Table of Contents
This page is for the one day version of the Cratering lab which is used for Cheng's summer SMART outreach program.
Main Differences From Intro Lab Version
- It is a 1 day, 3 hour lab for the summer SMART program.
- Omit everything related to fitting and Chi-Sq.
Outline
- Motivation : Describe cratering and pose question of how would you estimate the yield of a nuclear bomb, or the energy of an asteroid that made a crater on earth or the moon?
- Scientific Process :
- Develop a specific and testable question to explore.
- Use theory or build a model to describe how you expect the system to behave. Understand your underlying assumptions.
- Design an experiment to test the model.
- Conduct your experiment.
- Evaluate how well your data do, or do not, match your model.
- Use your model to predict something beyond the range you tested.
- Test your prediction.
- Use your model to estimate energies for the Sedan crater and the one that killed the dinosaurs.
Examples of Scaling Laws
- Metabolic Rate as a function of Body Weight. From the mass of a mouse to the mass of an elephant span 6 orders of magnitude. Corresponding metabolic rates cover about 4 orders of magnitude.
- Average Life Span vs Mass.
- Brain Mass vs Body Mass.
- Aerodynamics. Wind tunnel tests.
- Financial Markets.