Jumping Jack Experiment
Line Graphs
The Experiment requires 4 people:
 A Jumper (to do the jumping jacks)
 A timer (to keep track of the time)
 A counter (to count the jumping jacks)
 A Recorder (to write down the number of jumping jacks)
As a group, decide who will do each task.
Prepare a table for recording the total number of jumping jacks
after every 10 seconds, up to a total time of 2 minutes or 120
seconds.
Time (in
seconds)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Total number of
JJ’s
Here’s how to do the experiment:
1. When the timer says, “go”, the jumper begins doing jumping
jacks.
2. The counter counts the jumping jacks out loud.
3. Every 10 seconds, the timer says, “TIME!” and the recorder
records the total number of jumping jacks the jumper has
done so far.
4. Repeat the experiment (if you have time.)
80
90
Making the Line graph
Step 1: Select 2 variables. For example, for the JJ experiment
the two variables are time (in the x-axis) and number of jumping
jacks (in the y-axis)
(y-axis)
number
of JJ’s
time (in seconds)
Step 2:Select a scale for each axis.
 For each axis, you need to determine the largest and the
smallest values you want to show on your graph and how you
want to space the scale intervals.
 In the jumping jack experiment, the values for time are
between 0-120 seconds, so in a graph of this data, you could
label the x-axis (time) from 0 to 120. Since you collected
data every 10 seconds, you could place numbers at 10 second
intervals.
Step 3: Plot the data points.
 For example, suppose that at 60 seconds, you had done 65
jumping jacks. To plot this information, start at 60 on the
X-axis (time) and follow a line straight up.
 On the Y-axis (number of jumping jacks), start at 65 and
follow the line straight across.
 Make a point where the two lines meet (intersect). This
point indicates that at 60 seconds, you did 65 jumping jacks.
Questions:
1.How did your jumping jack rate (number of jumping jacks per
second) change as time passed?
2.Make a line graph of your jumping jack data.
3.What does your graph show about the jumping jack rate as time
passes?
4.Is the relationship you found between the number of jumping
jacks and the time, easier to see in a table or the graph? Explain
your answer.