Purpose: In this experiment, Scientific AmeriKen will examine what has the greater influence on the height several stacked objects can reach before it topples over. Three factors that will be examined are total surface area, shortest side length and average side length.

Hypothesis: It is the hypothesis of this experiment that the deciding component of object size is the shortest side of the object as objects will have an increased chance of toppling over along the short side as it offers less support.

Equipment: Used in this experiment was a Jenga^® game, pen, paper, calculator, and ruler.

Procedure: The first step is to measure the dimensions of the Jenga^® block. Essentially the experiment is performed by stacking the blocks as high as possible. Measuring the length and width of the base of the stack will give surface area by which the stack stands. Measuring the height of one block and multiplying by the number of blocks stacked will suffice in measuring height. The Jenga^® block has different measurements for its length, width, and height so that by rotating which side the block sits on will create varying amounts. Record results from different surface area/height test and compare.

Results: The experiment yielding the following
 

Experiment	Length	Width	Height	Surface Area	Blocks used	Total Height
Exp 1a	75 mm	14 mm	25 mm	1050 mm²	15	375 mm
Exp 1b	75 mm	14 mm	25 mm	1050 mm²	16	400 mm
Exp 1c	75 mm	14 mm	25 mm	1050 mm²	14	350 mm
Exp 2a	75 mm	25 mm	14 mm	1875 mm²	24	336 mm
Exp 2b	75 mm	25 mm	14 mm	1875 mm²	30	420 mm
Exp 2c	75 mm	25 mm	14 mm	1875 mm²	32	448 mm
Exp 3a	25 mm	14 mm	75 mm	350 mm²	8	600 mm
Exp 3b	25 mm	14 mm	75 mm	350 mm²	9	675 mm
Exp 3c	25 mm	14 mm	75 mm	350 mm²	7	525 mm

Experiment	Ave. Total Height (H)	Surface  Area (A)	Ave. Side Length (AS)	Shortest Side Length (SS)	H/A	H/SS	H/AS
Experiment 1	375 mm	1050 mm²	44.5 mm	14 mm	.38 mm/mm²	26.8 mm/mm	8.40 mm/mm
Experiment 2	401 mm	1875 mm²	50 mm	25 mm	.21 mm/mm²	16.0 mm/mm	8.02 mm/mm
Experiment 3	600 mm	350 mm²	19.5 mm	14 mm	1.71 mm/mm²	42.9 mm/mm	30.8 mm/mm

Conclusion: The results demonstrate that surface area is inversely proportional to an objects maximum height and stability. In other words greater surface area decreases maximum height. Because this obviously does not seem right, other factors must be at work in deciding total height. If we look at the column which examines the influence of the shortest side (H/SS), we find that its numbers inversely reflect surface area. This means that the shortest side has a large influence in dictating structure stability. However, because experiments 1 and 3 had the same height, however not the same H/SS values, then it is apparent that this is not the only factor. The most telling column is H/AS which demonstrates that structures seem to gain in stability when the difference between the size of the sides is small.  One factor which may have influence in this experiment is the fact that in experiment 3, only 8 blocks were stacked while in experiments 1 and 2, 20 to 30 blocks were stacked. Error in stacking may have caused the objects to topple sooner, then in experiment 3 where the chance of this error is less. Small details aside, it is shown in this experiment that the hypothesis was shown wrong, and the deciding factor seems to be difference between the length of one side verse the other. In other words, stacking more "square" objects will obtain more height then stacking rectangles.

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