How Did The Catapult Launch The Marshmallow

The reason this experiment got those results is because of the way the catapult launched the marshmallow. The energy transferred from user to the ruler than the marshmallow is called kinetic energy. The meaning of kinetic energy is “energy which a body possesses by virtue of being in motion.” While when the marshmallow was stationary it had potential energy. The user transferred energy to the catapult then to the marshmallow which travelled across the room. Each launch the marshmallow was given a different amount of energy by the user. Even though this experiment used rubber bands they weren't used to help the launch marshmallow but keep it together. So that meant there was no elastic potential energy involved which could've insisted in this

This resulted in less energy getting transferred to the marshmallow and didn't make it travel a great distance. The second time the user gave the catapult a lot of energy because they hit it harder, so the marshmallow went further. The energy was just the right consistently not too hard so it would go up in the air but the gravitational potential energy pull it back down and not too soft so the kinetic didn't run out after a short distance. Gravitational Potential energy is energy stored because of its location above the ground. While in the last launch the user hit the catapult too hard and quick so instead of launching the marshmallow far, it went upwards wasting the kinetic energy going upwards. Marshmallow was launched up instead of across the room. The gravitational potential energy pushed the marshmallow towards the ground instead of across. The stored potential energy the marshmallow possess turned to kinetic energy and the force of gravity made the marshmallow’s kinetic energy stop shortly then it was pushed back to the

This was because there was no set spot where the marshmallow landed because of the way the catapult was built. If the marshmallow landed all in the same area the catapult would be called consistent but the catapult didn't so it was unpredictable. The distance the marshmallow landed away from the table depended on the way the user transfer the energy to the catapult. Too hard and the marshmallow would be launched up, too soft and it will run out of energy early but just the right amount resulted in the marshmallow travelling far. If the launches were done more than 3 times a pattern might have been uncovered or it could still mean the catapult launches the marshmallow in unpredictable patterns. This means the experiment wasn't reliable because the data didn't have a clear pattern. Without getting a clear pattern a reliable conclusion can't be made. If there were more launches instead of 3 there is a possibility a pattern could have been made. With only 3 launches done we cannot get a pattern and a reliable experiment and probably even if there was more than 3 there still wouldn't have been a pattern uncovered. The only reliable thing that can be dissected from this experiment is that the catapult didn't launch the marshmallow in a particular area. In every launch, the marshmallow landed in a different area in the room, not a consistent