Science Club Prep: The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Book of Massively Epic Engineering Disasters:
33 Thrilling Experiments Based on History's Greatest Blunders
by Sean Connolly

The Leaning Tower of Pisa
1173 CE

2021 notes:
The Book of Massively Epic Engineering Disasters

2022 notes & photos:
The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Preparation:

experiment 5: Will It Tip?

empty 12 oz soda can

water

experiment 6: It's Sinking In

10 sheets of scrap paper

large dictionary

10 hardback books

2 empty egg cartons

Galileo Book Display

Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei
by Peter Sís

Mathematicians Are People, Too: volume 1
by Luetta and Wilmer Reimer

also

supplies for Four Components of Productive Soil



four brown paper bags

Sharpie

$1.00 bill and 20 nickels from The Allowance Game

living houseplant

rock

dish of water

organic material

clear box


supplies for law of falling bodies

plastic Easter eggs

small wooden weights

stool or chair


supplies for law of pendulums

length of string

S-hook

metal washers

stopwatch


Timeline: Science and Discoveries card game

Activities:

read "The Leaning Tower of Pisa" information
from The Book of Massively Epic Engineering Disasters, pp. 29-33

do experiment #5 "Will It Tip?"

do experiment #6 "It's Sinking In"



discuss:
is there an amount of weight that we could put on the living room floor where it would bend or shift? yes, if a huge amount of weight was put on top of the space between the floor joists!

walk barefoot along the upstairs hallway and feel the place where the floor noticably curves underfoot; go into the crawlspace to see the floor joists below the living room floor


explain the Four Components of Productive Soil

note that on a build site, before the foundation is poured, construction equipment will very carefully remove the topsoil in order to get down to the subsoil (the loose fluffy soil that farmers want is the exact opposite of the tightly compacted soil that builders want!)

Extensions:

read "Seeing Isn't Believing" chapter about Galileo Galilei from Mathematicians Are People, Too: volume 1, pp. 45-49

do experiments for Law of Falling Bodies

do experiments for Law of Pendulums

play Timeline: Science and Discoveries