NIWA Wellington Science and Technology Fair
We are pleased to continue our association with the NIWA Wellington Science and Technology Fair as judges and sponsors at the 2011competition recently held in Wellington.
The high standard of the exhibits and the commitment of the students and all those involved in the Science and Technology Fair was inspiring.
Our congratulations to Levi McElwain from Kelburn Normal School  with his exhibit "The Triangle of Life or Death" and to Meg Finlayson from St Oran's College with her exhibit "Earthquake" who were the recipients of the Devereux-Blum special prizes.
Levi McElwain in posing the question 'The Triangle of Life or Death?" experimented by using figurines 'Doug' and 'Johnny' to test Drop Cover Hold versus the Triangle of Life to determine the best position to use in an earthquake.
Doug and Johnny were tested with the situation of Falling Shattered Glass, Falling Wardrobes and a Falling Television. Levi also tested whether 'Holding onto Something' was better than 'Not Holding onto Something' and if 'Taking Cover' was better than 'Not Taking Cover'.
Levi concluded that after finishing the testing it was easy to say that it is very dangerous to be in the Triangle of Life position during an earthquake because 'Doug' did not survive.
This further showed that that Drop, Cover and Hold On is the safest position to be in during an earthquake because 'Johnny' had been untouched in all the experiments. Â Levi recommends that ' next time you are in a big earthquake, definitely Drop, Cover and Hold On is the way to go!'
The aim of Meg Finalyson's 'Earthquake' experiment was to 'conduct a simulated earthquake on a shake table to test what is the best way to reinforce a building by applying bracing, to help it withstand an earthquake for longer'
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Meg concluded that ...'The results clearly show that the best way overall to brace a structure for stability would be using cross bracing on all sides, and on all storeys of the building.
But, because it is one of the heaviest types of bracing it would also be the most expensive. The heavier the bracing, the longer it can withstand the shaking. Cross bracing, which was the most successful held the structure together for 5 drops, which is 7.15 seconds, and it was still standing without any imperfections. This meant that it could withstand earthquakes better than any of the other types of bracing tested.
The string cross bracing, although it weighed only 1g more than the building itself, actually out performed several other types of bracing. This shows that no matter what material I used, that cross bracing is the best sort of bracing for a building'.
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