Day Three of this leg of the Voyage of Discovery was dedicated to collecting the data the students would need to test the questions they had developed to guide their research.

During the data collection phase, each student established a work schedule for gathering data, collected and analyzed samples, and recorded their findings.

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Research Team 1: Celestial Tracking

Students: Cassie, Kevin, Ntando, & Peter
Senior Crew Advisor: Grant Prime
Guiding Question: Why do we need to know the height of the sun?
Materials: Quadrant, directional compass, watch.

Procedure: Starting early in the morning while the ship was underway from Kingston to Athens Channel, the celestial team used their instruments to track the course of the sun as it reached its zenith (highest point). The team took turns taking readings throughout the day. To take a reading, the students would aim the quadrant at the sun (using its shadow to align their instrument rather than staring down its length directly into the sun). This determined the sun's elevation in degrees.

At the same moment, a teammate would use the directional compass to determine the sun's bearing, or azimuth.

When the team determined that the sun had reached its highest point, or zenith, they recorded that time as true local noon. In addition, its azimuth at that moment was true south; the opposite bearing (180˚ opposed) was thus true north, as distinguished from magnetic north. Lastly, the sun's altitude at the moment of local noon allowed them to calculate the Half Moon's latitude.

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Research Team 2: Mechanical Advantage (Distance)

Students: Courtney, Ellie, Lilly, & Tahjha
Senior Crew Advisor: Cheryl Backman
Guiding Question: How does the number of pulleys affect the length of rope you need to pull to lift a load two feet?
Materials: Block & tackle simple machine, jug of water, tape measure, adhesive tape.

Procedure: Both mechanical advantage teams conducted similar experiments. First, they constructed a block-and-tackle simple machine in several configurations, using from one to five pulleys. Next, they filled a plastic jug with water and fastened it to their rig, using the structure of the orlop deck itself to determine when the jug had been lifted exactly two feet off the deck. The fixed weight and distance formed the constants in the experiment.

Courtney, Ellie, Lilly, and Tahjha comprised the team measuring the distance aspect of conservation of labor. Using each pulley configuration in turn, the Distance team lifted the weight two feet, marking the lead (line) with blue tape to determine precisely how much line they needed to pull through their simple machine to produce the set result.

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Research Team 3: Mechanical Advantage (Force)

Students: Colton, Jacob, Jerryangelo, & Mylah
Senior Crew Advisor: Dan Brudos
Guiding Question: How can we use less force to lift the jug?
Materials: Block & tackle simple machine, spring scale, jug of water, adhesive tape.

Procedure: Both mechanical advantage teams conducted similar experiments. First, they constructed a block-and-tackle simple machine in several configurations, using from one to five pulleys. Next, they filled a plastic jug with water and fastened it to their rig, using the structure of the orlop deck itself to determine when the jug had been lifted exactly two feet off the deck. The fixed weight and distance formed the constants in the experiment.

Colton, Jacob, Jerryangelo, and Mylah formed the team measuring the force aspect of conservation of labor. Using each pulley configuration in turn, the Force team lifted the weight the set distance, carefully using a spring scale to measure the apparent weight of the water jug in each configuration. As the force needed to lift the water jug decreased, the spring scale would record the water jug as weighing less, and vice versa: the water jug would appear to "weigh" more if the required force increased.