A1.

TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS
Guidelines for drawing up a table

Whenever you take a set of measurement, record your data in a table.

(i) Each table must have a tittle which should reflect your reason for recording the data.
If you use more than one table in your report, number them Table 1, Table 2, etc
(ii) Each column must have Heading and appropriate Units. The units should be
included with the heading and not written alongside each reading in the table.
(iii) Record your data carefully. Remember, for example, that writing 36.0 cm and
36 cm is not the same. In the first case you are measuring to the nearest millimetre
and in the second case you only measured to the nearest centimetre. (See the notes
on ‘Significant Figures’ later in this manual).

AN EXAMPLE OF A TABLE

Tittle Table 1: Measurements to determine the spring constant of a spring

Applied Extension of Spring, x Average, x (m) Spring Constant
Force, F (N) (m) k  F / x (N/m)
10.00 4.11 4.12 4.11 4.11 2.43
20.10 8.23 8.26 8.24 8.24 2.44
29.80 12.95 12.95 12.92 12.94 2.30
40.00 16.03 16.00 16.08 16.04 2.50
Headings with Units

Measurements
Calculations

A2. GRAPHS
In many experiments in which a relationship between two or more variables is to be
investigated, the plotting of a graph of one variable against another (keeping other variables
constant) gives an indication of the relationship between the two variables.

Important Note: We say that “y is proportional to x” if a graph of y vs x yields a straight

line through the origin, i.e. y = mx + c with c = 0. Sometimes “directly proportional to” is
used which means the same thing. However, if c ≠ 0, then we cannot say that y is
proportional to x, but only say that “y is linearly related to x”.