Papers I wrote for school

Cockroach Lab Report

 African Hissing Cockroach, Inertia, and Centrifugal Force.

Wyatt Gibbs and Daniel Anderson, February 1st 2016

Centrifugal force is an apparent force that acts outward on a body moving around a center, arising from the body's inertia. Inertia is a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force.

What affect does centrifugal have on African hissing cockroaches walking pattern?

Hypothesis: Centrifugal force will not have a direct effect on a cockroaches walking pattern. This is because The African hissing cockroaches do not have ear canals that contain the substances endolymph and cupula to bend hair fibers.

The independent variable is the rotation in which we spin the cockroaches. The dependent variable is the direction the cockroach walks. The control variables are the hamster ball used to spin the cockroaches and the duration of the rotation inside the hamster ball.

Materials: Hamster ball, paintbrush.

Experiment steps.

Place one cockroach in the hamster ball.

Close the hamster ball.

Place hamster ball in open area.

Spin the hamster ball in a clockwise rotation for 5 seconds

Immediately stop the hamster ball and take out cockroach.

Place cockroach un legs in open area.

Gently touch back of cockroach to make it move.

Record the direction in which the cockroach moves within 10 seconds.

Repeat steps 1-8 with 2 males and 2 females.

Repeat steps 1-9 but in a counterclockwise rotation.

Results and data:

Clockwise Males

Clockwise Females

Counterclockwise Males

Counterclockwise

Females

Didn't move after 10 seconds in any direction.

Moved 3" counterclockwise then stopped.

Moved 5" clockwise then stopped.

Didn't move after 10 seconds in any direction.

Moved 1" clockwise then stopped.

Didn't move after 10 seconds in any direction.

Moved 2" clockwise then 2" counterclockwise then stopped.

Moved 3" Counterclockwise

then stopped.

In conclusion What affect does centrifugal have on African hissing cockroaches walking pattern? Centrifugal force will not have a direct effect on a cockroaches walking pattern. This is because The African hissing cockroaches do not have ear canals that contain the substances endolymph and cupula to bend hair fibers. The results support the hypothesis that centrifugal forces have no affect on a hissing cockroaches walking pattern. These data and results show that the direction the cockroach was spun inside of the hamster ball has no correlation on the direction in which the cockroach walks. Three of the cockroaches didn't move at all. Only one that was spun clockwise walked clockwise and only two spun counter clockwise walked counter clockwise.