<p>@spect: that’s what I was thinking too…can anybody else confirm this?</p>
<p>There are now over a hundred replies to this Science thread… there better be a nice curve.</p>
<p>The curve will look like this:
-1 35
-2 34
-3 33
-4 32
-5 30
-6 29
-7 28
everything else will be like -7/-8 27 and so on</p>
<p>Hoping for a 34 then… Made an educated guess on 2 problems which is a potential -2, but could as well be -1, or even less likely, 0. Probably made some careless error(s) too.</p>
<p>did it strengthen scientist 3’s viewpoint but not prove it?</p>
<p>@ soph:
word for word in the intro, “kept at a constant air resistance and velocity.”
Definitely gravity because they went to different elevations and tested different horizontal platforms that were present at the school.</p>
<p>Change in gravity is negligible at that scale. Air resistance and velocity is not constant at the school because of wind etc…</p>
<p>So confused…someone confirm that the answer was air resistance…</p>
<p>There seems to be no consensus about the gravity question. I personally put gravity, though, for reasons explained on previous pages.</p>
<p>@runningpop
The change in gravity is definitely not negligible. On the other hand, air resistance will produce proportional results no matter where you go, as all of the balls will be affected by it in the exact same way. Also, air resistance can be both altered and easily taken into account in a lab setting, so I still see no reason for hiking up a mountain to change it.</p>
<p>And I don’t know how often wind plays a factor inside of a lab, my friend 
Besides, if they were doing this experiment outside, then there’d be wind in either place – probably even more at a higher altitude!</p>
<p>The gravity/air resistance question is terrible! It’s so skewed, I hope somehow it is factored out of grading.</p>
<p>Doesn’t the force of gravity remain the same regardless of the altitude? So confused…</p>
<p>@princess</p>
<p>Nah, Fg=(G<em>M</em>m)/r^2</p>
<p>As you get farther away from the center of the Earth (as “r” increases), Fg gets lower.</p>
<p>Woah. There’s no way I could’ve known that without taking AP Physics 
So the answer is gravity then?</p>
<p>Yes, gravity is the answer. It’s cute how people will defend their answers to the death just to prevent them for being called “wrong.” I read the intro, for the first time ever haha (luckily), and it said the velocity and air resis. was constant. The answer choice which was correct stated the different forces with gravity or something, and was the only logical answer assuming you skimmed the intro.</p>
<p>gravity, case closed.</p>
<p>hmmmm… I know that you are probably right, but I put air resistance. I thought that they were taking it to the lab, and it said that the lab had a monitored environment that kept conditions like humidity, pressure, and temperature constant. I put air resistance because I thought that they were trying to make sure that there was no error due to differing air resistance.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is going to change their opinion on the topic. I originally put gravity for all the reasons argued, and I did read the intro which said that the air resistance was kept constant, but I changed my answer because the question asked something about the fact that they changed location was to lower the air resistance. I remember the wording being a little tricky.
If the ACT science test is supposed to test science reasoning- not so much science knowledge- they wouldn’t expect the test taker to think so much in so much depth about the gravity and the passage mentioned the control of air pressure so…
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but there is no way to change it now. I think this is a matter of your intelligence over analyzing the question but I don’t know it…doesn’t matter now.</p>
<p>Seconded. Passive Voice.</p>
<p>first of all, when the question said air pressure was kept constant, it meant inside the lab room, meaning no wind. It did NOT mean that it was the same at the ground and at the high altitude. What would be the purpose of conducting a study like this at high altitude? Both gravity and air resistance decrease, but which one would they be interested in for the purpose of the experiment? I doubt they would want to minimize gravity, seeing as the purpose was to measure how far the balls would bounce up, and probably compare those figures using kinematics equations. They could simply recalculate gravity at that altitude, but air resistance is the factor that distorts kinematics equations. Therefore, in order to avoid that distortion, they would want less air resistance. Anyway, this question definitely should not have been on the ACT science… WAY too much outside knowledge. For someone not in AP physics, it would be way too difficult</p>
<p>
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<p>I hear what you’re saying, but minimizing air resistance makes little sense, either. It can easily be taken into account when analyzing data, and easily controlled (/limited) in a lab setting. </p>
<p>Also, air resistance will produce proportional results no matter what altitude you are at. It will both slow the descent and lessen the bounce back height (the same was a gravity), and will do so equally and proportionally for all balls at all heights.</p>
<p>Again, let’s all hope that this question is thrown out, or the curve is really nice!</p>
<p>It’s gravity. I am in AP Physics and haven’t even touched upon the subject this year. I also haven’t been in a physics classroom since 10th grade. It doesn’t require any outside knowledge… distance is a clear factor in gravitational force.</p>