Hi
My daughter is trying to do this experiment...
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... wn-a-slope
It uses pennies and clipboard with paper tower and sand paper to replicate the slope.
Can we do something realistic instead of pennies.
Like different real rocks or real surface. Not sure how it will work.
Land slide
Moderators: AmyCowen, kgudger, bfinio, MadelineB, Moderators
-
- Former Expert
- Posts: 49
- Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2019 9:26 am
- Occupation: Cellular and molecular biologist
- Project Question: Joined to be an expert
- Project Due Date: n/a
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Land slide
Hi Starranger, that's a good question.
I think its completely reasonable use something more realistic. It might be easiest (and give you the best data) to stick with pennies, and vary the texture of the slope you're sliding them down (maybe different types of stone?). That way you have one model surface (pennies), sliding off a variety of realistic model substrates.
I think the pennies are reasonable to mimic friction and shearing forces between two surfaces (layers of earth). They are uniform in weight distribution, surface smoothness and profile height. This makes them unlikely to start tumbling instead of sliding, which would mess up your experiment.
I hope that helps; please let us know if you have more questions!
I think its completely reasonable use something more realistic. It might be easiest (and give you the best data) to stick with pennies, and vary the texture of the slope you're sliding them down (maybe different types of stone?). That way you have one model surface (pennies), sliding off a variety of realistic model substrates.
I think the pennies are reasonable to mimic friction and shearing forces between two surfaces (layers of earth). They are uniform in weight distribution, surface smoothness and profile height. This makes them unlikely to start tumbling instead of sliding, which would mess up your experiment.
I hope that helps; please let us know if you have more questions!
LilGreenFrog
Molecular and cellular biologist
Molecular and cellular biologist
-
- Expert
- Posts: 98
- Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2019 9:33 am
- Occupation: Student
Re: Land slide
Hello and welcome!
As LilGreenFrog said, pennies are uniform in weight distribution, surface smoothness, and profile height, which makes them ideal for the landslide experiment. However, you may want to use the pennies as a control group for your experiment, and then pick different types of stone to slide down the same surface in addition to the pennies. The stones would ideally have the same characteristics as the pennies in terms of equal weight distribution, surface smoothness, and profile height to make sure your data is accurate to compare.
This does change the experiment slightly, but if you would really like to use different materials to slide down the landslide, the best thing to do would be above. If you wanted to test several types of stone on different surfaces, that would also be possible, though it may be too much data for a single science fair experiment as you would have too many variables for one project.
Hope this helps and feel free to ask more questions!
-cnoonan180
As LilGreenFrog said, pennies are uniform in weight distribution, surface smoothness, and profile height, which makes them ideal for the landslide experiment. However, you may want to use the pennies as a control group for your experiment, and then pick different types of stone to slide down the same surface in addition to the pennies. The stones would ideally have the same characteristics as the pennies in terms of equal weight distribution, surface smoothness, and profile height to make sure your data is accurate to compare.
This does change the experiment slightly, but if you would really like to use different materials to slide down the landslide, the best thing to do would be above. If you wanted to test several types of stone on different surfaces, that would also be possible, though it may be too much data for a single science fair experiment as you would have too many variables for one project.
Hope this helps and feel free to ask more questions!
-cnoonan180