Week 4 Workshop: Two knobs, one lab

Hands-on time with the Gravity Lab's sliders, building the habit of reading the trial log instead of the sliders when you report a number.

17 March 2027

Preparation#

Complete the week 4 lecture task before this session — bring your two-gravity table with you.

Activity#

1. In pairs, agree on a launch speed to hold fixed. Each person independently picks a different pair of gravity values and runs three trials at each.
2. Compare tables. If your airtime numbers moved in opposite directions from what the other person expected, figure out why before assuming a mistake — check the trial log’s snapshotted values first, since a slider dragged mid-air would explain a mismatch without either of you having made an error.
3. As a pair, write one sentence predicting what would happen to airtime if you doubled gravity and doubled launch speed at the same time, then test it. This previews the kind of single-variable-at-a-time discipline week 10 covers formally.

Output#

Your two-gravity trial table (four-plus trials), the averages, and the one-sentence prediction-versus-result note from step 3.

Criteria#

Not marked. Your tutor will check that your reported values match the trial log’s snapshotted numbers, not the slider positions at the moment you wrote them down — this is the same reproducibility check that carries into Take Control, due week 6.