Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

So. Last year as a group project we did an experiment on the formation of gold veins, and won for our school, and ended up going to the science fair at BYU. This year in science we are studying biology, and are not sure if we should add onto our project from last year, or if we should do a new one. We were interested in doing a project on something related to Sports Physiology, or causes of sports on the body. Let us know what you think!

Hi,

We can't really decide for you one way or the other, and both topics sound really interesting. I would suggest thinking about what you would do if you did do a follow-up project on the gold veins, and thinking about whether or not that project seems interesting to you. If you are excited about sports physiology instead, go for that! There are plenty of interesting physiology projects that can be done.

Here is a Science Buddies project on the physiology of dizziness, which can affect performance in sports: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p012.shtml

And, there is a whole list of sports science projects, here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... _ideas.php (scroll down to the 'sports science' section).

Take a look at these and see if any of them get you excited!

Alright! So! we decided to do a follow up project from last year! Except this year we are going to try to create an actual gold vein in a rock. Any suggestions about anything?

Okay--in that case, your project is probably more of a physical sciences project than a life sciences project, so I have moved it to the other forum. Hopefully the experts here can help you.

Hi birdcageofhappiness,

I'm trying to find a geologist for you, who should be able to give you much better advice. But for now here are some really general things to keep in mind:

-- You want to have some kind of hypothesis. This could be something like a prediction about which different conditions (temperature, pressure, concentrations of different elements in the system) produce the largest veins or produce veins of some reference size within a shorter period of time. Do the results or background research from your past projects suggest anything like this?

-- Since (as I understand it) veins usually form over geologic periods of time -- thousands or millions of years -- you want to be careful that your project will produce observable results within the few months you have to work with.

Amanda

Have you done any research on the formation of gold veins? Putting "formation of gold veins" in to a search engine yielded several articles. Here is the first one that my search found http://www.nuggetshooter.com/articles/C ... ation.html
Here is a more general article on veins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vein_(geology)
Given the expense of gold and the temperatures needed to melt it, you might want to reconsider your experiment and use a different metal, something like "solder".
In any case, if you want to simulate the way nature does it fairly closely, you are going to have to start with some sedimentary rock, make a fracture into two pieces, disolve some of the breccia probably using some acid so that you can do it in a short period of time, and then heat the rock in a fire or kiln using something to keep the halves together and get it above the melting point of your solder, separately heat the solder in a ladel, and then pour molten metal into the fracture and let it cool.
Unfortunately, this becomes a demonstration project without any real science content.
Maybe you can come up with something that is testable; however, relating the results back to what happens in thousanads of years and drawing valid conclusions is not going to be easy.