Objective

            Considering this was the introduction to Lego Mindstorm, the complexity that resides in not only the goal and objective, but the activity itself was minimal. The professor provided us a lab that would illustrate accuracy, and how accurate an individual can be in an experiment. The second half of the lab, where calculations were made, introduces the concept of error, and even if an error is minimal, it still resides within the calculations itself. This is due to factors that contribute to error that are simply out of an individual’s control. Bare in mind that legitimate calculations, for an example by utilizing computer software, can provide more concise results, and comparing the measured results with the calculated result provides both reassurance that the lab was both done in both a correct and accurate manner.

What did this Lab Activity Consist of?

            This lab’s simplistic procedure provided a basis for how to go about lab activities within this class. The robotics activity was quite simple through the use of software that was easy to navigate through, and the actual lego robot itself. My peer and I began by putting the pieces of robot together: inserting the battery, putting distinct plugs and wires into the robot, and anticipated to have the robot turn on instantly. Then we proceeded to connect it to the computer, and launched a program that would control the robots position and velocity. We proceeded to measure the circumference of the wheel by first measuring the diameter, dividing it by two to get the radius yielding 2.8 centimeters. Soon after we divided that by 100 using the 1 meter/ 100 centimeters conversion factor to convert the 2.8 centimeters measurement in meters which was 0.028 meters. Lastly the circumference was calculated by multiply 2 by pi by the radius, which yielded .17584 meters as the circumference of the wheel.

We turned our attention to the launched computer program. There were different variables the experimenters that being Sal and I, could manipulate. These independent variables included the time, power, power of the second wheel on the opposite side, and the circumference; however, that was fixed on whatever car an individual group had. I decided that since the basis of this lab activity was to get used to the equipment, but have three trials of three different measurements, thus making nine trials in total, we proceeded to have a fixed time of two seconds whilst the measurement went down first by ten and then by fifteen in relation to the initial trial. This in turn would elaborate on how power impacts the velocity, which was calculated by the amount of wheel turns multiplied by the circumference. Lastly we calculated the percent error by first calculating the absolute value of the (distance measured- distance calculated) over (distance measured+ distance calculated/ 2). This concluded the experiment. The calculations made during the activity are located below.

             The results of this experiment show that as power decreases, the velocity decreases. This was expected within my hypothesis; due to the intensity of the wheels decreasing yields the robot going slower, thus travelling less meters per second. Another result that must be highlighted from the calculations done above is that our percent error was for the most part extremely low, thus validating our results as being accurate. What can one conclude about the differences between the calculations measured, and calculated? For one thing human error plays a roll, due to the fact that our naked eye cannot see tenths of a centimeter. Another error could be our unawareness to the wheels going straight and not slightly crooked. If we were to do the experiment again I would suggest keeping the significant figures the same in order to make the velocity and percent error more concise; however, for the most part our group did a phenomenal job calculating findings that were somewhat or exactly what the computer software calculated.

So how can one take these findings and apply them to what we have learned in class? Well we can use this lab activity as an analogy. If an individual wants to go at a slow speed, and wants to go on a straighter path than a lower power is better than a higher power, just like how low energy intensity is better than high energy intensity in regards to conserving the planet we reside in.