Today, Madeira, Rose and I did the Impact Craters Lab. We dropped a pingpong ball into flour from heights of 2ft., 3ft., 4ft., 5ft., and 5ft. 7in. We noticed that the higher, the height, the deeper and wider the craters became. I calculated the GPE for each height and it turned out that the bigger the GPE the deeper and wider the craters. This makes sense because just before the ball hits the flour, it has the same kinetic energy as it had potential energy. With more KE from a higher height, the flour will move when the energy is transfered into it.
i don't know quite how this will help us on mission to mars, but I'm sure it will. It was interesting to see the direct correlation between the heights and the impacts. even from such a small height of 5ft. you could tell the difference from the 2ft. experiment.
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