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Lesson: Experimental Measurements Physics

In this lesson, we will learn how to recognize types of experimental variables and to understand how variables are used in performing experiments.

Lesson Plan

Students will be able to

define terms related to measurements used in experiments such as quantity, value, variable, constant, universal constant, independent variable, dependent variable, and (un)controlled variable,
understand that a constant that is not a universal constant is effectively a controlled variable except that the experimenter did not actively control the variable and just measured it to ensure its constancy (or even just assumed its constancy),
explain the purpose of experiments as tests of predictions,
explain the usefulness of repeating or replicating experiments in identifying anomalous measurements.

Lesson Video

Lesson Worksheet

Q1:

Which of the following statements most correctly describes the purpose of performing an experiment?

Q2:

Which of the following statements does not correctly describe why repeating an experiment many times produces more reliable results than a single performance of the experiment?

Q3:

Some experimental variables cannot be controlled and may change in ways that cannot be effectively measured or predicted. One or more of the following statements correctly describes how to perform experimental measurements when unknown uncontrollable variables exist. Which statements are correct?

Allow all variables except the independent variable to be dependent variables.
Repeat the experiment many times and average the results.
Repeat the experiment without changing the value of the independent variable and compare the result of the experiment to the result when the value of the independent variable was changed.
Repeat the experiment many times and retain only the results that are consistent with the predictions of the experiment’s hypothesis.
Repeat the experiment many times and reject any very anomalous results.