Winter Experiment Project #3

Blog Entry 3 (Complete by 12/19):  Reflect on the experiment; how well did you follow the principles of a well-designed experiment, what did you learn from conducting the experiment (not your conclusions, but what did you learn about conducting an experiment), and were there any interesting revelations about this experience?

When looking back on my group's experiment I believe we did a pretty good job at following the four principals of a well designed experiment. We controlled the experiment well, we used the same water, the same milk, the same measuring tools, the same environment, and the same weight scale. However, what would have helped our experiment is if one person did the entire process, this would have reduced the possible errors because each of us poured liquids onto the toilet paper differently. Our treatments were also randomized, for the liquids we simply scooped/poured the desired amount of liquid into the measuring tool and went on with the experiment. I believe we did an excellent job in the field of replication. We produced three trials for each category of toilet paper and averaged the results, this not only gave us a true average, but used replication. We used a lot of blocking and factors. Once we had the three types of toilet paper decided we created several blocking groups including: water, milk, and large amounts of liquids.

The most important thing I took away from this experience is that it is important to create several blocking groups and factors, as well as randomizing to get the best results. The reason you need blocking groups is so that each group of subjects is tested in that category, it also allows for more data to be found, which can lead to more detailed conclusions. I also know now it is very important to randomize, this is because without it the results may be skewed due to unequal treatments. In future experiments both in and out of the classroom I will take special note to use these principals.

Something I learned from this experiment is that from now on I will definitely continue to use Northern Quilted Soft toilet paper. Through our experiment this toilet paper overall was the best, which was surprising considering the more expensive and highly advertised Charmin was involved in the study. This proves that what is more expensive is not always better. 

Winter Experiment Project #2

Blog Entry 2 (Complete by 12/14):  Give a report summarizing the data you collected from the experiment and the conclusions you can draw from the data collected.

Jacob Carson

This experiment tested for three separate, but similar, variable. Different types of toilet paper did better in some of the categories than their competitors. Overall the best toilet paper at soaking up water was Northern Quilted Soft; its average water soakage was the highest, at 4.10grams (Angel Soft- 3.00grams  Charmin- 3.95grams). The best toilet paper at absorbing milk was Angel Soft, this is because its average soakage was, 3.25grams (Northern Quilted Soft- 3.16grams  Charmin- 3.22grams ). When it came to absorbing large amounts of liquids Northern Quilted Soft was the victor, its average soakage of large amounts was 4.67grams (Angel Soft- 3.63grams  Charmin- 4.45grams ). In conclusion, the clear victor was North Quilted Soft toilet paper; this is because it won two out of the three variables. I was surprised to see that the Charmin didn't win any of the variables. Charmin advertises its product very well, and it is also expensive, this lead to a false conclusion that Charmin was the best kind of toilet paper out of the three; it showed that in order to learn what product is the best you need to conduct a balanced experiment.




Results:

Northern Quilted Soft

	One Ply-0.5g	Two Ply-1.0g
1/2 tsp water average	2.67g	3g
trial one trial two trial three	3g 3g 2g	4g 2g 3g
tsp water average	4.67g	6g
trial one trial two trial three	4g 4g 5g	6g 7g 5g
1/2 tsp milk average	2g	2.67g
trial one trial two trial three	2g 2g 2g	3g 2g 2g
tsp milk average	3.67g	4.33g
trial one trial two trial three	3g 4g 3g	5g 3g 5g

Angel Soft

	One Ply-0.5g	Two Ply-1.0g
1/2 tsp water average	2g	2.5g
trial one trial two trial three	2g 2g 2g	4g 2g 3g
tsp water average	3g	4.5g
trial one trial two trial three	3g 4g 2g	6g 7g 5g
1/2 tsp milk average	3g	3g
trial one trial two trial three	3g 3g 3g	3g 2g 2g
tsp milk average	3.5g	3.5g
trial one trial two trial three	3.5g 3.5g 3.5g	5g 3g 5g

Charmin Toilet Paper Brand

	One Ply-0.5g	Two Ply-1.0g
1/2 tsp water average	1.83g	4.03g
trial one trial two trial three	1.4g 2.1g 2.0g	4.1g 4.1g 3.9g
tsp water average	4.6g	5.33g
trial one trial two trial three	4.3g 4.4g 5.1g	4.7g 6.0g 5.3g
1/2 tsp milk average	2.87g	2.13g
trial one trial two trial three	3.1g 2.8g 2.7g	1.9g 2.3g 2.2g
tsp milk average	4.03g	3.83g
trial one trial two trial three	4.1g 3.9g 4.1g	3.9g 4.0g 3.6g

Winter Experiment Project Blog #1

Blog Entry 1 (Complete by 12/3):  Explain your experiment.  Be sure to include the following:

• ·         You goal for the experiment.
• ·         How you will use the 4 Principles of a Well-Designed Experiment.
• ·         A description of your factors, levels, and treatments.
• ·         A timeline for your experiment.

Our goal for our experiment is to test how generic toilet paper compares to name brand toilet paper. 

Control-- we will control the type of liquids used, the setting, who does the pouring the the liquids, the scale used to measure the amount of liquid absorbed.

Randomize-- we will randomly choose pieces of toilet paper by assigning values to pieces of toilet paper and using a random number generator.

Replicate-- we will use multiple trials, and write down all the steps so that it can be repeated by others.

Blocking-- we will blocking by using different values of liquid, different liquids and different numbers of sheets.

Factors-- volume of water used, volume of juice used, and number of sheets used.

Levels-- we will use tap water, and pulpy orange juice as our liquids. Then we will use two different volumes of liquids (to be announced). Number of sheets will differ from one to two sheets.

Treatments-- our treatments will be using different liquids, while our blocking and factors were different sheets, our treatments will involve water, and a thicker liquid, orange juice.

Timeline-- Unlike other experiments our experiment will only take place during one day. However, the sequence of events will be randomly select sheets of toilet paper... in groups of one and two. Then we will do complete all of the water trials, for both groups of sheets. Then we will complete this for the orange juice. We will weigh the initial sheets, then pour the liquid on and see how much liquid the sheet absorbed.