My Experiment: The Aluminum Raft

Today, I did an experiment to see how many pennies a small aluminum foil raft I made could hold without sinking.

At first, my hypothesis was that the raft would hold three pennies.

The manipulated variable was the weight of each thing that I put in the raft (not only pennies).

The respondent variable was the number of things I put in the raft.

This experiment was a controlled experiment because I can control how many things I put in the raft.

In the end, the raft held at least twenty-five pennies, dimes, nickels, and quarters and three mandarins.

I think that the tall edges of my raft helped keep all the pennies in and the water out.

The aluminum foil was very light and quite rigid, so I think that helped it not sink even with all that weight on it.

My hypothesis was refuted because the raft held many, many, more objects than just three pennies.

If I preformed this experiment again, I might make the edges taller and the boat bigger.

This experiment might prove useful for oceanography to help boats hold more cargo and be safer.