Merorite Science Project ABSTRACT
This project was set up to find how both the size and speed of an impacting meteorite affects the resulting impact crater's size. The hypothesis was that both size and speed would have a direct relationship to the size of the impact crater. Four experiments were set up to test this hypothesis and find the relationship. The first was set up to test the relationship of the speed of a meteorite to its resulting crater's size by dropping a rock from different heights into dirt. The second was to test how a meteorite's size affects the impact crater by dropping different size rocks from the same height into dirt. The third and fourth were done using a web site that calculates the crater size based on the speed and size that is input. One experiment used a constant size with varying speeds and the other used a constant speed with varying sizes. This was to test the affects of a meteorite's size and speed on the size of the resulting crater on a much larger basis that would be impossible to test in real life. The conclusion found is that the crater size is proportional to the diameter and the speed of the meteorite, however the correlations are not linear, they are closer to exponential. The crater size is also proportional to the product of the diameter and the speed with a linear correlation.
Shane C
This project was awarded a Meritorious