Rat Race Lab Report (BUG)

1) Procedures:
   1. First cut out some checkered background paper.
   2. Then glue it into a cardboard box.
   3. Put the mechanical cockroach in the box, and turn it on.
   4. Start videoing the cockroach for about half a minute.
   5. when your done, upload the video onto your computer. (save it somewhere)
   6. Then go to the Tracker program that has been installed on your computer.
   7. Start figuring out the horizontal and vertical movements by using the frame by frame button. (each movement of the cockroach is when it goes from one square to the next square)
   8. When you have about 15 different frames, add all the horizontal numbers together to get a distance.
   9. Next use the ABS formula to get the displacement of the horizontal movements.
  10. Repeat steps8 and 8 to get the vertical distance and displacement.
  11. Record all of the data
  12. Place all of this data into a google document spreadsheet.
  13. Organize it so that it is understandable.
2) Data Table
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvlV7BLF_xR5dGpxYjh4YzBWUE0yeTZqX3IwNHYyUmc&hl=en_US
3) SKIP FOR NOW
4) Conclusions
     I learned that to get the displacement of the cockroach, you must first figure out the distance that he traveled. In order to get the displacement, your distance of the cockroach must be correct. To get the horizontal distance, you must add all the horizontal movements together. You also have to do the same for the vertical movements. I learned how to tie all of this data into different formulas to get the correct information. I learned how to use the absolute value formula in order to get my displacement of the cockroach. The first time my group and I were recording the data, we accidently wrote down the wrong number for our distance, which means our displacement would be wrong as well. With this being wrong, it would have messed the whole project up. We had to be careful when recording the data and double check our work. Using this cockroach experiment can be applied to determining the average range of a typical cockroach. You can also use this information to help control the pest invasion of cockroaches.