Jesebead Gil & Valentina Gutierrez

General Equation: y = mx+b

When you double the x

the y doubles as well.

Prediction Question: How many pennies will it take to break 20 strands

of spaghetti?
Research Question: How does the number of spaghetti strands affect
the strength of the bridge?
Procedure:
Start with a strand of spaghetti and place it between two tables, make sure to keep the
distance between the tables constant, and hang the cup from the strand. Gently place the
pennies in the cup and count how many can be inserted until the strand breaks. Repeat these
steps 5 times, adding one strand of spaghetti to the bridge each trial. Record the number of
pennies it takes to break the bridge each trial.

Equation: y = 60x
Prediction: It would take about 1200 pennies to
break the bridge.
The prediction was made by plugging in 20 for x
into the equation, which came out to be 1200
pennies.
We don't know if the prediction is accurate,
because we never had the chance to test it
out.

General equation: y = ax2+bx+c

When you double
the x the y is
quadrupled.

Prediction Question: How long will it take for the pendulum to swing if the
string is 2 meters long ?
Research Question: How does the length of a pendulum affect its period ?
Procedure:
Hold the pendulum from the tip of the 1 meter long string and keep it the same place at the same
height for the enter procedure. Grab the weight and position it at a 90 degree angle from the tip
of the string that is being held. Let the pendulum fall and return and record the time of the period.
Repeat these steps 5 times, decreasing the length of the pendulum by increments of 20 cm each
time.

Equation: y = 35x2 - 37x + 10

Prediction: The period of a 2 meter
long pendulum would be 3.6 seconds.
The prediction was based off of the
equation by plugging in 200 cm for x.
The actual result was close to our
prediction.

General Equation: y = a/x

When the x value is

doubled, the y value is
divided by 2.

Prediction Question: What would the length of the paragraph be if its width were 33.5 cm?
Research Question: How does the width of a paragraph affect its length?
Procedure

Create five paragraphs, all of which should have the same font size. same space between
words, same font style, same margin size, same size indents, and same bold for each letter.
All paragraphs should have the same exact thing written. The only difference should be
between the length of each paragraph. Next, we measured the length and width of each
paragraph and recorded our data in a table. That data was then used to create an inverse
function graph, because the inverse function had the smallest root-moon-square error.
From there, we also created the equation used to predict the length of a paragraph
dependent on its width.

Equation: y = 94/x
Prediction: In order to predict how long a
paragraph would be if the width were 33.5 cm,
we substituted x for 33.5 cm.
If x, otherwise known as width, equals 33.5 then,
y = 94/x
y = 94 cm2 /33.5 cm
y = 2.8 cm

The actual result for a paragraph with a width

of 33.5 cm was a height of 3.1 cm. Therefore,
our prediction was fairly accurate.

General Equation: y = a/x2

When the x value is

doubled, the y variable is
divided by 4.

Prediction Question: What will the area of the shadow be if the notecard is 20 cm from the
lightsource?
Research Question: How does the distance a notecard is from the lightsource affect the size
of a shadow it casts?
Procedure

In order to figure out the answer to these questions, we held a flashlight 2 meters away from the wall and held it
at an 180 angle with the notecard. We then held a note card 50 cm away from the flashlight, holding it still by
attaching it with a paperclip to a movable gluestick stand. While measuring, we were careful not to measure any
shadow that did not belong to the note card. After this, we followed those exact steps five more times, keeping the
distance between the flashlight and the wall the same, but increasing the distance between the flashlight and the
note card each time by increments of 10 cm. in addition to this, we did two more trials in which the distance
between the notecard and the flashlight were 120 cm and then 180 cm.

Equation: y = 3,604,000/x2
Prediction: In order to predict the area of the shadow
with the notecard at a distance of 20 cm away from the
light source, we substituted 20 cm for x.
If x, otherwise known as distance, equals 20 cm
then,
y = 3,604,000/x2
y = 3,604,000/20 cm2
y = 9,010 cm2

The actual area of the shadow was

6,000
cm2, therefore our prediction was off by 3,010
cm2.