Bright, Brighter, Brightest

Is it Bright, Brighter, or the Brightest? The purpose of this lab was to calculate the levels of light given off by a three level light bulb.

Bright, Brighter, Brightest Lab During this lab we used a variety of equipment. We used a three level light bulb, a photometer to measure the brightness, a stopwatch to measure the time between level on the light bulb, we also used our calculator with the BRIGHT program to analyze and record the data.

Bright, Brighter, Brightest Steps 1.) Our group prepared our calculator with the BRIGHT program. 2.) We read the instructions as we tested everything to make sure it worked. 3.) We turned off the lights in the room. 4.) We turned on the light bulb with three different settings, and recorded each setting on our calculator. 5.) We created a Greatest Integer graph with our data. “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, waiting for it.” - Terry Pratchett

Bright, Brighter, Brightest Graph Independent Variable= Time Greatest Integer Graph Dependent Variable = Brightness f(x)= |x| With each step, came a different light setting. As you can see, the brightness goes up as time goes up, but then it goes back to 0 where it started. .314 .211 Brightness and watts .115 2.546 4.630 6.929 8.681 9.838 Time in seconds

Bright, Brighter, Brightest f(x)=1.68[1/11966(x)]+0.00714 The low setting was turned on for 3 seconds, the medium setting for 6 seconds, and the high setting for 9 seconds. 4 5, and 6. Each light was on for 3 second intervals. The light was turned off from seconds 1-3, and 10. The ambient light (light already present in the room) reading was .00714.

Bright, Brighter, Brightest Graph Difference between ambient light and y- value Low: .115 Watts, Medium: .211 Watts, High: .314 Watts Ratios of light levels using information above High to Medium: 1.488 Watts, Medium to Low: 1.835 Watts, High to Low: 2.730 Watts Ratios for wattage on the bulb: High to Medium: (3:2) Watts Medium to Low: 2 Watts High to Low: 3 Watts

Bright, Brighter, Brightest In this experiment the coefficients could be altered in simple ways. In order to make the steps on our graph longer we would keep the light on a certain brightness for a longer period of time. If we wanted to change the distance between each step we would just change the brightness between each level on the bulb. The coefficients in this lab can be related to real world situations. For example, there was a 1.68 wattage difference between each level on the light bulb. This shows that the wattages on the light bulb may not always be exactly what is shown.

Bright, Brighter, Brightest Throughout this lab we encountered a few difficulties. One was the challenge of not gathering this data in a completely dark room. The room we set up the lab in did have 0.1 wattages of light present. This altered the data collected in a slight way. Due to this lab we learned that not all wattages for the light bulb are exactly what are displayed on it.