Modelling Meteors

Authors Avatar
Plan

When meteors hit the moon's surface it creates craters; we can represent this by dropping small balls into a tub of sand. By dropping the ball from different heights we can test how this affects the size of the crater and recreate what happens on the moon.

In the first experiment I got a tub of sand a ball, and a meter ruler. I will set the ruler sticking up from the tub of sand using a clamp. I will then level off the sand and drop the ball from 10 cm above the surface of the sand. This will make a crater in the sand and I will measure the diameter of this with calipers.

To keep it a fair test I will only have one variable, this being the height that the ball is dropped from. I will keep the size and mass of the ball the same, the tub of sand the same, and the ruler the same. I will measure the crater using calipers. I will measure the diameter of the crater across in different places to make sure that I have an accurate reading. View diagram below to see this.
Join now!


I will measure across in more than 1 place to make sure that my reading is correct.

I will measure the diameter of the crater in centimeters (cm), the heights of the drop in centimeters and the mass of the ball in grams (g). I will drop the ball from each height 3 times and will repeat a forth time if a result looks wrong. I will make an average from this, which is what I will base my graph and conclusions on.

The heights I will drop from are: 10cm, 20cm, 30cm, 40cm, 50cm, ...

This is a preview of the whole essay