Wednesday, May 11, 2011

From Feet to Fathoms lab report

History:  English units are the historical units of measurement in medieval England which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. They were redefined in England in 1824 by a Weights and Measures Act, which retained many but not all of the unit names with slightly different values, and again in the 1970s by the International System of Units as a subset of the metric system.  

G.Q.:What is the importance of having an International measuring system? How accurate are old measurements using body parts?

Hypothesis: I think that now it is much more useful to have the International measuring system because before it wasn't that accurate, when you are short the measurement would be, for example, 5 feet and then when you grow up much more. If measuring with arms the first time you can extend your arms less than the second time. That is why I think this International measuring system is useful more than the old measurements.

Materials:
• Partner

• Objects in the classroom (whiteboard, desk, hallway, SPACE book, Peep, Crayon box)

• List of ways to measure:

Pace: legs outstretched =1 yard approximately or 1 meter
Egyptian cubit= elbow to tip of the middle finger= 18 inches or 45 cm
Fathom = middle finger to middle finger across the body = 6 feet, 180 cm, 1.8m
Palm = across the palm of the hand = 3 inches or 8 cm
Hand including thumb = 4 inches or 10 cm
Span = from tip of thumb to tip of little finger= 3 palms or 9 inches or 24 cm
English yard = from fingertip of arm to nose = 36 inches or about 1 meter
Foot = 12 “or 30 cm approximately
Fingernail = tip of pinky =1/2 inch = 1 cm.

• Meter stick or measuring tape

• Calculator

 
Procedure
1. Make a data table in your notebook with 7 columns and 7 rows. (See below).

2. Choose one of the six objects or distances you will measure.

3. Determine what form of measurement you will make with the first object. (For example: Length of the 6th grade hallway with paces, book with palm or hand, fingernail for crayon box, etc…)

4. Measure it with the determined form of measurement 3 times, and then find the average.

5. Measure it with the meter stick/or measuring tape and find the actual measurement. (IMPORTANT!!!!! BE SURE THAT THE UNITS OF MEASUREMENT STAY THE SAME, either inches or centimeters or yards or feet or meters and the average needs to be in the same units)

6. Repeat the same for each of the five objects that are left and measure it with a different type of measurement, 3 times, find the average and again the actual measurement.

7. Compare class data results. Find the average of these results.

Graph
 






Data Analysis

Looking at this graph i see that sometimes if you are reassuming something you need to do it more that once to find the real measurement because you can make a mistake like me and my partner did. Some of our measurements were to low, but some were just right. I realized that the smaller objects we were closer to the real measurement because its smaller which means it is easier to measure. Me and my friend got 1 object exact and also on only 1 we were very close.

Conclusion

The old English forms of measurement were not as effective. But using this type of measuring this will give you an approximate measurement, but it will almost never be exact. Although it can be but it is very rear. The meter stick or measuring tape were a lot easier, quicker and a lot more accurate. So as i explained it is very important to have the International measuring system because if not we would not know the exact measurement of things. If we used the old English ones then when every one measures something, it wont be exact. So My hypothesis was correct. For me the smaller objects were the most accurate and easiest to measure. But some other people may think different. My best form of measurement is the English yard because it is the most accurate. For me the one i really don't like is the pace because you don't know how big or small one pace is suppose to be, but other people might think different.

Further Inquiry 
I just have 1 thing me and my partner should improve on is that we don't measure the items too fast just to get it done, but to do it like we want to be correct and exact. And also not fight over who measures what. Some times an error that me and my partner would make is to forget what each measurement type is which. During this lab i learned enough about measurements so i don't have any further questions. 

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