Science Assessment

A person wants to find out how to make the loudest sound when the bowling ball hits the pins. She and her friend decide to do an experiment. She rolls the ball toward the pins. Her friend measures the speed of the ball and the loudness of the sound. She records the data in the table below. Then she rolls the ball again.

1. If the speed of the ball during Try 2 is 15 miles per hour, how loud do you think the sound will be on the second try? Why?

A. The loudness will be less than 80 decibels. The faster the ball is rolling the less energy it can give to the air as sound when it hits the pins.

B. The loudness will be more than 80 decibels. The faster the ball is rolling the more energy it has and the more energy it can give to the air as sound when it hits the pins.

C. The loudness will be more than 80 decibels. The faster the ball is rolling, the more sound it will make, but the sound is not related to energy.

D. The loudness will be 80 decibels on the second try. The speed of the ball will not affect how loud the sound will be.

Next, the friends want to study the relationship between the speed of the bowling ball and the speed of the pins that are knocked down. They use one pin and an eight-pound bowling ball. They measure the speed of the ball right before it hits the pin and the speed of the pin right after it is hit. They roll the ball three separate times and record the data in the table below.

2a. What pattern do you notice in the data in the table above?

A. The faster the ball is moving before it hits the pin, the faster the pin will move after it is hit.

B. The faster the ball is moving before it hits the pin, the slower the pin will move after it is hit.

C. The pin's speed is not affected by how fast the ball is moving before it hits the pin.

2b. Which of the following explains the pattern you noticed in the data?

A. As the ball rolls, it uses energy. The faster the ball rolls, the more energy it uses. This causes less energy to be given to the pin when the ball hits it, which makes the pin move slower the faster the ball rolls.

B. The faster the ball rolls, the more energy it has. If the ball rolls faster, more energy will be given to the pin when the ball hits it. This will cause the pin to move faster the faster the ball rolls.

C. The energy the pin has after being hit by the ball comes from the person rolling the ball. So, the speed of the pin right after being hit depends on who rolls the ball not on how fast the ball is moving before it hits the pin.

D. The speed of the pin right after being hit depends on how hard the pin is hit not on how fast the ball is moving before it hits the pin.

3. The friends notice that the ball slows down after it hits the pin. Which of the following explains why the ball slows down after it hits the pins?

A. The ball slows down because it has less energy after it hits the pin. Energy is moved from the ball to the pin and the air when the ball hits the pin. The increase in motion of the pin and the sound are evidence that energy was moved.

B. The ball slows down because it has less energy after it hits the pin. Energy is moved only from the ball to the air when the ball hits the pin. The sound is evidence that energy was given to the air. The motion of the pin is not related to energy.

C. The ball slows down because it has less energy after it hits the pin. Energy is moved only from the ball to the pin when the ball hits it. The motion of the pin is evidence that energy was given to the pin. The sound is not related to energy.

D. The ball slows down because it has less force after it hits the pin. A force, not energy, is moved from the ball to the pin when the ball hits the pin. This force is changed into energy. The increase in motion of the pin and the sound are evidence that the force was changed into energy.