Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
I am involved in a science fair for my school and my project is to make a bulletproof plate using fiberglass. Reason I chose fiberglass is because it is inexpensive and is easy to obtain. My plans are to purchase the fiberglass in sheets and use polyester resin to paint over a number of sheets, compress, and hopefully the finishing product would be tough enough to deflect a bullet, specifically a 22lr. I will start conducting my experiment in early October of this year. Are there any recommendations on a way to enhance the strength of the plate while still making it inexpensive? Also I would like to know what specifically to measure for the conclusion and how to. Rather than a "Yes or No the bullet penetrated"
Thank you.

Hello VPChonkria,

Welcome to the forum.

The project you've described makes me wonder how you intend to test your fiberglass plate. If you plan to fire a .22 lr bullet at the plate I have serious concerns about the safety of the experiment and I urge you to think of another, safe way to test your plate.

About your specific questions: Yes/No or Pass/Fail tests are not unusual in science. But if you only make one test, all you know is whether the item that you tested passed or failed. To get more information, like how to enhance the plate strength, you'd need to test more than one plate design. For example, you might test plates made with 1, 3 and 5 layers of fiberglass. If you found that only the 5 layer plate passed, you'd know that more than 3 layers are needed – more information than a pass/fail result from a single test. You might consider revising your project question to include more about ways to enhance the plate strength.

The information at the link below may help you with information about planning experiments, tests and conclusions.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml


I hope this helps. Please ask again if you have more questions.

A. Norman