Sources of Error
There were two major noticeable sources of error present in this experiment. The first was that the marks didn’t precisely match distance traveled. Although that could be accounted for to some degree through re calibration and confirmable through personal measurements, it still nonetheless added a degree of variance and uncertainty when evaluating the data directly off the AEV. The second source of error was the track itself. Although we attempted to control which track we were using, we weren’t the only ones using the track and its likely that something occurred to the track to explain a moderately drastic decrease in friction observed on our final trial. As the other trials were consistent with one another, this final data point was excluded when determining the average, though when presenting both the adjusted and non adjusted mean were provided as results.
Recommendations for this experiment in the future
The Matlab AEV Analysis tool proved to have some complications that made initial data retrieval difficult. When multiple files of data are loaded into the analysis tool and one is selected to view the actual data points, opposed to simply viewing it on the graph, it disregards the user choice and instead simply brings up the first file loaded. The solution to this is to unload all files as soon as you’re done with them so that the only file loaded is the file whose data is desired.
Figure.1 A sample run in the energy efficiency test.
