Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My project asks the question:

Do different ground materials, such as different sands and soils, affect the magnitude of compression waves.

I have began my research by looking up compression waves, yes earthquake behaviours.

The main dilemma I am having is how to construct a wave tank for compression waves and how to set up the amplifiers and megaphones that I need to use to create the compression waves. I am also looking for advice on how to measure the magnitude of the waves.

If you have any useful info that I might be able to use, please post it on this forum

Thanks!

Hi, jmill9883--

Welcome to the forum. I did a quick search on the Science Buddies Website and turned up the following that might get you started:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p007.shtml

There's not a lot of detail, but it does cite some of the equipment used for the measurements you describe, which may serve as a good starting point for more research. If you google the title of that project, you'll also turn up some interesting information.

Others may come on and add to this, so stay tuned, and good luck with your discovery process!

Emily

Thanks Emily,

As a matter of fact, the link that you gave me is where I got the idea for this project, but thanks!

I will take your advice and google the project name thought to see if I can find some interesting information.

Thanks for the advice!

Jack

I was doing some research on google about compression waves, and I found some published experiments that might interest you although they will be too difficult to emulate:

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=18187134

http://www.springerlink.com/content/ck7138k857859wh2/

http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0957-0233/15/5/023

You can ask your librarian at school about how to access the bodies of these articles. I also found several experiments for kids but some they may be too simplistic for your experiment:

http://64.233.169.132/search?q=cache:oe ... cd=8&gl=us

http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/e ... inkies.pdf

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2008/Projects/S0709.pdf

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2005/Projects/J0627.pdf

Hope this helps!