Discussion
of Challenge Question #7 |
The
testing is over, put down your pencils, take off your lab coats
and let's review the results!
Mrs.
Phillips' Warfield Elementary Class from Florida submitted
their very detailed test results. They did a great job!
Take a look and compare them to your own findings. What differences
do you see? What similarities?
|
Report
From Mrs. Phillips' Class: |
Students
answered the question:
"Is there some special force that exists on the equinox
that allows eggs to balance on the end?"
|
Hypothesis:
The eggs will balance on the day of the equinox, March 20, 2006. |
• One week before the equinox, we tried to balance eight
eggs on the hard floor.
• Three days later, we tried again.
• We balanced the eggs on the day of the equinox and
then three days later.
• We used the same eight eggs during the whole experiment.
• When one egg broke, it was not replaced.
Observations:
• We placed the egg on the floor and it rolled to the
right.
• Some eggs balanced some of the time and not other
times, but egg 4b balanced during every trial.
• Egg 1b, 3a, and 3b never balanced during our trials.
DATA:
yes= balanced
no = did not balance
Date
|
1a |
1b |
2a |
2b |
3a
|
3b
|
4a |
4b |
3/13 |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
yes |
yes |
3/15 |
yes |
no |
yes |
broke |
no |
no |
no |
yes |
3/20
Spring Equinox |
no |
no |
yes |
|
no |
no |
yes |
yes |
3/22
|
no |
no |
no |
|
no |
no |
yes |
yes |
|
Results |
• Egg 4b balanced each day we tried.
• Eggs 1a, 2a, and 4a balanced some times.
• Eggs 1b, 2b, 3a, and 3b never balanced
|
Conclusion |
Our
hypothesis was wrong. The equinox has no special power to balance
the eggs. Some eggs balanced on the day of the equinox and some
didn’t, some even balanced before and after the equinox. Egg
4b balanced every time we experimented. |
|
We
asked Astronomy expert Rod Nerdahl:
|
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