During the rocket ship lab, i was enlightened on the relationship between gravitational potential energy and elastic potential energy. After recording my data, i discovered that as the elastic potential energy went up, so did the gravitational potential energy. I know this because the more the rubber band is stretched, the more elastic potential energy there is. Therefore, as i increased the amount of stretch, the gravitational potential energy also increased. For example, when we stretched the rubber band to two centimeters, our gravitational potential energy was 2.943 millijoules. When we increased the stretch to three centimeters, the gravitational potential increased to 5.886 millijoules. Last, when we increased the stretch to four centimeters, the gravitational potential energy increased as well, to 11.772 millijoules. Because of my data, i can conclude that as the elastic potential energy increases so does the gravitational potential energy.
During our lab, the were a few possible errors that occurred. One possible error was the amount of stretch on the rubber band. Even the slightest amount of stretch alters the gravitational potential energy. Therefore if it was not a precise amount of pull each time, the gravitational potential energy became different. Another error is that we shot out rocket over a course of two days. Because we did it over two days, it was possible that we grabbed a different launcher on the second day. A different rubber band would create a different amount of elastic potential energy which would change the height. A different height would then change the gravitational potential energy. In conclusion, that is what the lab soaring straws taught me and how it could be improved.
