Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

We followed the procedure for sweet and sticky earthquake shake on your website. However, only one wall fell during the alluvium trial (none fell for the bedrock or gravel trials). We expected the walls to fall for the cornstarch/water mixture, but none of them did. We did notice that the houses sunk a little into the mixture, but didn't sink all the way down. I think that kept the walls from falling over. We mixed the 3 cups cornstarch to 1 1/2 cups water, and the consistency seemed just right. How do we make it so the house does not sink into the cornstarch mixture? Please help! Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Hello, and thank you for your questions,

It's hard to say what the exact issue is with not having more walls fall down. What did you end up using to keep the sugar cubes together? Also, how long after making the houses did you test them? If they were sitting out for a while beforehand, perhaps what you had used to glue the cubes together dehydrated a little and made the walls difficult to pull apart.

For the cornstarch mixture, if it is too soft, you can try adding more cornstarch to the mix. I would keep it such that the houses slightly sink into the mix, but not too much according to the protocol.

As another note, it looks like the houses were resting on bases of wax paper in the pictures for the project. Did you also try this?

-PharmaMan

Thank you for the reply! We redid the cornstarch mixture and trials, and this time the walls fell each time, so I think it worked! We altered the mixture this time, so the houses didn't sink so much into the cornstarch. Thanks again for your assistance.

No problem, glad to hear the new mixture gave you better results this time. Let us know if you have any further questions and we'll be happy to help.