Force Of Friction Lab Report

In this investigation three different variables were tested to determine their effect on the force of friction. All throughout the lab it was important to record the data found to identify how much the three variables affected the force of friction. The purpose of the first part of the lab, 4.1 What a Drag!, was to measure the force required to pull a block over five different surfaces. The sliding surfaces used in the lab were the tabletop, waxed paper, paper towel, fine sandpaper, and coarse sandpaper. The purpose of the second lab, 4.2 Changing The Load, was to add mass to the block each time it was pulled over a surface and record the data on a table in the lab packet. The purpose of the third, and final part of the lab, was to increase
Like stated in the first paragraph the lab, 4.1 What a Drag, was meant to measure the force required to pull a block over five surfaces and then construct a graph showing the average values for each surface. During the lab, 4.1 What a Drag, it was also required to pull the block over the same surface area four times (trials) and then average all of the data together. For example, when the tabletop was tested for trials one, two, three, and four it took one newton to pull the block across the surface so when the data was averaged it was equal to one newton since 1+1+1+1=4 and then 44=1. Since the tabletop and the coarse sandpaper are clearly different in roughness there was a gap between the amount of force required to pull a block over them. The average force required to pull a block over
For each surface area there was three trials and a number of blocks needed to be tested. First it was mandatory to record the data found from dragging one block across one of the surface areas three times. Then it was required to record the data found from dragging two blocks across one of the surfaces given three times. It was essential to repeat this process over and over again until the data found from dragging three and four blocks across one of the surfaces is completed in the table. Then the data collected must be averaged with someone else’s data. For example, all of block one's data is one newton and all of the other person's data is one newton for when they drag one block across a surface area three times. So the average force used to pull a block across a surface area would be one newton and the average force used to pull a block across a surface area would vary as the mass of the block