I and my colleague Ben chose the subject of the model mountain for two reasons. One reason is that Ben and I have been very interested in the subject. The other reason is that the model mountain is an interesting research facility.
The question that we tried to answer was “How many storms does it take to destroy a settlement equipped with walls and other things to keep it safe?” I thought of the question as a very good question to answer and that could be answered by some simple research on the model mountain.
Erosion is the wearing down of rock. “How does it happen?” Erosion happens because of wind, water, and gravity. All of these forces combined to wear down, mountains very slowly. Erosion can cause mudslides and floods because of all the dirt and rocks a rainstorm brings down a mountain. Like in Peru and Mexico. Trees can be planted on the bands of streams to control erosion. Once they are big enough the roots will stop the soil from sliding under it. Otherwise preventing erosion.
First, to answer the question, my colleague and I started with some research on the model sand mountain. To answer the question I made two kinds of settlements, naturally made structures, such as caves and bug rocks in formations that you could live in, and man-made structures, like platforms overlooking the mountain or a settlement built into the mountain made out of materials like Monopoly hotels and houses, Popsicle sticks, rocks, measurement cups, and other things like that. Then I tried different combinations of Popsicle sticks and rocks that made very neat structures. Then for different mountains the average amount of storms I had were 4 storms per mountain.
Some of the things I have discovered while researching on the model mountain are that walls are effective. If you build a sand wall it will work pretty well. Stopping erosion outside of a little black tub is extremely difficult. If you didn’t know water is the strongest cause of erosion. If you want to see different results during research then check the variables and controls. Some of the facts I discovered during research were. That in real life man-made structures would cost more but would be more efficient then natural structures. Also a mini mountain about 45cm in height, for some reason, takes longer to destroy then the bigger mountain I used for research.
I think you or anyone else could find lots of questions or investigations that could be answered by research. Otherwise a suggestion if you are working on the model mountain for a KIC a suggestion could be to pick a question that could be answered by just research on the model mountain. A question you could use could be “What structure is better at controlling erosion, man-mande or natural?
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