Kitchen Science: Meteorite Impact Experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efms_9k-2OA In this science experiment you can simulate an meteorite impact experiment in your kitchen!

You will need:
– a deep plate
– one mabel, or small stone
– water
– lights (eventually)
– A digital camera (best with 60 frames per second or more)
– tripod
– a computer with movie editing software

Fill the plate with water so the stone / mabel is barely covered. Mount you camera on the tripod and focus on the center of the plate. Add some light so you can have a short shutter speed! Generally aim for a fast apature. Take a video of you dropping the mabel from around 1 m (3 feet), around 20 times. In your movie editing software, watch the impact footage frame by frame to see what you got (you can usually move around with the arrow keys). Feel free to post your video as a video response to this one. I hope you enjoyed this experiment.

This experiment was inspired by the book 21st Century Astronomy (Third Edition) [Hester et al. 2010]. Read the Chapter 7 “The Terrestrial Planets and Earth’s Moon”!