Using Time Travel Curves to Find S Wave Information

[r10031994]

Hi, I am currently working on this project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p022.shtml I have plotted the seismic waves of an earthquake and drawn the time travel curves, but I cannot figure out the last two steps: - At what distance from the quake in degrees does the primary S-wave no longer appear? - What is the maximum distance at which the primary S-wave appears? I am doing this for only one earthquake, and I am running out of time. Please help and explain how to do this!

[r10031994]

Hi, I am currently working on this project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p022.shtml I have plotted the seismic waves of an earthquake and drawn the time travel curves, but I cannot figure out the last two steps: - At what distance from the quake in degrees does the primary S-wave no longer appear? - What is the maximum distance at which the primary S-wave appears? I am doing this for only one earthquake, and I am running out of time. Please help and explain how to do this!

[deleted-71827]

Hi!
So it seems like what you have to do is use the output that you get in part c (where the y-axis is the angle in degrees) and see what angle at which the primary S-wave stops appearing. Next, after repeating the same method with other earthquakes, record which was the greatest distance at which the S-wave stopped appearing - then plug this value into the equation that can be derived from Figure 4 in the explanation. Essentially, you would be using trigonometry (sin, cos, pythagorean's theorem) in order to figure out the diameter of the earth's core. Hope this helps!

[deleted-71827]

Hi,
I responded to your other post! In the future, please only post your question on one thread only, because it can get very confusing for the Science Buddies experts! Thanks, and best of luck!

[deleted-71712]

r10031994,

I've merged the two of your posts that have received replies and moved the thread to the forum for your grade level (9-12), and I removed the third post that had not received replies. As staryl13 says, we ask that you keep all conversation on a given topic in the same thread so that everyone who replies can see the entire conversation. It's also important to post in the forum for your grade level because not everyone will check the grade level in your profile information, and advice written by someone who thinks they're addressing an elementary-school student probably won't help you complete a high-school-level science project.

But thanks for including a link to the project description -- that really helps!

Amanda

[r10031994]

Thank you for your responses, but I am struggling with finding at which angle the primary S-wave stops appearing. Here is the graph I created:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid= ... j3ge&hl=en

If anyone could explain how to find at which angle the primary S-wave stops appearing, it would be most appreciated!

[deleted-91590]

I am also struggling on finding at which angle the primary S-wave stops appearing. I am also confused on which number I am supposed to plug into the trigonometry equation. Help is needed as soon as possible!!!