Experiment Idea?
Figure out what dirt
is made of. (I don't know!)
-Kastin Mattern (age 10)
Purpose: Long has humankind used dirt to cultivate
farms, build houses, and much more, without much thought as to what 'dirt'
is. Though science has answered this question down to the littlest molecules
(which will be discussed in the conclusion), Scientific AmeriKen will perform
it's own series of experiments to find out what exactly dirt is made of.
Hypothesis: Because dirt is on the ground and
rocks are on the ground it is the hypothesis of this experiment that dirt
is in actuality small rocks.
Equipment: Used in this experiment are dirt,
newspapers, coffee filters, a cup and water.
Procedure: Take the dirt and place it in the
coffee filter. Then take the water and run it over the dirt catching the
water on the other side in a cup. After this is done for awhile, take the
stuff that is in the cup and place it through the newspaper. Observe everything
that is collected.
Observations: The coffee filter contained a
multitude of tiny multicolored rocks. Most rocks were about the size of
sand grains while a few were a little large largest was about the thickness
of 5 dimes (5 mm). Inside the newspaper was a collecting of really fine
dust like particles.
Conclusion: Based
on the observations it would seem as though dirt is composed of rock that
is small and more rock that is smaller. However, in truth, dirt is scientifically
called soil. It is composed of not only rock (usually contains elements
such as calcium, magnesium, silicon, aluminum and iron) as prescribed above,
but also the breakdown of organic materials (tree branches and leaves for
example)
Return to Scientific AmeriKen!
Suggestion?
'Get a differant type of music, such as mad scientist music.'
-Kastin Mattern (age 10)