Twinkies in Space

Question

How does atmospheric pressure affect the size of a Twinkie?

Hypothesis

If atmospheric pressure is decreased, the size of a Twinkie will increase.

Variables

Independent Variable: Atmospheric Pressure

Dependent Variable: Size of theTwinkie

Controlled Variable: Camera Distance From The Twinkie

Procedure

STEP 1:

Purchase a"Twinkie" and attach it to the payload using zip ties. Leave the Twinkie inside the wrapper. This should keep pieces of the Twinkie from flying into the camera. Also, the wrapper might "pop" at high altitude.

STEP 2:

Attach a GOPRO on top of a cooler facing the Twinkie

Step 3:

Place a device that will measure air pressure inside the payload box.

STEP 4:

Turn-on the electronics and launch the balloon.

Step 5: Collect images of the Twinkie from the video for every minute during flight.

Use the "Snipping Tool and carefully crop the image so that it only includes the Twinkie.
Try and stop the video when the lighting on the Twinkie is about the same brightness.
Save each image in a Word document.

Do not resize the images.

Step 6: Collect the atmospheric pressure data for the time each image was taken from the Z-log device.

Step 7: Compare the size of theTwinkie with the atmospheric pressure.

Data

The camera only took pictures for 67 minutes before the battery failed. It was charged, but it was not connected to the battery backup. Below are images taken from the video every 10 minutes during the flight.

Analysis

It is difficult to analyze the data whenever web page software readjusts the size of an image to fit predetermined dimensions. The images in the data section above are close to the original size, but the web page software made slight changes to the dimensions.

Conclusion

Google Sites

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