Week 8 Lab Data Group 3: Measurement

The preparations for the lab this week began on Monday, a whole four days before the main lab would occur on Thursday. We began by tying knots into a 33 foot long rope, each 2.5 feet apart from each other. The total number of knots in the rope should have added up to 13. However, due to the amount of rope needed for each knot and the thickness of the rope, we ended up with 12 knots and we marked the final piece of our rope where the last knot would have gone. Since it was very close to the end of the rope, it did not cause any problems in our math. This rope could be used to create a right triangle by having students hold a certain number of knots in between each other. The first person would hold the first knot in the rope, at the zero point, the second would hold the fourth knot, the third person would hold the eighth knot, and the final person would also hold the thirteenth knot. This made a 3-4-5 triangle when the students pulled the rope taut and a right angle would be created at the second person. 

On Wednesday we began working with the rope to create a shape which had a certain area. We were supposed to create a shape that had an area of 75 sq ft, however due to a mistake in mental math, we ended up creating a shape that had an area 187.5 sq ft. For some reason our group had assumed that our triangle had an area of 15 sq ft and did our math based on that incorrect assumption, when each triangle actually had an area of 37.5 sq ft. Since we made that incorrect assumption, we believed that by making five triangles, we would have 75 sq ft. While we did the mental math incorrectly, it gave our group a chance to practice working together, which helped us prepare for the full lab on Thursday. 

The Thursday part of the lab had four different activities that we completed. The first activity was creating a Roman road using the Groma and only working in straight lines and 90 degree turns. Our final road was about 500 ft long and included two 90 degree turns. Throughout this section, we realized that while it worked to yell at your team members to have them be perfectly in a straight line, it would also make sense to use hand signals. We also realized that because of the weight distribution on the Groma, it always needed a second person to hold it steady, otherwise the line would not be straight. We also realized that once we had two points, we could continue to make a straight line without the Groma. 

Length of Initial Road	Length after First Turn	Length after Second Turn
81ft 7 in	45 ft	100 ft
60 ft 3 in		23 ft 7 in
48 ft 9 in		90 ft 7 in
		49 ft 7 in
Totals: 190 ft 7 in	45 ft	263 ft 9 in = 499 ft 4 in total

During the second part of the lab, we created an observation zone for soothayers. We created this shape by marking a spot in the middle and creating a straight line 20 ft out from the middle using the Groma. Once we had marked all four points at 90 degree angles from each other out from the center, we had three people hold the tape measure, with two standing at the points we’d already laid out, and the third pulled the tape measure taut at the corner. We made sure that the two people at the points were holding the end of the tape measure and the 40 ft point and had the third person hold it at 20 ft. We also eyeballed that the angle the third person made was about a 90 degree angle. Once we felt happy about the placement, we marked each corner. Once we completed the four squares, we sat and watched for birds; we saw none but heard many. 

Next we created the grid with the roads. This was the most time consuming part of the lab. We began by creating two parallel lines 20 ft apart from each other that were each 100 ft long. We put down flags at 0 ft, 20 ft, 25 ft, 45 ft, 55 ft, 75 ft, 80 ft, and 100 ft. We then used the two parallel lines to create the grid perpendicular to them. Using the two points from the parallel lines, we were able to continue the straight line and mark the points. We ended up with a 100 ft by 100 ft square with sixteen smaller 20 ft by 20 ft boxes, four 5 ft wide roads, and two 10 ft wide roads.

Finally we measured the area of the grassy area in front of Anderson. We first measured the rectangular area of the grass that did not include the curvy seating area. We found the length and width of this area to be 63 ft 4 in by 135 ft, leading the area to be 8,555 sq ft 3 sq in. Next we added the curvy seating area by measuring its length and the width at its widest point, which were 125 ft 11 in and 21 ft 6 in, and multiplying them together and then dividing it by 2, which gave an area of 1,353 sq ft 7 sq in. Then we subtracted the corners from the rectangular area. This gave us a final area of 9,781 sq ft 9 sq in.