School: Down to Earth School Area of Science: Engineering
Interim: We are concerned about children in our area getting
burned by slides at local parks and in yards at home. Children
all over the U.S have been burned by playground equipment from
the ages of 6 months to 6 years. Most of the burns occur due to
young children not having the reaction of pulling away from
heated materials quick enough. Density is defined as weight per
unit volume, though more properly called “specific weight”. Less
dense materials heat faster because the amount of atoms is less
and they take less time for all to heat. Light from the sun
excites electrons in the atoms which create the materials
themselves. This is knows as “radiationless transitions”. The
atoms of the material vibrate and that vibrational energy is
roughly equal to the electronic energy (photons) absorbed from
the sun. We hope to find a safer alternative material for slides
by learning how the density of material holds heat and changes
temperature. We hope to use th