Let+go+of+my+Lego!

Group Members: Grace and Elizabeth Period 3 Overall Goal: Analyze the breakability of Lego's in three separate experiments, with different heights, masses, and arrangements.

Experiment One: Heights Goal: Determine at what height four legos arranged in a square breaks. Materials: 4 Legos Meter stick Procedure: 1. Arrange legos as follows: 2. Drop legos onto the table from different heights, starting low and getting higher, recording the height at which dropped, and weather the arrangement broke or not. 3. When you reach a height where the lego arrangement breaks, record the height at which it broke.

Data Table: (cm) || did it break? (yes/no) ||
 * height dropped
 * 10 || no ||
 * 20 || no ||
 * 30 || no ||
 * 40 || no ||
 * 50 || yes ||

Experiment Two: Masses Goal: Determine whether the mass of a lego arrangement matters in breakability when dropped from previous height Materials: 10 legos Meter stick Scale Knowledge of height at which four legos break, from previous experiment Procedure: 1. Arrange legos as follows: 2. Measure the mass of this arrangement using the scale, and record in data table 3. Drop lego arrangement from 30 cm. 4. Add one lego to the arrangement, directly on top of the red lego. Measure this arrangement’s mass using the scale, and record in data table. 5. Drop lego arrangement from the same height, and observe if lego arrangement has broken or not. Record this information in data table. 6. Repeat step three-five, adding one more lego to arrangement each time until a total of ten legos are on the arrangment (add six legos).

Data Table: on arrangement || New mass (g) || did it break? (Yes/no) ||
 * number of legos
 * 4 || 11 || no ||
 * 5 || 13 || no ||
 * 6 || 15 || yes ||
 * 7 || 17 || yes ||
 * 8 || 19 || yes ||

Experiment Three: Arrangement Goal: Determine whether the way legos are arranged affects the breakability of a lego arrangement Materials: 4 legos Meter stick Procedure: 1. Arrange legos as follows: 2. drop lego arrangement from 30 cm 3. Observe if legos have broken or not. Record this information in data table 4. Arrange legos as follows: 5. drop lego arrangement from same height. 6. Observe if legos have broken or not. Record this information in data table 7. Arrange legos as follows: 8. drop lego arrangement from same height. 9. Observe if legos have broken or not. Record this information in data table

Data Table:
 * arrangement # || does it break? (yes/no) ||
 * 1 || yes ||
 * 2 || yes ||
 * 3 || no ||

Conclusion/Observations: Height, mass, and arrangement affect the breakability of a Lego formation. We conducted three different experiments in order to determine this. With the first experiment, we concluded that the higher you drop a Lego formation, the more likely it is to break. We dropped the Lego arrangement from a height of 10, 20, 30, 40, and finally 50 cm, observing that after 50 cm, the arrangement broke. Any less than 50 cm, it would not break. This is because the longer distance it had to drop, the more the velocity increases, which causes the force of gravity to increase as well. Because the ground hits the Lego arrangement back with the same large force that the Legos hit it with, it causes it to break.

In the second experiment, we determined that the greater the mass of the Lego arrangement, the more likely it is to break. We collected date which concluded that the more Legos, or mass, we added on the formation, the more likely it was to break if dropped from a height of 30 cm. We used a scale to weigh the mass of each Lego that we added to the formation. The Lego arrangement itself weighed 11 grams. Each Lego we added weighed 2 grams. In the end, the arrangement weighed a total of 19 grams. After the arrangement weighed 15 grams, it broke. Every more massive formation after that broke as well. However, a formation any less than 15 grams would not break. This is because, according to Newton’s second law, mass multiplied by force of gravity equals weight force. The more mass we added to our Lego arrangement, the more weight force there was as well. This means that the more mass there was, the faster the acceleration, which results in a greater tendency to break.

In the final experiment, we determined that the more of a grip each Lego has on the other Legos, the less likely the arrangement is to break. We concluded this by dropping multiple Lego arrangements, each from 30 cm, with different amounts of grip. The first arrangement was only connected by a few attachments, the second by half, and finally the third was connected by all possible attachments. The first arrangement, dropped at 30 cm, broke easily. The second arrangement, also dropped from 30 cm, broke as well. However the final arrangement, dropped from 30 cm and connected by all attachments, did not break. This is because, as seen during the first trial, the mass is more spread out, and it will accelerate to the ground with the same force as if the bricks were attached as during the third trial. The Lego bricks will hit the ground individually (even though they are still attached). Because this force is greater than the force of if an individual Lego brick fell, it causes the arrangement to break. However, during the third trial, the bricks were arranged all together, and the mass was concentrated. The arrangement hit the ground with a force proportional to its mass. Therefore, it does not break

Sources of Error Many things in our experiment may have caused error in the outcome of our data. For example, human error. One source of human error is we cannot always drop a Lego at the exact same height each time. This may have caused a Lego arrangement to break when it would otherwise not have. Another source of human error is that we cannot be sure the Legos were attached the same way each time. Apart from this human error, the Legos cannot hit the ground the exact same way each time. This also may have caused an arrangement to break or not break when it otherwise would have done the opposite. We also did not do several trails for each experiment. All of these factors could have affected the end results of our experiment.