During the robot experiment, my partner and I were trying to figure out how accurate or even better, what was the percentage of error. By the end of the experiment we would have calculated the percentage of error by comparing the computer out puts to our actual calculations.
First we assembled the robot together so that it would turn on and plug the robot on to our computer. After plugging the robot to the computer, after every trial there would be an instant number that would be displayed on the computer. The computer would tell us how many times the wheels on the robot turned.
My partner and I were required to enter the amount of seconds the robot would travel for and choose how fast the robot should travel. We measured the diameter of the wheels in centimeters from the center of the wheel to the end of the wheel. The experiment was measured in meters so we had to convert the diameter from centimeters to meters. once we had our diameter calculated, we entered it into the computer program. At this point we have entered the speed, the time and the diameter.
From this point with the robot being connected to the computer every time we ran the experiment, the system would give us a feedback of the travel distance of the robot. We changed the speed of the Robot and the time it traveled three times. We did three trials for every set (it had its own time and speed for the robot) meaning there was a total of nine trials at the end of the experiment.
Once we had all the data gathered for each set, we had to use the formula:
% of error = ( |distance measured by ruler – distance calculated by computer |
divided by
(distance measured by ruler + distance calculated by computer)/2 ) Multiplied by 100 %
Conclusion: At the end of the experiment we realized that each set had a low percentage of error. I learned that despite how much humans rely on technology, there is always room for error. Humans should not only rely on what technology says and try to figure things out on our own. I also learned that despite our calculations, the percentage of error was so low that it is understandable why technology is relied on so much.
These are our calculations:
first set:
computer distance was 0.23855 m
ruler distance was 0.275 m
percentage of error = (|.275-.238| / ((.275+.238)/2) x 100% = 14% error
second set:
computer distance was .3227 m
ruler distance was .345 m
percentage of error = (|.345-.322| / ((.345+.322)/2) x 100% = 6.8% error
On our third set, me and my partner tried changing the time of travel from 1 second to two seconds. after the calculations we ended up getting a 58% error. It was not accurate, obviously we may have done something wrong