Jacob Ward Portfolio
Term Project
The term project for Measurements & Analysis required students to conduct an investigation into a measurement problem of interest in the real world. Our project aimed to answer two insightful questions about the use of an ordinary bathroom commodity: toilet paper. Read on, read the final report, or view the oral presentation slides to learn how to be most efficient in the bathroom!
Project Overview
This experiment was broken down into two investigations. The first investigation aimed to answer the question: Is there a statistically significant difference in the yield force of 1 sheet of 2-ply toilet paper vs. 2 sheets of 1-ply toilet paper? The second investigation aimed to examine the relationship between the yield force of both types of toilet paper and the number of sheets used.
Investigation 1
An Instron tension test method was created and run to obtain the yield force and displacement at yield of the prepared toilet paper samples. The yield force for 2 sheets of 1-ply TP was 24.15 ± 3.78 N, and the yield force of 1 sheet of 2-ply TP was 13.34 ± 0.48 N. A Two-Sample T-Test Assuming Unequal Variances revealed there is a statistically significant difference.
Investigation 2
The same Instron tension test was used to record the yield forces of 2, 4, 6, and 8 equivalent squares of 1-ply and 2-ply toilet paper. The data revealed that both kinds of toilet paper follow a linear relationship between the yield force and the number of squares used. Both coefficients of determination (R2) were above 0.94, indicating a strong linear correlation for both types.
