Name__________________________

Date__________________

• Images of craters on Mars, Earth, and Moon
• Box, lined with trash bag, with sides at least 4 inches high (lid to
• photocopier paper boxes is perfect)
• Flour to fill box to ~3" deep
• Three balls of the same size, about 1", of differing weight (e.g. a ball
• bearing, a wooden ball, and a Styrofoam ball)
• Three marbles of different size
• 2 dark colors of dry tempera paint, e.g. purple and green - you will need 2
• colors besides the white flour
• Metric ruler
• Safety goggles (one for each student)
• Scale to weigh projectiles, or known weight of projectiles
• Meter stick
• Plant sprayer (optional part)
• Plastic shovels or cups (for scooping flour)

Part 1: Formation of Impact Craters

Procedure:
[Note: If a scale is not available and the mass is unknown, just use numbers to rank the masses, e.g. 1,2,3 for the light, medium, and heaviest masses.]

1. Fill the tray with flour, about 3" deep.
2. Smooth the flour out with the meter stick or ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera paint on top, enough to cover the flour.
3. Fill in the mass of each object in the table below, ask your teacher the mass of each object or weigh it yourself if scales are available.
4. Drop your first ball into the box, measure the distance across the crater, which is called the diameter, and record it in the chart.
5. Smooth the flour out with the meter stick or ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera on top, enough to cover the flour.
6. Drop the second ball into the flour, measure the diameter of the crater, and record it in the chart.
7. Smooth the flour out with the meter stick or ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera on top, enough to cover the flour.
8. Drop the third ball into the last area, measure the diameter of the crater, and record it in the chart.

OBSERVATIONS/CONCLUSIONS:

1. Compare your 3 craters - which crater is the largest?________

   Which ball created it?____________

2. What's the only difference in the way you made the craters?

   ________________________________________________

3. Finish this statement: The (bigger/smaller) the mass, the (bigger/smaller) the crater.

1. Take out the big marble.
2. Smooth out the flour with the ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera on top, enough to cover the flour.
3. Drop the marble from a height of 10cm, record the crater diameter on the chart
4. Smooth out the flour with the ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera on top, enough to cover the flour.
5. Drop the marble from a height of 1 meter, record the crater diameter on the chart
6. Smooth out the flour with the ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera on top, enough to cover the flour.
7. Drop the marble from a height of 2 meters, record the crater diameter on the chart
8. Smooth out the flour with the ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera on top, enough to cover the flour.
9. Ask your teacher to throw the marble into the flour, or ask you teacher for permission to throw it. Record the crater diameter.

Drop #	velocity	height	crater diameter
1	140 cm/s	10 cm	cm
2	443 cm/s	100 cm	cm
3	626 cm/s	200 cm	cm
4	1000 cm/s	200 cm	cm

OBSERVATIONS/CONCLUSIONS:

1. Compare your craters. Which is the largest?______________

2. What in the only difference in the way you made the craters?

   ____________________________________________

3. Finish this statement: The (bigger/smaller) the velocity, the (bigger/smaller) the crater.

Procedure:

1. Take out the 3 different size marbles
2. Smooth out the flour with the ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera on top, enough to cover the flour.
3. Drop the smallest marble from a height of 2 meters
4. Without disturbing the flour, measure the crater's diameter
5. Record the diameter in the chart below
6. Smooth out the flour with the ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera on top, enough to cover the flour.
7. Drop the middle size marble from a height of 2 meters.
8. Without disturbing the flour, measure the crater's diameter.
9. Record the diameter in the chart below.
10. Smooth out the flour with the ruler, sprinkle a thin layer of tempera on top, enough to cover the flour.
11. Drop the biggest marble from a height of 2 meters
12. Without disturbing the flour, measure the crater's diameter
13. Record the diameter in the chart below

OBSERVATIONS/CONCLUSIONS:

1. Compare your craters. Which is the largest?

2. What in the only difference in the way you made the craters?

3. Finish this statement: The (bigger/smaller) the marble, the (bigger/smaller) the crater.

Part 2: Crater Structure

1. Smooth out your first layer of flour and coat it with a generous layer of tempera. It should be a little thicker than the thin layers you've used before.
2. Sprinkle another color of tempera paint over the first tempera.
3. Take the large marble and drop or throw it from a height of ~2m.
4. Observe the crater: make a an overhead drawing labeling (guess) the rim, ejecta and crater floor.
5. Measure the crater diameter. How does it compare with the diameter from the last big marble drop?

OBSERVATIONS/CONCLUSIONS:

2. If the flour layers from top to bottom are youngest to oldest, where in the new crater do you find the oldest rocks (beside the floor)?

___________________________________________________________

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