Week 4: Information and Lab Procedure

Lab Date: April 24, 2014

Lab Occupations

• Lauren Kujawa, Secretary/Tester
• Tyler Wicker, Sand Scooper/Tester
• Chris Gibson, Paper Placer/Tester
• Sal Realmuto, Paper Placer/Tester
• Gabe Markowitz, Sand Scooper/Tester

Lab Information and Procedure

• Week 4 was the first week that the wooden box was available for use in testing.  Sand was filled approximately 11 inches deep into the box, and paper was used to hold back the sand.  Unfortunately, the paper was too short to cover the full open face of the box, so the some sand will always fall out of the box.  This does not count as failure to the wall.
• On the first try, the  group was not concerned with using the least amount of paper; we were more concerned with the wall standing instead of failing.  8 sheets of paper were used, which is far too many.  On the first trial, the wall did not fail.  It was extremely strong, and Professor cut a middle sheet of paper to demonstrate that 8 sheets of paper are not needed to support the amount of sand.  Below are pictures illustrating the first trial.

Image 1: The first trial of retaining the sand, using 8 pieces of paper.

Image 2: Also the first trial of retaining the sand.  This image illustrates the shortness of the paper, and also illustrates the side sand leakage that will always occur upon testing.

Image 3: Gabe standing on the retaining wall.  Notice the cut layer of paper did not compromise the strength of the wall.

Image 4: Collage of images from the lab.  The bottom right corner picture shows the group unscrewing the bolts from the box before the front was pulled off.

Post Lab