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27 votes
27 votes
A group of students conducted an activity about Earth's interior. They followed these steps:

Make a mixture of sand, toothpicks, and pennies in a bowl.

Fill a large clear container with water.

Pour the mixture into the container with water.

Record your observations.

One of the students recorded her observations as shown below.


Observations: The pennies sank to the bottom of the container the fastest. The sand covered the pennies, and the toothpicks floated on top of the water.


What did this activity most likely show about Earth's interior?

Study Island

User Boyo
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2 Answers

20 votes
20 votes

Final answer:

The students' activity likely demonstrates Earth's differentiation process by showing the separation of materials based on density, similar to how Earth's layers have formed.

Step-by-step explanation:

The activity conducted by the students likely demonstrates the concept of differentiation, a process that has shaped the interior structure of Earth. Differentiation is the sorting of materials by density, with denser materials sinking and less dense materials rising. This would explain why in the student's experiment the pennies, representing denser materials like metals, sank to the bottom; the sand, which could represent silicate minerals, settled above the pennies; and the toothpicks, representing less dense materials, floated on top of the water. This physical change is analogous to how Earth's layers have formed over time, with the densest materials forming the core, and the less dense materials forming the mantle and crust.

Scientists use various tools like seismic waves, drilling technologies, and core samples to determine the depth and composition of Earth's layers. The experiment of pushing a clear plastic straw through layered Play-Doh and pulling it out to observe the 'sediment' layers mimics the way geologists retrieve core samples to study the Earth's stratification.

User Derryl Thomas
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3.3k points
11 votes
11 votes

Step-by-step explanation:

Well...The earth has different layers and as it formed, the lighter parts (like continental crust) floated to the surface, and the really heavy parts (like iron and nickel in the core) sank to the middle. Perhaps it's trying to show this?

User Steve Breese
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2.8k points