Water Clock Experiment Recording Sheet

Water Clock Experiment Recording Sheet ajlill Sun, 12/07/2008 - 14:57
Grade 5
Math
Science

Name: __________________________________

Purpose

To investigate the relationship between the height of water in a container and how fast if flows out.

Material

  1. Prepared Water bottle with hole
  2. Graduated cylinder
  3. Ruler
  4. Stopwatch or Wall clock with second hand

Instructions

Repeat the following steps with the bottle starting with different water levels in the bottle. For example, nearly full, half full, and nearly empty. Collect additional data for other water levels as time permits. The more data the better.

  1. Place your finger over the hole in the bottom of the bottle and pour water in it.
  2. Keeping your finger over the hole, set the bottle on the edge of a level surface and measure the height of the water from the bottom on the bottle. Record this data.
  3. Place the graduated cylinder on a level surface so that it will collect the water that runs out of the hole in the bottle and you can see when the water reaches the 100ml mark. Make sure the cylinder is empty before you start.
  4. Hold the bottle upright over the cylinder.
  5. If you are using a stopwatch, start it when you take your finger off the hole, and stop it when the water reaches the 100ml line in the cylinder. Record this as the elapsed time. You do not have to fill in the start and stop time.
  6. If you are using a wall clock, record the time when you take your finger off of the hole, as well as the time when the water reaches the 100ml line in the cylinder, then calculate the elapsed time.

Ruberic (Formative)

Level 4: with thorough detail and accuracy completes the experiment report
Level 3: with considerable detail and accuracy completes the experiment report
Level 2: with some detail and accuracy completes the experiment report
Level 1: with little detail and accuracy completes the experiment report

Observations

Trial Water Level Start time End time Elapsed time
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Analysis

Create a scatter plot of water height versus time for 100ml to flow out of the bottle. What can you conclude from this experiment (Hint: Look a the purpose).

Application

What does this relationship mean for a simple water clock?

How would you change the design of a water clock to account for this relationship?