Chapter 1
Relationships
Project 1: Be a Pedometer
About this project
The purpose of this activity is threefold:
- to practice creating mathematical models of real data,
- to explore the relationship between speed and acceleration,
- and to meet some other people in your class! (If you're studying calculus without the traditional class setting, gather some friends to help — you can't do this project by yourself.)
Part I – Data Collection
To begin, you will need to be in a group of three or four people. Each group will need one stopwatch.
Next, each group should choose one person to be the Walker, one to be the Timer, and one to be the Recorder. If your group has four people, the fourth will be the Observer. The whole class should go to the selected Walking Place, and the fun begins! Before you go, click the link below and print your instructions and data collection sheets so you can take them along.
To get the proper things on the proper pages when you print, check File/Page Setup in your browser, and set Portrait orientation, 0.2 inch left and right margins, and 0.5 inch top and bottom margins.
Part II – Modeling
Choose one set of your group’s data from the first activity and plot it on graph paper. Be sure to label your axes and give your graph a title!
- What kind of equation might fit the data reasonably well? Find such an equation and add a picture of it to your graph.
- Was the Walker who generated these data successful in his or her attempt to walk at a constant speed? Explain.
Repeat these exercises with another of the sets of data your group collected.
Now choose one of the sets of data your group collected in the second activity and graph it on graph paper.
- Will the same kind of equation fit these data as fit the data from the first activity? If so, find one. If not, what kind of equation might fit?
- Did the Walker who generated these data accelerate? Explain.
