InterActions in Physical Science

Activity 1
Measurements in Science

Chapter Purpose

Scientists try to understand how the world works. First, they may develop an idea about how something works. Then they do experiments to test their idea. Finally, they use the results of the experiments to draw conclusions about their idea. In this chapter, you will learn how to determine if a conclusion is good. The key question for the chapter is:

How can you tell if the conclusion from an experiment is valid?

Record the chapter key question on your record sheet.

Activity Purpose

When scientists do experiments they make lots of careful measurements. Therefore, it is important that their measurements are as accurate as possible. The purpose of this activity is for you to think about making measurements and how to interpret the values you obtain. Here is the key question for this activity.

When you measure something, can you obtain an exact value?

Pencil Record the key question for the activity on your record sheet.

The skill you will be working on in this activity is Be Aware of & Monitor Your Own Thinking. To practice this skill, you will write down your ideas on your record sheet.

I Think

A pendulum is something hanging from a fixed point. It could be a ball or washer tied to the end of a string. When the pendulum is pulled back and let go, it swings back and forth. Many large clocks have pendulums.