Jamal wants to know how fast his skateboard can roll down the ramp in front of his school. So, Jamal places the back of the skateboard even with the top of the ramp and times how long it takes before the front of the skateboard reaches the end of the ramp. After he records the time, he performs this procedure again four more times and calculates the average time. During his experiment, Jamal demonstrat
ed the scientific process by following these steps:
1. Identifying the problem: Jamal wants to know how fast his skateboard can roll down the ramp.
2. Formulating a hypothesis: Jamal might expect that the time it takes for the skateboard to reach the end of the ramp will be consistent and can be averaged to estimate its speed.
3. Designing an experiment: Jamal places the back of the skateboard even with the top of the ramp and records the time it takes for the front of the skateboard to reach the end of the ramp. He repeats this process four more times to gather multiple data points.
4. Collecting data: Jamal records the time it takes for the skateboard to reach the end of the ramp for each of the five trials.
5. Analyzing data: Jamal calculates the average time by summing up the five recorded times and dividing the sum by 5.
6. Drawing conclusions: Based on the average time, Jamal can estimate the speed of his skateboard rolling down the ramp.
7. Communicating results: Jamal may share his results with others, discussing the average time and speed of his skateboard rolling down the ramp.