Week7 assignment B

1. What Materials can Block
a Wi-Fi Signal?
s1240129 Toma Sakai

2. Abstract(1)
Have you ever suffered from poor Wi-Fi reception for your
smartphone, tablet or laptop?
Most of people say "yes".

3. Abstract(2)
Certain materials can actually block a Wi-Fi signal.
In this project,
you will do an experiment to find out which materials cause
the biggest drop in signal strength from a wireless router.

4. Objective
Measure how much different materials affect the signal
strength of a wireless router.

5. Credits
• Ben Finio
• PhD
• Science Buddies

6. What is Wi-Fi? (1)
A type of communication that
allows electrnic devices to
exchange data or connect to
Internet wirelessly, meaning
they do not need to connect
to each other with cable.

7. What is Wi-Fi? (2)
Electromagnetic radiation can be attenuated or weakened
when it pass through different naterials.
Do you think the same thing applies to radio waves?
In this project, you will find out by testing the ability of
different materials to block Wi-Fi signals from your wireless
router.

8. Materials and Equipment
• Wireless router
• Wi-Fi enable device like a smartphone with Wi-Fi adapter
• Program to analyze the strength of the wireless signal
• Blocking materials to test.
• Lab notebook

9. Experimental Procedure
1. Make sure you do your background reserch and
formulate a hypothesis.
2. Download and install a program for your wireless device
that can measure the signal strength of a Wi-Fi
connection.

10. 3. Familiarize yourself with how to use the program before
you start your experiment.
4. Create a data table like next slide in your lab notebook.
You will use this to record your results.

11. Signal Strength(dBm)
Material Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average
Attenuation
(dBm)

12. 5. Pick a location in which to place your wireless device for
each test. It is important to keep this location consistent
for each trial.
6. Determine how you will arrange your test materials for
each trial. The most important thing is to keep your setup
the same for each
trial of the experiment.

13. 7. Start out by measuring the signal strength with no
blocking material. This is your experiment's control.
Measure the signal strength in dBm and enter this value
under "Trial 1" in the first row of your data table. Repeat
this two more times, for a total of three trials.
8. Now, set up your first blocking material. Record three
separate signal strength readings in your data table.
Remember not to move the blocking material or wireless
device in between trials.
9. Repeat step 8 for each of your remaining blocking
materials.

14. 10.For each blocking material calculate an average signal
strength in dBm and enter this value in your data table.
11.Calculate the attenuation of the signal for each material
by subtracting the signal strength with the material from
the signal strength without the material and enter this
value in your data table.
12.Create a bar graph with material type on the horizontal
line and attenuation in dBm on the vertical line.
Remember to label the axes of your graph.