Building a Seismograph Part 1

Problem

Can you design and build a seismograph that can record the movements of simulated earthquakes?

Materials

·         Large book

·         Pencil

·         Pen

·         2 strips of paper

Procedure

1.       With two lab partners, create a model of a seismograph. Begin by placing a large book on a table.

2.       Wind a strip of paper about one meter long around a pencil.

3.       Hold the pencil with the paper wound around it in one hand. In your other hand, hold a pen against the paper.

4.       As you hold the pen steady, have one lab partner slowly pull on the paper so that it slides across the book.

5.       After a few seconds, the other lab partner should jiggle the book gently for 10 seconds to model a weak earthquake, and then for 10 seconds to model a strong earthquake.

6.       Observe the pen markings on the paper strip. Compare how the seismograph recorded the weak earthquake and the strong earthquake. Record your observations in your notebook.

7.       Repeat Steps 1-6 with a new paper strip. Compare the two paper strips to see how consistent your seismograph recordings were. Record your observations.

Observations 1^st strip of paper-

Big Earthquake #1

 

With very “primitive” materials this was a hard experiment to conduct, because of the all the mistakes that could have gone wrong. The paper could have slipped, or could have been pulled in the wrong direction. As I look at my results, I find that both of my two sheets of paper look sort of the same. Both the big and the small are very different from each other, the small earthquake made small lines and the big earthquake made big lines. During the experiment at the time of the big earthquake it was hard to keep my pen on the sheet of paper, it kept going off, next time I think I should make a bigger piece of sheet paper.

Observations 2^nd strip of paper-

        This was a lot like the 1^st observations, this experiment I found to be a lot easier than the first probably because of the fact that this is my second time doing the experiment. This experiment I put a lot of force into the big earthquake and found that many times my pen didn’t recorded any of the earthquake because of the huge amount of force that I put in.