Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi!! This might be my last year doing the science fair! Before I state my problem, I would like to express my gratitude to Science Buddies for their assistance every year. Really appreciate it! Anyway, I have a problem. I am doing the Frisbee Aerodynamics project, and it states I have to do two of positive, and two of negative, and I have to do them each 10 times. Am I supposed to have 50+ trials? If not, how many am I supposed to have in total? I already know the dependent and independent variables, I am just a little confused. So far, I already did 10 normal throws, and 5 negative throws, (planning on doing 5 more) and doing 10 positive throws total, then I average that, so thats 3 rows of 10 on a google spreadsheet, and that's going to be huge on my board. Please help? Deadline is 1/27, goal to turn it in is by 1/20-23. Thanks!

Hi JaeLovesSciFi,

Is this your project?

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... te-frisbee

Yes, the instructions are to do 10 throws for 5 conditions.

And using a spreadsheet to record the conditions and results is a great idea.

The one thing I would add (as a judge and data scientist) is to graph your actual results ... so your graph will show 10 results for each of the 5 conditions.

This gives you much more information than just showing the mean (or median). It shows how much your results varied within each condition and, better yet, lets you see if the amount of variation (scatter of the data points) is different for say the trials using the positive angle versus the negative angle.

Let us know if you have more questions ... and best of luck!

PS: If you don't have room on your display board for the spreadsheet, you can include a printout in your lab notebook that you submit with the display board. Be sure to include a description of your spreadsheet in the Procedures section of your board!

OMG! Yes, thank you so much for the reply! I needed that so much. Unfortunately, we have already completed our project and don't have any more time to work on it. We only did horizontal, with one positive and one negative. I have a URL with my 1st draft report if you want to see.

I'm glad to look at your display, particularly your graph of your results.

It would be best if you made a pdf or used your phone to take a photo.

Follow the instructions below for submitting these as an attachment.

Let us know if you have more questions!

Madeline