Reducing the Acceleration of a House During an Earthquake
The purpose of this experiment was to determine which of the four types of bases: wood, foam, happy rubber, and sad rubber, would reduce the acceleration of a model house the most during a simulated earthquake. This experiment can be used to help reduce the amount of injuries and deaths during an earthquake. The researchers hypothesized that the sad rubber base would cause the house to accelerate the least. An earthquake machine was used to simulate an earthquake. A model house was constructed and attached to the base that was on the machine. The simulator was set to a magnitude of seven and shook the house for ten seconds. Thirty trials were conducted with each base. An ANOVA statistical test was conducted to compare the average accelerations for each of the bases. The test showed that there was a significant difference between at least 1 of the groups. A two-sample t test was also conducted to see if the three bases, excluding wood, were statistically different because ANOVA showed they had similar results. The t test proved that all four bases were significantly different compared to each other, and the foam base proved to work best in reducing the acceleration of the model house.
Research Done By:
Max Livernois
Cousino High School
Austin Serraiocco
Cousino High School
Warren Consolidated Schools