Jake McEvoy

Interactive Systems
Slot A
Ms. Mason
Partners: Cosimo F. and Katy K.
Penny Boat Lab

Background Information: The reason boats float is because of a property
called displacement. When a 10 lb. object is placed in water, 9.9 lbs. of water is
displaced. so long as it does not absorb water and become heavier, it will just
barely stay afloat. All boats float using this principle. Archimedes came up with
this principle after he got into his bath.

Steel is obviously much denser than water, so steel boats float through sheer
displacement. A steel boat's hull is made of heavy steel, but it contains within it a
lot of air, which is has negligible density. Therefore, if the net weight of the boat--
the steel hull plus everything contained in it, including the air--is less than that of
the water it displaces, it will float. Boat designers keep this in mind when
designing the hull of a boat. This is true even of wood boats, but especially for
steel boats.

The best way to make a simple one-floor boat is to cover as much surface area
as possible, minimizing the height of the walls.

Purpose: To demonstrate and learn the properties of buoyancy. This will be
tested by creating an aluminum foil boat that can carry the most pennies without
sinking.

Hypothesis: If an aluminum foil boat covers as much surface area as possible
with as little walls as possible, then it will hold 80 pennies because of weight
distribution.

Independent Variable: The shape of the boat.

Dependant Variable: How many pennies the boat will hold.

Materials:
6 x 6 Piece of aluminum foil
100+ Pennies
Large Bucket
Tap Water
Paper Towels

Procedures

Individual Boat
1. Took piece of Aluminum Foil
2. Did not crinkle any part of foil
3. Folded up the sides of the square Aluminum foil so there was 0.5 cm of wall.
4. Pinched the corners of the walled foil square so they stuck up.

Group Boat
1. Took Piece of Aluminum foil
2. Did not crinkle any part of foil
3. Folded up the square Aluminum foil there was 1.5 cm of wall
4. Folded the corners of the walled foil square, so was no hole in them for the
water to get in.

1. Placed penny boat in water filled tub
2. Carefully, in 3 second intervals, one by one, placed the pennies in boat.
3. Recorded Results when penny boat sunk

Results:

Individual Boat/Group Winning Boat



















This was Jakes individual boat, as well as the boat that
won in the group. It maximized surface area, but had very
small walls. This boat would have held up longer if the
walls had been a little bit higher, however, because the
water came in through the corners and over the walls
very fast. This boat held 60 Pennies.













































T h i s w a s t h e b o a t t h a t J a k e s g r o u p e n t e r e d i n t o
t h e f i n a l c l a s s c o m p e t i t i o n . I t l a r g e l y r e s e m b l e d
t h e g r o u p w i n n i n g b o a t , o n l y w i t h a f e w m i n o r
t w e a k s . T h e w a l l s w e r e r a i s e d a b o u t 0 . 5 c m i n
h e i g h t . A l s o , t h e c o r n e r s w e r e f o l d e d u p t i g h t e r
a n d h i g h e r , s o t h a t w a t e r c o u l d n t s e e p i n
t h r o u g h t h e s i d e s . T h i s c e r t a i n l y h e l p e d i n t h e
c l a s s c o m p e t i t i o n .

This was the boat entered into the class
competition by Group 6, it is also the boat
that that won the class competition. It
followed the idea of uitilizing a lot of surface
area, with as little walls as possible. Unlike
other groups, this group found the perfect
balance between the two, and therefore
won. This group also placed the pennies in
the perfect places, taking advantage of
weight distribution.



Boats in the Class Competition and How many Pennies they Held




Discussion

It was expected by most, that in this experiment, the penny boat with the
most amount of surface area on the water would be able to hold the most
pennies. This was partially right and partially wrong. While focusing so much on
the Surface area, others forgot that walls need to be somewhat high to keep
water from coming in too early. This was a problem in the group competitions,
but was fixed in the class competitions, with one exception, group 1. Group one
refrained from making the walls higher, and therefore faced the consequences.
The idea of a high surface area was expected because of the amount of
evidence in peoples background information leading to it.

The preliminary results of this experiment, being the individual group
competitions did not turn out as well as thought. However, the class competition
proved better results, with most people getting in the 80s, with a couple
exceptions, as shown above. This data supports the hypothesis, because the
boats with lots of surface area scored in the 80s, while the boats that relied
mainly on wall height fell short. Once again, addressed in the hypothesis, the
reason boats with a lot of surface area won is because of the amount of weight
distribution the boat is putting on the water.

Yes, the placement of the pennies in the boat affected the results. One
group placed all of the pennies in the middle of the boat, and it sunk much faster
than the group who placed the pennies along the outside with the same boat. If
all of the pennies are placed in the middle, the weight distribution will not be as
even, and the boat will just cave in through the middle.

If one would have to redesign the boat used for Jakes group, there
wouldnt be many changes. The walls would be made a little bit higher and the
Jake M. 60 Pennies
Cosimo F. 50 Pennies
Katy K. 33 Pennies
Group 1 (Rebecca, Will, Hunter) 66 Pennies
Group 2 (Ryan, Megan, Greg) 88 Pennies
Group 3 (Katy, Cosimo, Jake) 84 Pennies
Group 4 (Natalie, Sam, Durga) 74 Pennies
Group 5 (Antonia, John, Eva) 89 Pennies
Boats in Jakes Group and How Many Pennies they Held
corners of the boat would be pinched up even more to prevent water from
seeping in through the sides. The pennies would also be dried off more.

Conclusion:

The purpose of this lab was To demonstrate and learn the properties of
buoyancy. This will be tested by creating an aluminum foil boat that can carry the
most pennies without sinking. This purpose was achieved because more was
learned about the properties of buoyancy, and the participants of the experiment
learned what makes an object buoyant. The main finding of the lab was that
more surface area equals more weight distribution, which in turn, means a higher
chance of the boat staying afloat.

The procedure was very successful, and needed no rethinking throughout
the duration of the experiment. The aspects of the procedure that are most
descriptive are the instructions to creating the different the different penny boats.
There were no parts of the procedure that led to error.


I have completed this assignment in accordance with the NAHC

X Jake McEvoy