HR: 1340h
AN: ED13C-1157    [Abstracts]
TI: Stick-Slip, Gutenberg-Richter, Chaos and Predictability: A Classroom Demonstration
AU: * Moore, W B
EM: bmoore@ess.ucla.edu
AF: University of California, Los Angeles Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Institute of Geophyics and Planetary Physics, 3806 Geology Bldg. BOX 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 United States
AB: This demonstration illustrates many of the phenomena associated with earthquakes in the Earth's crust, while engaging students (and the instructor!) in an enjoyable physical activity. The demonstration is a scaled up slider-block model, with students as the blocks and the instructor as the driver. It is suitable for elementary students through college age students, but some of the concepts (power-law, statistical prediction) are high-school level. Materials may vary depending on the size of the students and of the class. An example using college students consists of four 2x2 pieces of 3/4 inch plywood, four chairs set on the pieces of plywood, four bungee cords, and eye-hooks screwed into the front and back edges of each piece of plywood. Materials may vary depending on the roughness of the floor, the size of the students, and availability, but the key properties are elastic connections (the bungee cords) and a frictional contact between the blocks and the floor (for smaller students, their feet work just fine). The slider blocks are assembled into a chain by linking them to each other with bungee cords hooked through the eye-hooks. The demonstration begins with a single block with one student on the block. Using heavier and lighter students, and pulling the lead cord faster or slower, the instructor can demonstrate pseudo-periodic behavior and establish the relationship between friction and driving stress. By adding a second block to the chain, the concept of triggered events can be demonstrated. By adding a third and fourth block, an event size spectrum can be established which will follow a power law. The size of each event will not, however, be predictable, nor will the blocks involved, thus demonstrating that statistical measures of even probability are required.
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
DE: 7209 Earthquake dynamics (1242)
DE: 7223 Earthquake interaction, forecasting, and prediction (1217, 1242)
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005