Sophia Smith, Cate Shepard, Lucia Claire

Popper Lab Write Up

Introduction
The purpose of this lab was to accuratly measure pop force. Newton’s second law,
Σ𝐹 = 𝑚𝑎, was used, as well as the equation for kinematics without time:
2
𝑉 = 𝑉 0
+ 2𝑎 (𝑌 − 𝑌0). We met the course domains of Analyzing and Interpreting

Data by using appropriate mathematics to analyze data in order to answer applicable

research objectives, and we used Mathematics and Computational Thinking by
identifying and transcribing appropriate physics equations as they apply to a given
situation, and identifying and substituting values for individual variables.

Variables
The independent variable was how we launched the popper. This affected the dependent
variable, how high it launched. We then measured the height to find the pop force. The
constants were that we used the same popper in the same space the whole time. And we had
the same phone and tape measure to measure the height for the whole time.

Hypothesis
What is the amount of force required for our confused pop-it to pop up relatively high? We
thought that the pop-it needed enough force to counteract the gravity, so natural force and a
force push which would propel it into the air.

Materials
- One tape measure
- A Pop it (we used 47 gram one with a confused face)
- One iphone with a working camera to collect data

Procedure

1. Accurately attach a tape measure to the wall

2. In front of the tape measure, one person should sit with your popper and one person
needs to video tape you
3. Push the top of the popper down perpendicular to the ground with both hands
4. Release the popper up, pulling your fingers to the sides
5. Make sure the popper doesn’t hit anything on the way up, specifically your head
6. Center the camera around 50 cm so the max height of the popper will be accurately
recorded.

Picture of recording Setup:

Sophia Smith, Cate Shepard, Lucia Claire

One person (Lucia) is popping the popper on the ground in front of the blue tape on the wall.
While another person (Sophia) is recording.

Data and Analysis

Popper lab-Sophia, Cate, Lucia
Sophia Smith, Cate Shepard, Lucia Claire

Error Analysis
We got an average of 1.44775 newtons for the pop force. We trust the data since the equations
we used are mathematically sound and we got a 8 different pops to take data from. From the
videos we measured the heights by sight, which is not the most reliable method but it resulted in
a fairly consistent height with a range of 24 centimeters. We minimized error not by having the
same person pop the popper, but by letting everyone take their time a practice until they felt
they made pops they were proud of. Since we had the time and mindset to record the best pops
we got great data which showed off the popper’s ability to pop. I can confidently say that the pop
force of a popper is around 1.45 newtons.

Conclusion
We did accurately find the pop force fo the popper, proving our hypothesis. It was 1.45 newtons,
which was the average pop force that we calculated from the data we measured. Our
hypothesis was correct. The pop force greatly outnumbered the force of gravity on the popper.