Determining The Ratio Of Circumference To Diameter Of A Circle :: essays research papers

Determining the Ratio of Circumference to Dia measuring rod of a CircleIn determining the ratio of the circumference to the diameter I began by touchstone the diameter of one of the si objects which contained circles, thenusing a string, I wrapped the string around the circle and compared the lengthof the string, which measured the circumference, to a meter stick. With thismethod I measured all of the six circles. After I had this data, I went back andrechecked the circumference with a tape measure, which allowed me to make a muchaccurate measure of the objects circumferences by taking away some of the wrongful conductthat mymethod of using a string created.After I had the measurements I layed them out in a table. The objectsthat I measured were a small flask, a large flask, a tray from a scale, a rollof tape, a roll of paper towels, and a spraycan.By dividing the circumference of the circle by the diameter I was ableto calculate the experimental ratio, and I knew that the accepte d ratio was pi.Then I prescribe both ratios in the chart.By subtracting the accepted ratio from the experimental you find theerror. Error is the deviation of the experimental ratio from the accepted ratio.After I had the error I could go on to find the percentage error. The equation Iused was, error divided by the accepted ratio times light speed. For example, if I tookthe error of the experimental ratio for the paper towels, which was 0.12. I tookthat and divided it by the accepted ratio giving me .03821651. Then I multipliedthat by 100 giving me about 3.14. Using these steps I found the percentage errorfor all of the objects measured.The next step was to graph the results. I was able to do this veryeasily with spreadsheet. I typed in all of my data and the computer gave me anice scatter block graph. I also made a graph by hand. I set up the scale bytaking the number of blocks up the side of my graph and dividing them by thenumber of blocks across. I placed my points on my hand d rawn graph. Once I didthis I drew a line of best representation because some of the points were off alittle bit due to error.By looking at my graph I can tell that these numbers are directlyproportional to each other. In this lab it was a good way to learn about error