Science Methods 2 Blog post 3

 

This week in lab my group and I tested the effect weight has on how fast you can swing. Our result of this test showed the weight of a swing rider does not affect the speed of the swing. As a group, we were confused by this conclusion, because our hypothesis was originally the heavier the swing rider the faster the swing would go. When attending the lecture on Thursday, I was able to understand why weight does not affect the speed in which the rider goes. According to Newton's second law F=MA, the force of a larger object takes a slower acceleration time as well as is held down by stronger forces of gravity because the object weighs more. For smaller objects force causes objects to accelerate faster as well as is held down by less gravitational force because the object weighs less. Knowing these two things we can gain a better understanding of why swinging speed is not affected by weight. Tying this description of Newton's second law in the textbook if we want the swing with the heavier child to go the same speed as the swing with the lighter child, we must apply more force to the swing with the heavier child.