Monday 23 June 2008

Eureka! - detecting ore the Archimedes way

This is our latest Earthlearningidea - detecting ore the Archimedes way by measuring density using a stick, string, a ruler, a bucket and a bottle of water. This activity shows that fairly sophisticated measurements can sometimes be made with very simple apparatus.
A rock that feels heavy may contain mineral ores. How can we find out if rocks that feel heavy for their size really are more dense than ordinary rocks? The simple way is to use the method discovered by the famous scientist Archimedes more than 2000 years ago. To investigate if something has a high density, we need to measure how heavy it is (its mass) and what size it is (its volume).
Please let us know how you get on with this activity.

No comments: