LAB REPORT!

I. This project is about finding an easier way to find the magnitude of  an earthquake without all of the advanced machines. Our  simple-to-build earthquake reader works even without a P and S waves.  We picked three locations and the found the magnitude for all of them.  It was a very easy task, easier then we thought because of how we figured out another way to find the magnitude.


II. An earthquake is a sudden movement in the earth’s crust and upper mantle. It is caused by the release of a lot of energy in one specific point, usually within rocks or near magma. There are usually aftershocks once the earthquake has occurred. Earthquakes have hurt many people, and even killed thousands! In 132 AD. an invention was created to measure the vibrations that earthquakes caused. This invention was called a seismograph.
An earthquake consists of vibrations. These vibrations can be very strong and also very weak. The vibrations are called seismic waves. These waves are also considered “body waves.” There are two main principles of the seismic waves. The first principle is the Primary wave. This wave is like a sound wave. It can travel through solids and liquids. The second principle is the Secondary wave. This wave is slower than the Primary wave, and can only travel through solids.
The vibrations of earthquakes can be measured in many ways. Most people measure these vibrations by finding out their magnitude. Magnitude is the greatness size or amount of something. A high magnitude earthquake means that the earthquake would have very large vibrations. The magnitude can be measured by a scale called the Richter Scale. This puts all the magnitudes between 0.0-10.0 (10.0 being the greatest.) Most of the high magnitude earthquakes happen between 8.0-9.5. No matter how close you are to the starting point of the earthquake, the magnitude remains the same. The usual earthquake usually has a magnitude between 4.0-6.0. The intensity of an earthquake is a measure of the shaking of an earthquake.
There have been many terrible earthquakes since the beginning of time. Many of the worst earthquakes happened between 1750 and 1996. They happened all over the world. In the United States there were thousands of earthquakes. Many of the earthquakes happened near California. There were also a bunch near New York. The highest magnitude earthquakes happened between Nevada and California. One of the largest earthquakes in the entire world was in Prince William Sound, Alaska. This earthquake had a magnitude of 9.2. It caused Tsunamis, 3.1 billion dollars in damage, and killed 125 people. This was a terrible event.
There are many interesting facts about earthquakes. The largest earthquake in the world was in Chile. It had a magnitude of 9.5. The earliest felt earthquake was in 1769, and was felt in California near Los Angeles. Many people get the hypocenter of an earthquake mixed up with the epic center of an earthquake. The hypocenter is the location beneath the earth’s surface where the fault line beings. The epic center is the location directly above the hypocenter. There are five hundred thousand earthquakes that can be felt each year. Approximately one hundred earthquakes cause damage per year.
A seismograph is a contraption used for detecting earthquake vibrations. These determine the different waves, and eventually show how intense an earthquake is. The first seismograph was created by a chinese inventor. The inventor’s name was Chang Heng. This seismograph was created in 132 AD. It looked like a wine jar that was six feet. It had eight dragon heads attached around the top. On the bottom of the jar there were eight frog heads. Inside the dragon heads were eight balls, one ball in each head. When the vibrations of the earthquake occurred, the balls dropped from the dragons’ heads into the frogs mouths. This seismograph was so sensitive that it could detect an earthquake four hundred miles away. The vibrations didn’t have to necessarily even reach the seismograph, as long as they were farther than four hundred miles, they could be detected.
Now, in modern days, there are many different types of seismographs. The seismographs can have lasers, pens, markers, anything! There is usually a weight connected to a metal contraption. On the other side of the weight there is a some sort of writing utensil. As the vibrations of the earthquakes occur, the weight on the metal contraption starts to swing. While the weight is swinging, the writing utensil is moving back and forth. Directly below the writing utensil is paper with different lines set up to be drawn on. The paper is moving forward on a machine. While the weight swings, and the paper moves forward, the writing utensil draws thick black lines on the paper. These are the recordings of the seismic waves. Sensitive seismographs can read even the slightest vibrations.
After the seismic waves are recorded on paper, it is time to measure them. There are two things needed for finding the magnitude of an earthquake. The first thing needed is the distance from the earthquake’s epic center to the seismograph. This can also be figured out by subtracting Primary wave travel time by the Secondary wave travel time. The other thing needed to find the magnitude, is the amplitude of the seismic wave. This means the largest line on the seismic wave recordings. Starting from the bottom of the graph, to where the highest line ends is the measured amplitude. Once both of these things are found, a ruler is used to connect both of the things to the middle scale. This middle scale is the magnitude scale, and it determines the magnitude of the earthquake.
Earthquakes and seismographs are very interesting. An earthquake is a sudden movement within the earth’s lithosphere. A seismograph is an instrument used for measuring an earthquake. A seismograph helps find the distance from itself to the earthquake’s epic center, and also helps determine an earthquake’s magnitude. Seismographs even help find out the probability of an earthquake happening soon. Thanks to a chinese inventor in 132 AD, the world can be prepared for terrible earthquakes, and get to safety quickly.

III. Question: Is there an easier way to find the magnitude of an  earthquake without advanced machines and using household products? 
 
IV. Hypothesis: We think that there is an easier way to find the magnitude  of an earthquake but it will be very difficult. We think she materials  that we will use will not be household products but construction  materials. It will be a challenge to do this because it will involve much thinking. 

V. Materials: Ruler, Paper, Record Player, Richter Scale, Highlighter, Rocks, Bottle, String, Gorilla Glue, Piece of wood (1 1/2 feet long).

VI. Procedure:
1. Tie the string to the piece of wood (1 1/2 feet long piece).
2. Smear gorilla glue over the knot, for extra hold. (Let dry for four hours)
3. Cut a sheet of paper to fit a record.
4. Get a plastic water bottle (aquafina, poland springs etc.)
5. Fill up the plastic bottle with rocks, almost all the way up to the top.
6. Stick a highlighter, one of the fat kinds, into the top. Make sure to wedge it between some of the rocks.
7. Place clay around the top of the bottle, to secure the highlighter.
8. Poke two holes in the bottom of the bottle.
9. Thread the piece of string through one of the holes, into the bottle, and up out of the other hole.
10. Tie the string in a double knot, and secure with gorilla glue.
11. Let dry for four hours.
12. Place record player on carton, between two tables.
13. Place the piece of wood, with the bottle attached in the middle of each table (so the sides of the wood are on either table)
14. Let the bottle hang down.
15. Make sure that the top of the cap is touching the record player completely (because once it is off, the highlighter will be shorter) If it is too long, place books on each of the tables, to make the bottle higher.
16. Place the record (with the paper attached with tape) on the record player.
17. Take of the highlighter cap.
18. Plug in the record player, turn it on.
19. Make sure the wood is steady, so the highlighter can move in a perfect circle.
20. Once the highlighter has made the perfect circle, start shaking the carton (with the record player) 3 times. These shakes must be hard, and in a back/forth motion.
21. The highlighter will start to make marks along the perfect circle. Once it has made marks around the entire circle, turn off the record player, and put the cap back on.
22. Take off the record.
23. Put a piece of paper on top of the record, and trace the perfect circle with a compass.
24. Using a pencil, trace the other lines created from the shaking.
25. Choose two hypothetical places (we used california).
26. Measure the distance between those two places, using kilometers.
27. This will be the “P and S wave distance” on your Richter Scale.
28. Create P wave and S wave times that match up with your distance.
29. Go back to the traced piece of paper, and using a millimeter ruler, find the tallest pencil marking from the perfect circle. (The perfect circle is equal to zero.)
30. Find the amount of millimeters. This is your amplitude.
31. Using a ruler, trace a line from the distance to the amplitude.
32. The point where the line hits the middle column is your magnitude.
33. Record all data.
34. Repeat process from step 16, three times.

VII. Data: (see attached sheets)

VIII. Analysis of Data:
The first model we completed was very hard to trace, but we were able to find the magnitude, which was 4.4.. The second and third models went a lot smoother, and the magnitudes were 3.4 and 4.3. The places we used were all cities in California.

IX. Conclusion:
This experiment took a very long time to complete. We had to create many blue prints of our experiment, because some of them did not work. The experiment was very easy to make, because we used simple household items, or cheap items. Once we created the earthquake, and the seismic waves, finding the magnitude was very simple. We had to create imaginary P waves and S waves, but everything else was an exact replica. The experiment became a great achievement for the both of us because it took a lot of effort, and we were able to complete it!