Graphing volumes

Physics of the Mundane

Adam Johnston

 

This activity is meant to give you some hands-on experience at not only collecting data, but analyzing it in a graphical manner.  It turns out that graphs are more than a way to store information; they can actually help you to produce more meaning from your data.

You have some water, some rulers, and a variety of containers, as well as one calibrated container that can measure volume.  You are going to collect and graph data that relates the:

1. the height to which a liquid fills a container (from the ground/table), and
2. the volume of water in the container.

For at least three different containers, create a graph (paper is attached for this) of height (in cm; on the horizontal axis) versus volume (in ml; on the vertical axis).  Make sure that you collect enough data so that you can see the details of any trends in your data.  After creating these three graphs with your research team, consider the following questions:

1. Explain the differences in your graphs.  Why (in your own words) do they look the way they do?
2. What does the “slope” or shape of a graph tell you?  Explain.
3. Imagine that you had a spherical flask being filled.  What would the graph of height versus volume look like in this case?
4. If you had the following graph, what would you expect the container to look like?