Ping pong balls can easily go boom. Now, a group of scientists led by the University of Buffalo’s Greg Valentine, from all around the world have gathered in Ashford, NY and used ping-pong balls to study earth science, “what happens during volcanic eruptions,” and trace debris from simulated volcanoes.
Via the University of Buffalo:
On the test day, researchers hammered into the trench creating 12 small holes 18 inches deep. They placed an explosive about as powerful as a firecracker into each hole and covered the hole with more gravel.
The researchers then set ping pong balls and tennis balls on the surface above the explosives. Graettinger had previously injected mixed limestone sand into the ping pong balls to create three weight classes distinguished by white, orange and red markings. The 42 tennis balls were of uniform weight.
Researchers then detonated the explosives, which buried some ping pong balls in the impact crater and sent others as far as 100 feet into the woods. In addition to measuring where the ping pong balls and tennis balls travelled, they monitored each blast with high-speed cameras, infrasound microphones, seismometers and other high tech equipment.
The researchers collected the same type of information they would during an actual volcanic eruption. The idea, Valentine said, is to use the data to determine the energy of each blast.
Controlled experiments like those at Ashford can provide clues into what causes volcanoes to act the way they do. For example, many volcanoes erupt repeatedly from the same crater, yet few experiments have been done to examine how the pre-existing craters affect the later eruptions.
Explosions giving you the science bug? We’ve already spoken about ping-pong and science and linked the table tennis game and equipment to different fields such as chemistry, physics, high tech, and even “this-is-so-awesome, do-it-yourself” science.
