Lava-Betsy-Alexandra


 * Does Temperature Affect the Viscosity of Lava?

The hypothesis for this experiment is that the hotter lava has less viscosity than the cooler lava that has more viscosity. The experiment was to test different temperatures on liquid dish soap. The measurement used was seconds it took for the soap to reach the bottom of the tube. The results were that the hotter lava had a faster rate than the room temperature and chilled soap. The chilled soap had a rate of approximately two times as fast as the hotter soap.

Advice I would give to anyone choosing this project would be to do your share of the work. I say this because it would be very difficult to do this experiment by yourself in this period of time. Some suggestions there would be to carry on an experiment like this any further would be to test the different types of lava and see if they are as viscous as each other. I suggest this because there are many different types of lava to study and read about.

This project is not something I would want to do again because it would more fun to experiment on the original experiment of the viscosity of olive oil. I would want to do this instead of lava because I enjoy cooking and olive oil is one of my favorite cooking materials. ~Betsy

Science is one of my favorite subjects, and being able to make a model volcano erupt just makes it better! Many people do not realize how much fun a science fair can be. When you first see what you have to do, it seems like an impossible amount of work, but our teachers were really helpful and made it so much easier. Also, if you are partnered up, it can be a great chance to make friends.

I loved doing this project, it was really interesting, but if we were going to do another science fair, there was another project that peaked my interest. The project was "Which bridge design could withstand the most weight?" It is a good match for me because when I grow up I want to be a architect, and being the artsy person that I am, I would have loved to build the model bridges for the experiment.

One thing that is really helpful is that there is so much information on lava and volcanoes. I would love to do this experiment again for cooking oil, but I know that there would not be nearly as much information on it. -Alexandra

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