In order to find the speed of the automatic walkway, you will first need to find one. The airports are generally good places to look. We used the one at Lambert Field between Concourses D and E.

Next, you will need to bring a measuring tape, a stopwatch, notebook, and pencil.

Your first step in the experiment is to find the length of the walkway from comb to comb. (A camb is the piece of machinery that you stand on; it locks in with all the other pieces of the walkway.)

We found the length of the walkway to be 279.875 ft.

Once you have the length, or distance(d), you will need to ride the walkway, starting the timer as you cross the metal floorpiece onto the combs.

You will then stop the timer as you step off the combs onto the metal floorpiece.

Have several groups repeat this and take the data from all the groups. You will need to average this out to find the speed, or rate(r), of the walkway.

You will then need to make a table charting the results.

For example:

TIME IN MIN & SEC     TIME IN SECONDS           VARIANCES (TIME - AVERAGE TIME)
      2     17.780                               137.780                         -0.406
      2     18.700                               138.700                         +0.514
      2     18.400                               138.400                         +0.214
      2     18.290                               138.290                         +0.104
      2     18.150                               138.150                         -0.036
      2     18.710                               138.710                         +0.524
      2     17.435                               137.435                         -0.751
      2     18.105                               138.105                         -0.081
      2     18.340                               138.340                         +0.154
      2     17.990                               137.990                         -0.196
      2     18.150                               138.150                         -0.036
                              TOTAL         1,520.050                         +0.004

Avg t=138.186 sec

In order to find the mean difference, you will need to calculate the average time of the walkway. This is done by adding all eleven of the times(in seconds) and then dividing them by the number of data points. In our case that number was eleven. We came up with 138.186 sec.

You then subtract the 138.186 sec from each of the succesive data points and you come up with a number which represents the difference of our original time from the average time.

As an added twist, you can now calculate the rate of the walkway.

This is done by dividing the distance by the time, thus the equation d = r t. We came up with 2.025 ft/sec.

For more information and ideas about this project you may link to a page written by one of the following math artists: Danielle, Darlene, Kellie, Jill, Nanyal, Kevin, Crystal, Rachel, Christina, Jennifer, Candice, Vincent, Esther's First and Third Web Page and Melinda. Most of us are in this picture but not in order of names.