Discussion Questions
There are two parts of the answer to a typical discussion question: what is happening, and the quality of the evidence. Say you have measured the resistance of two 100W resistors in parallel and find 52± 1W . If the resistors were rated at 5%, the expected resistance would have been 50 ± 3 W . So you answer might look like:
Discussion
The two resistors in parallel give a resistance less than either resistance. The difference from the expected value is 2 ± 4 W , so the measurement is compatible with expectations.
Conclusions
The conclusion, in scientific writing style, summarizes and interprets the results.
It corresponds to what might be called an "executive summary" of a longer report: this is what you are supposed to take away from the experiment. It demonstrates whether you have understood the measurements you made. Writing the conclusion for your experiment is intended to give you practice in writing this style of summary. Some points you would typically include in the conclusions are
For example, for the first experiment, your conclusions might look like:
Conclusions
We measured the equivalent resistance of a single resistor, and series and parallel combinations of resistors, assuming Ohm's law. In every case except the parallel combination, the result was consistent with a calculation using the color code values and the series or parallel resistor combination formulas. For the parallel case, the result was just outside the limits of uncertainty. Our plot of voltage vs. current for a single resistor yielded as straight line, consistent with Ohm's for a constant resistance. The slope was roughly consistent with the measured value of the resistor. Finally, we felt with our fingers the production of heat in a resistor dissipating .45 W.