In class today we built boats and tried to see how many pennies we could fit inside it without it sinking.
Materials
- 1 piece of aluminum foil (20cm x 15cm)
- 1 piece of masking tape (15cm)
- 2 toothpicks
- 2 Marsh Mellows
Hypothesis:
If we put two toothpicks and a marsh mellow in the center of the boat then it will hold about 35 pennies because it has a better center of gravity.
Conclusion:
As it turns out the balance of our boat did not affect the outcome so I would say my hypothesis was partially rejected. I wouldn’t fully reject my hypothesis because there seemed to be some boats that wouldn’t stand up right and would almost instantly sink. However what seemed to matter the most with other groups was the height of the edges around the boat. With each penny the boat would sink more and more until eventually the water would flood in and pull the boat down. The higher borders seemed to help negate that.