NAME:______

DATE:______

CLASS:______

BARBIE BUNGEE JUMP LAB

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Team members have been hired to work for the Evil Knievel Entertainment Company. This company provides rock climbing, sky diving, "extreme skateboarding", and hang gliding adventures to the public. The current market research indicates that the company should add bungee jumping to its list of entertainment services. As part of the preliminary research, the management assigned teams the task of working out the details of the jump that will ensure a safe yet thrilling experience. The company has several sites planned for bungee jumping and each site is at different height.

Jobs:

Technician: Measures initial and final lengths of drop with meter stick and masses barbie.
Maintenance Director: Holds Barbie and drops her from her “perch”
Principal Investigator: Marks location of final lengths of drops with pencil on wall
Recorder: Records all measurements in data table

PURPOSE: To ensure a safe and thrilling jump you will determine the relationship between the jump height and the number of rubber bands used to make the bungee cord. You must allow your action figure to come as close to the floor as possible without sustaining any injuries or fatalities.

PROBLEM: (what question are you trying to answer?)

______

HYPOTHESIS: If ______

______then______because______

MATERIALS: (List all materials needed to perform experiment)

Meter Stick

Triple Beam Balance/Digital Scale

Barbie Doll or other action figure

Excel Graphing Template

Rubber Bands (7 to start)

PROCEDURE:

  1. Use one rubber band to secure Barbie’s ankles together and to serve as a point of attachment for the bungee cord. Use a small rubber band to tie back Barbie’s hair if it is not already in a ponytail.
  2. Mass BarbieTM on the balance. Record the mass in Excel Template & Data Table.

a.  Construct a bungee cord composed of 2 rubber bands and attach it to Barbie’s ankles. Barbie will fall freely from a standing position, plunging head first throughout this activity.

b.  Test drop Barbie from the top of the ruler several times to practice taking readings.

c.  Repeat this jump three times total and record the data in the Excel Template & Data Table.

  1. Add a rubber band to your bungee cord.

a.  Drop Barbie from the top of the ruler three times and record the data in the Excel Template & Data Table

  1. Repeat step 3 until you have a total of 6 rubber bands.

a.  Record the data each time.

  1. Calculate the average of the data and record it in the data table. Your Excel Template should have done this for you.
  2. Each person will do this step individually.

a.  Using a graphing calculator or graphing software, construct a graph of drop distance vs. number of rubber bands.

Using the formula for slope (y=mx+b) make a prediction on the number of rubber bands needed to get Barbie to perform a safe, yet thrilling jump for the location that your teacher specifies. Your teacher will set the boundaries for both Barbie’s safety and her thrill factor

DATA:

BARBIE BUNGEE JUMP DATA

Number of
Rubber Bands / Trial 1 / Trial 2 / Trial 3 / Average
2
3
4
5
6

Barbie’s Mass: ______

Slope Equation:(y=mx+b) ______

Estimated Number of Rubber Bands (X) ______

Independent Variable: ______

Dependent Variable: ______

ATTACH A GRAPH OF YOUR DATA!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1.  Discuss at least two possible errors that could have caused variations in the data.

______

2.  Explain how potential and kinetic energy were modeled in this experiment.

______

3. What force causes Barbie to accelerate? Explain how or if barbie’s acceleration would have changed if we dropped her off the roof of the school rather than the bleachers.

______

4. Explain how this activity is useful in real life.

______

CONCLUSION:

My hypothesis is ______

______

To test the hypothesis, ______

______

During the experiment it was observed that, ______

______