What data should I take?

Question

What data and analysises should I lookfor when constructing and expieriment involving a catapult and water baloons filled with paint. the objective is to launch different size baloons with different masses at a canvas and taking down impact radius of the paint etc.. We are just observing what different things will effect the catapulting aof the baloons. What should I look for and research/report and any ideas or suggestions?

Answer 1

Neat project! Well, what are your results going to be? radius of the paint splatter? Maybe direction of the splatter (did it go in one direction or all directions evenly)? If it was unevenly distributed, maybe longest dimension and shortest dimension of the splatter. You might think of other things about the splatter that you want to measure, or you might notice something when you do it that looks interesting.
Now, what factors might affect this - you mention different-sized balloons, and different masses of balloon+paint. Are there any other factors about the balloon or balloon/paint combination that might affect the ballon flight and landing? How about the catapult? arm length? angle of the arm at release point? I'm not sure how many of these factors you could (or should) change - simpler data sets are easier to analyze.
Now for your hypotheses - what do you think will happen? Make a list of the possibilities, and how you could decide if each was wrong or possibly right. Have fun!