Data analysis for experimental EE

[Guest]

As the title says, I have a question regarding the data analysis for the data collected in my physics extended essay.

I recently finished my experiment, so I tried to write the analysis of that data. But then when it comes to writing it, I noticed, my analysis being too easy (like superficial). To be specific, I made few graphs to present my data, and what I did in my analysis part was to explain it, something like "at t=6, the graph shows a rapid increase".

My concern is that I keep on explaining stuffs thats already understandable from graphs and tables that I made, and doesn't look like I'm thinking a lot. I've researched some physics phenomena that may be affecting the result, although I'm not sure if they are, and thought of doing some calculations to connect them with my data. But then I started feeling like that was something I should've done before, like in the hypothesis section. I'm not even sure if I need a hypothesis, so I'm really confused.

I know its best I talk to my supervisor about this, but she's not so helpful, so if anyone can help me with this, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

[Emmi]

It's hard to tell what you're missing and how superficial you may (or may not be) without seeing your actual data. Nevertheless, some things you may want to do regarding data analysis may be:

- Perform theoretical calculations and compare this to your experimental data. Calculate error percentages and discuss why you did or didn't get the expected results. Answer questions like "Did anything unusual happen during the experiment that might explain this data?"

- Perform a full error propagation for your data. High amounts of error may explain weird results, and alternatively, low amounts of error can help support a theory that you think might be happening or give merit to your predictions.

- Perform some sort of statistical analysis or regression. Do you have any outlying data points or other weird things going on with your data? What might have caused this?

You should always be asking yourself "So what? What does my data MEAN? What am I seeing, why is it happening, and how does this support (or not support) the theory?" If you aren't doing that, then your analysis probably is a little superficial.

Regarding your hypothesis question, you don't necessarily need to have a "If I change X, then Y will do Z because of Q" statement written early in your essay, but you should have in mind what effect(s) you think will be observed based on what you're manipulating with some amount of reason behind it, and this should be stated somewhere in the beginning.