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Is it okay to have failed results for chem IA


greentea06

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So my chem IA is about the ideal gas law, PV=nRT. While I needed to keep 'n' value constant, I failed to do so due to limited school equipment. As a result, neither increasing nor decreasing trend couldn't be found in the data collected. You know what I mean? so like for example, as the temperature increases, pressure should increase, right? but some part of the data agrees with the theory, while others do not, like this:

Volume       Pressure

10              100

20              93

30              95

40              101

50              96

(this data is fabricated to illustrate what I mean :) )

 

Is it okay to have completely screwed up data as long as I write a great evaluation or should I do the experiment again with better equipment?

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My teacher said (Biology though) that imperfect results are the best because you have more to evaluate. :D

But the problem is that my previous chem teacher, who left the school this year but supervised? my experiment, told me to do the experiment again with better equipment next year to get better results (though I thought I can just write my IA with the imperfect data). Since he left, I no longer feel I should do my IA again, and I think that my new teacher might allow me to just write the IA without doing a new experiment. Also, I kinda want to finish writing my chem IA during summer so I need an assurance that I can write my IA with the imperfect results!

Do you think it is still okay?

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I think you should use a simulation. Or if you wanna redo the experiment, that's fine too. Its true that perfect data doesn't mean scoring marks, but you need to show SOME trend. With this kinda data, you don't have a specific trend and that leaves almost nothing to write for evaluation. I mean, how do you plan on explaining those random increases and decreases in the pressure? Its fine if you have one or two misalignments but going against the theory (in this case a decrease in pressure with increase in temperature) is not advisable. So either redo the experiment or use a simulation (much faster and less stressful, btw, but make sure you have a good simulation).

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I think you should use a simulation. Or if you wanna redo the experiment, that's fine too. Its true that perfect data doesn't mean scoring marks, but you need to show SOME trend. With this kinda data, you don't have a specific trend and that leaves almost nothing to write for evaluation. I mean, how do you plan on explaining those random increases and decreases in the pressure? Its fine if you have one or two misalignments but going against the theory (in this case a decrease in pressure with increase in temperature) is not advisable. So either redo the experiment or use a simulation (much faster and less stressful, btw, but make sure you have a good simulation).

 

Thanks for your reply. What do you mean by simulation?

Also, if I can explain the random increases and decreases in the pressure, is it okay to continue writing the IA with that data? 

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I am not too sure about Chem IA but from what my biology teacher told me (which I will apply to chem as well)  

is to have at least 20 valid test results. And if you dont get 20, keep doing more until u get 20. Anomalous data would then be removed from your processed data which you can instead place inside the evaluation

(but be sure to mark the anomalous data in raw data table)

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  • 2 weeks later...

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