Ava Devine, Sammy Shapiro, Briana Vasquez-peragine

B3
Polymer Lab/Strength of Plastic Bags

Purpose: Design an experiment to test the strength and re-usability of plastic bags

Materials:
- 3 Stop & Shop Bags - 3 Shoprite Bags
- Bucket - Ball Bearings (different
- Tape sizes)

Hypothesis: If ball bearings are placed in a shop and shop bag then it will hold more ball
bearings than the Shoprite bag because the bonds in the Stop & Shop bag are stronger than the
Shoprite bag.

Independent Variable: Ball Bearings

Dependent Variable: Plastic Bag

Constants: Same size of ball bearings, same plastic material, same placement of plastic bag
on the ring stand, same person putting the ball bearings into the plastic bag

Procedure:
1. Place a Shoprite bag on the top of a bucket. Secure the bag with duct tape
around the bucket. Make sure the plastic bag that is over the bucket is not on the seam,
it is on the actual plastic part. Make sure that the bag is duct taped to the bucket tightly
and not hanging loose.
2. Begin to place ball bearings onto the plastic bag.
3. Once the bag begins to sink into the bucket, when it starts to break, stop putting
ball bearings onto the plastic bag.
4. Once the bag breaks, count the number of ball bearings that were on top of the
bag
5. Record the data in the data table
6. Repeat steps 1-5 with a Stop & Shop bag
7. Then figure out the mass of the ball bearings
8. Multiply 7.2 grams (average weight of ball bearings) by the number of ball
bearings that were in each bag. Do this step for the Shoprite bag and the Stop & Shop
bag.
9. Once the math is done, record the data in the data table
10. Clean your work area once all steps are complete.

Data Table:
How does the amount of ball bearings affect the type of plastic bag?
Type of Bag: Amount of Ball Bearings Mass of Ball Bearings

Shoprite 4,211 30,319.2 grams

Stop & Shop 3,303 23,781.6 grams

Ava Devine, Sammy Shapiro, Briana Vasquez-peragine
B3
Polymer Lab/Strength of Plastic Bags

Graph:
Ava Devine, Sammy Shapiro, Briana Vasquez-peragine
B3
Polymer Lab/Strength of Plastic Bags

Analysis:
Based on the following data, it shows that the Shoprite bag is the strongest and the best
plastic bag. Even though the Stop & Shop bag and the Shoprite bag are made out of the same
material, the Stop & Shop bag is weaker than the Shoprite bag. The stronger bag held 4,211
ball bearings, which calculates to 30,319.2 grams. Meanwhile the Stop & Shop bag held 3,303
ball bearings, which adds up to become 23,781.6 grams. The data reveals that the Shoprite bag
was the best bag because it was able to hold more ball bearings and the bag took longer to
break. This shows that the Shoprite bag was a strong plastic bag.

Conclusion:
The objective was to test the strength of a Shoprite bag compared to a Stop & Shop bag.
The two bags were set up the same way. Then ball bearings were placed into both bags to see
how many ball bearings each bag could hold before breaking. The Shoprite bag had the most
ball bearings placed into it, 4,211. Which comes out to be 30,319.2 grams. The Stop & Shop
bag held 3,303 ball bearings and that was 23,781.6 grams. The data shows that the Shoprite
bag is stronger and can be used more than once unlike the Stop & Shop bag.
The hypothesis, If ball bearings are placed in a shop and shop bag then it will hold more
ball bearings than the Shoprite bag because the bonds in the Stop & Shop bag are stronger
than the Shoprite bag was invalid which was found out while conducting our experiment. Based
on the data we got from the experiment, the shoprite bag ended up holding more ball bearings
than the stop and shop bag. The Shoprite bag held 4,211 ball bearings compared to the Stop &
Shop bag which held 3,303 ball bearings. This shows the hypothesis was invalid because the
shoprite bag was stronger than the Stop & Shop plastic bag.
This experiment was tested on two different days. The first day, it was tested on a ring
stand and the ball bearings were placed one by one into a plastic bag. The results did not come
out as hoped causing the next class to try something different but with the same concept. When
the experiment was performed, it was not valid data because the experiment was not set up
correctly. The second day the experiment was planned out more and turned out to be valid.
Some improvements to make this experiment more valid could have been to add more trials.
Instead of doing one trial for each bag we could have done three trials. This would make our
data more accurate. Another way to improve the validity of this experiment is to have the same
people put the ball bearings in the Shoprite and Stop & Shop bag. In this experiment we had
different people put the ball bearings on the ShopRite bag and then different people putting the
ball bearings on the Stop & Shop bag. This could have an affect on the validity because the ball
bearings arent being placed the same way on each bag. For example, when someone is
placing the ball bearing on the bag they could be adding more pressure by pressing on the ball
bearings causing the bag to break or dropping the ball bearing onto the bag will also put more
pressure on the bag. Also the amount and speed that people are putting the ball bearings on the
plastic bag will affect the strength of the bag in the end. These are just some improvements to
be made to the experiment.
There were many errors throughout the experiment. One error was not having enough
ball bearings. There was a whole bucket filled with ball bearings but once all the groups started,
there were no more ball bearings left to use. This error was simply resolved when people that
had the same plastic bag joined together to make a bigger group. This allowed there to be more
Ava Devine, Sammy Shapiro, Briana Vasquez-peragine
B3
Polymer Lab/Strength of Plastic Bags

ball bearings available to each group. Another error in the experiment was that ball bearings
kept falling out of the plastic bag. This happened because the plastic bag was overflowing with
ball bearings. Every time someone put a few ball bearings on top some would fall off the sides
of the bucket. Once these ball bearings fell, they would be put right on top of the bag. This
causes the weight on the bag to shift causing it to have a harder time to break. Another error is
once the experiment was over, different people were counting the number of ball bearings in the
bag. Some people kept miss counting causing the total number of ball bearings to be off. These
are just some of the errors shown in the experiment.