FA3: Research Question Help

[jinx_58]

Greetings.

I'm currently doing my research investigation for physics and I need to fix up my research question: but don't know how.
We're focusing on linear motion and the claim I chose was:

Seatbelts and airbags have the capability of preventing most motor vehicle fatalities.

My research question (based on the evidence collected) is now this: To what extent are airbags advantageous in cars, in the prevention of fatalities and motor vehicle collisions?

I really need help on making this more specific so it fits with my research and hits te criteria.

Also, for research investigations, do we need tables and graphs, or can we just have on or the other?

- jinx_58

[K.Smithy]

Greetings.

I'm currently doing my research investigation for physics and I need to fix up my research question: but don't know how.
We're focusing on linear motion and the claim I chose was:

Seatbelts and airbags have the capability of preventing most motor vehicle fatalities.

My research question (based on the evidence collected) is now this: To what extent are airbags advantageous in cars, in the prevention of fatalities and motor vehicle collisions?

I really need help on making this more specific so it fits with my research and hits te criteria.

Also, for research investigations, do we need tables and graphs, or can we just have on or the other?

- jinx_58

Hey Jinx_58
Firstly, I would change "and motor vehicle collisions" to "during motor vehicle collisions" because saying "and" makes it sound like airbags are going to stop car crashes, which isn't the case.
I'd say you've done a good job at making it specific. You've narrowed it down from all motor vehicles to cars, you've narrowed it down from seatbelts and airbags to just airbags.
Whether or not a research question hits the "specific" and "relevant" criteria is also dependent upon your rationale. So, make sure everything you say in your rationale links to the research question. I would potentially add in something to your research question about the exact feature of airbags that makes them effective. In past posts, I think you were looking at the force threshold required to trigger the inflation of the air bag. That is good and specific. You could potentially look how much force airbags absorb and compare that to the amount of force required to cause serious harm to a person or something.

re: do I need tables and graphs
No, if you can find both then you can certainly use them but there is nothing explicitly stating that you need both.

[jinx_58]

I would love to make my research question specific about force threshold etc., but I don't know how to narrow it down, based on the evidence I've got.

All my evidence is based on how many people died because of airbags, and how many deaths were prevented and these numbers are then linked to the effectiveness of airbags.

[K.Smithy]

I would love to make my research question specific about force threshold etc., but I don't know how to narrow it down, based on the evidence I've got.

All my evidence is based on how many people died because of airbags, and how many deaths were prevented and these numbers are then linked to the effectiveness of airbags.

If you can find any data (like at all) for airbags absorbing force or anything like that, you can use that data and extrapolate it. You can do like a "meta analysis" thing where you take data for force absorption and data for fatality prevention and talk about how they are most definitely linked.
Your data doesn't all have to come from the same source.

[jinx_58]

My final is due Monday, and finding good sources took me over 3 weeks.

And that's why I want to narrow my question down a bit more so I hit the criteria, as my teacher said it wasn't specific enough.

Would you like to see my whole assignment to get an idea where I'm coming from?

[Bri MT]

K.Smithy's idea of focusing on force threshold connects very well to the syllabus.

It looks like the data you have focused on thus far is "zoomed out" to how many deaths are prevented (which is complicated!) without focusing in more on a specific physics concept.

As you probably know, a key physics concept with airbags and seatbelts is increasing time, therefore decreasing average force for the same change in momentum. Do you have any evidence that you can connect to concepts like work, impulse, momentum etc. ?

[jinx_58]

I've got one piece of evidence about airbag presence vs deployment

Here is the link below:
https://academic.oup.com/view-large/64915232