Earth’s Mat. Sht_1
1. Read the following about a student conducting an experiment. The extract below is from her laboratory notebook:
5/5/2005
We are doing an experiment to determine if the size of soil particles affects the amount of water that flows through soil. We poured 100 millilitres (ml) of water through four different types of soil.
The equipment is shown below.
We got the following results: With gray soil, the average particle size was 2.0 millimetres (mm) and 80 ml of water flowed through. We then used tan soil. Its average particle size was 0.5 mm and 40 ml of water flowed through. With brown soil, 60 ml of water flowed through. Brown soil has an average particle size of 1.5 mm. In our last trial we used black soil. It has an average particle size of 1.0 mm and 50 ml of water flowed through.
a) Copy the data table below into your jotter and organise the results to show the average particle size and the amount of water that flowed through for each type of soil.
Be sure to include column headings, data, and units in the table.
b) What conclusion can be drawn from the data that the students collected?
c) Which soil sample had the highest proportion of clay? Explain your answer.
