Rather than taking a test, Columbus School 10th graders Juan Manuel Jaramillo and Agustin Jaramillo, created a  project measuring speed, drag, and gravitational pull of a paintball shot.

During exam week, instead of taking TCS physics teacher Cody Starke’s physics exam on paper, the pair devised the project which consisted of shooting a paintball and the use of physics formulas to find the speed, drag and gravitational pull. 

“We don’t have to study for a test and doing projects are fun, you get to choose the topic and learn,” Juan Manuel Jaramillo, said.

The students project went beyond what was tested. Agustin Jaramillo explained that the project measured the speed, drag and gravitational pull of the paintball even though in physics class they are only studying  speed. The students calculated the drag and gravitational pull as an extra piece of work.

“We are interested in more advanced stuff, so Cody allowed us to do a project related to the topic,” Agustin Jaramillo said.

They had to use different formulas to solve for the three variables: the formula for speed, drag coefficient of a sphere and gravitational pull.

“We calculated the drag coefficient of a sphere, that is 0.47 and then we can calculate how the projectile is affected by drag,” Agustin Jaramillo said.

Mr. Starke offered assistance with the advanced concepts. 

“We needed help from Cody because we don’t actually know how to calculate these things, so he helped us,” Juan Manuel Jaramillo said.

After discussing the results of their experiment, the students concluded that this project would have a different end result for each person that does it since each paint ball and each gun are slightly different, therefore leading to different results.

“The end result will be the actual speed and how the ball is affected by all these factors like gravity and drag, but we want to also have a model where we can say the ball is not affected by anything, as if it was in outer space without drag and without gravity affecting it,” Agustin Jaramillo said.

Mr. Starke was onboard from the beginning and helped the students all along with any problems or questions they had. Starke also explained the reason they were allowed to do the project instead of the test.

“They were allowed to do this project because they approached me before the exam to ask. Since they have a good understanding of the topic I allowed them to do it,” Mr. Starke said.