to keep the axes scales the same for these to allow the viewer to make quick visual comparisons.

If any couple of materials stand out as exceptional, you could do some further graphs on only those materials to highlight the key differences.

Llooking forward to your thoughts!

The experiment setup, does include the sandbags on a ramp. As for the trials there were 8 sandbags used on the ramp to block the flood, which included the materials in an amount of 1/4 cup of any given material. (example 8 bags full of pebbles, with each bag with 1/4 cup of pebbles into the bag itself.

The axes I am using for my graph are, X and Y axis. I currently placed my data on a bar graph, insted of a line graph. The graph is the averages of all of the materials in the sandbags on average on 10 experiments per sandbag. (trials) Do you think this was a good decision towards the experiment?




Thanks for the feedback that was given to me on this topic.

LeeeeeroyJenkins wrote:

Ceal Craig wrote:

LeeeeeroyJenkins wrote:What is the Effect on Materials put in Sandbags on the Stoppage of Floods. Which basically means, if there is a flood, then does the materials in sandbags effect the stoppage of water? We plan to learn does the effect on different types of sandbags play a role when it comes to stopping floods.

-On plan was to pour 500 ml, of water down a ramp, into a bucket for 5 Seconds, then take the bucket away, and measure the water left in the bucket at the end of the ramp, and see how much water was recovered. The sandbags, with the least amount of water recovered shows that, that sandbags holds back more water over a period of time.

You responded:
>>>The experiment setup, does include the sandbags on a ramp. As for the trials there were 8 sandbags used on the ramp to block the flood, which included the materials in an amount of 1/4 cup of any given material. (example 8 bags full of pebbles, with each bag with 1/4 cup of pebbles into the bag itself.

The axes I am using for my graph are, X and Y axis. I currently placed my data on a bar graph, insted of a line graph. The graph is the averages of all of the materials in the sandbags on average on 10 experiments per sandbag. (trials) Do you think this was a good decision towards the experiment?

ok. Thanks. I think I'm clear now. Graphing the averages sounds fine. I continue to think a graph with all the data would be useful. Use a different point type (triangles, x's, circles, etc.) or color of point for each type of material. This is a scatter graph, not a bar graph. This scatter graph will help identify outliers (data points that seem just "wrong"). Lecture 12, Slide 3 & 4 on this site explain this a bit http://www.esf.edu/for/bevilacqua/apm391/ I tried to find an example, but couldn't find a good one.

I think the graph Bruce Weaver suggested would be good too, that is graphing the estimated volume of the objects, not the total volume, but the volume per base material (grain of rice, rock, pebbles). But, since you are using 1/4 cup of each, the visual results might not be too different; you won't know until you try. It is important to note that a 1/4 cup of sand is likely more completely sand than a 1/4 cup of rice. The rice will likely have air in the 1/4 cup since it won't be as fully compacted. Does that make sense? So graphing the volume of the item vs. the result might be a good way of seeing that.

Another idea is if you could determine the density of the objects, graphing the density might be interesting too.

Bottom line, no single graph is enough I think. Hope this helps.