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.