Craters On The Moon’s Surface
Purpose
We are trying to find out how the moon’s craters are formed on the moon’s surface. We are also trying to find out if the size and distance of an asteroid, comet, or meteor does or does not have an effect on the size and shape of the crater it creates
Hypothesis
The size and distance of an asteroid, comet, or meteor does have an effect on the size and shape of the crater it creates.
Materials
Flour
Cocoa powder
Shallow pan
Small rocks, balls, or marbles
Ruler or tape measure
Procedure
Place the flour in the shallow pan to a depth of about 5 cm.
Sprinkle the cocoa powder over the flour.
Drop the small marble from shoulder height into the pan. Remove the marble.
List what you see in a chart. Drop the same marble 2 more times. Sketch what you see. Measure your craters and record any observations.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 with the large marbles.
Continue the experiment, dropping the marble from heights of 30 cm, 1 m, and 2 m. Make sure you continue to record your observations, sketching what you see and measuring the crater sizes.
Observations
Variable
Observations
Size of “rock”
Trial #1
Trial #2
Trial #3
Small
(Dropped from 30cm)
Marble fell near the surface.
Marble was not that deep.
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I know this because we did an experiment where we dropped different sized marbles from the same height. The craters created by the small marble were around 1 - 1.5 cm wide and the width of the small marble is around 1 cm in width. The craters made from the large marble was around 1.5 - 2 cm wide and the large marble is around 1.5 cm in width. Because the large marble is greater in size than the small marble, the large marble’s width already made a greater crater than the small marble because its width is greater in size. This is how I know that the size of an asteroid creates different widths of the