Answer	Units	Points	Marked		trial four
Variable	kg	2	ans + unit	1. What is your mass in kilograms?	time/s	distance/m
Variable	m	2	ans + unit	2. What is your height in meters?	0.00	0.00
Variable	kg/m²	2	calc + unit	3. Find BMI	0.88	10.00
230	Cm³	3	calc + unit + sigdigs	4. Volume for 9.6 cm long by 3.9 cm thick by 6.1 cm	1.49	15.00
Speed or velocity		1		5. What is the physical meaning of the slope	1.95	20.00
86.8	m/s	3	calc + unit + sigdigs	6. predict the distance the ball would roll after ten seconds.	3.65	25.00
1.01	s	3	calc + unit + sigdigs	7. A ball falls 500 cm. Given that gravity = 980 cm/s², how long	5.10	30.00
Variable		1	dependent on 9	8. Will the ball obey your predictions above?
Variable		1		9. Why, or why not, will the ball above obey your prediction?	slope	5.47
For use in war...		1	military applications	10.Why was the shape formed by a ball arcing through the air	intercept	4.75
parabola		1	parabola	11. What is the name of the shape of the curve
Notes:
#3: The intent was to see if you could use esisting data to obtain a derived result for a new formula, a common occurrence in science
#6: Fifteen seconds is ambiguous as to the number of significant digits. 87 m/s would also be a fine answer.
#7: will not be less than one: 2*500/980 = 1000/980 > 1. Square root results do not "cross" one. If your result was less than one
then you "inverted" something. If your answer was 1.02 then you forgot to take the square root.
#8: Confused some students. Some chose to focus on #6 where repeating a ball speed seems difficult while others focused on #7
where repeating a drop is straightforward and easily done. Bear in mind that if we could design a machine to fire the tennis balls,
then we really could repeat a throw speed. Then the tennis ball would be far more predictable, no?
Maybe a motor spinning a couple tricycle wheels...
#9 Uncertainty does not mean unpredictability. You will always be uncertain of the exact amount of time each trip to the college will take,
but you are usually certain that you will get there eventually. Amid uncertainty, predictability. This is another truism in science. So do not
take uncertainty to mean unpredictability. It just limits our ability to make an exact prediction. If data forms lines or curves on graphs,
then there is a pattern. And if there a pattern, then predictions can be made. Patterns mean that there a mathematical relationship
underneath the system, a math relationship that can provide predictions. And, as always, some uncertainty in that prediction.
And, again, in #6, just because we cannot throw a ball twice at the same speed is not a reason to dispute predictability: that is a human
limitation. If we could throw it identically, then we would expect similar time and distance numbers. Witness the ball drop from 500 cm:
1.02, 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 1.05, 1.18 seconds. And doesn't that last number look suspicious? Yes – because we expect predictability.