10/9/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 13, but only the questions for the activities you completed in class today. There will be time allotted tomorrow to finish any remaining questions.

Assignment #13 Soil Characteristic Investigation – Day 2 Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability in complete sentences in your LAB NOTEBOOK.

Activity 1 – Water-Holding Capacity and Capillary Action of Soil

1. Explain which type of soil could be added to the local soil you are using in order to…

a. improve its ability to hold water.

b. decrease its ability to retain water.

2. Thoroughly analyze your data – produce a graph, evaluate your hypothesis and support your conclusions by referring to data/calculations.

Activity 4 – Determination of Soil Permeability

3. Make inferences based on your observations and data. Support these inferences by referring to your data. Be specific.

4. Now explain what happened to produce your observations and data. Connect the observations/data to your notes and reading about porosity, permeability, different types of soil particles, etc.

5. Imagine a sloping field of sandy soil and a sloping field of soil with a high clay content, each with an identical drainage ditch at the bottom. After a prolonged, heavy downpour, which ditch would be more likely to be flooded? Explain.

6. Most plants need water to penetrate the soil. What soil particle type could be added to your local soil sample in order to increase the soil’s permeability? Support your answer.

Activity 1 – Water Holding Capacity and Capillary Action of Soil

	Clay	Sand	Humus	Local Soil
1. Weight of Empty Column	3.1	3.1	3.1	3.1
2. Weight of Column and Soil	16.9	22.9	14.6	13.8
3. Weight of Soil	13.8	21.4	13.0	10.6
4. Weight of Column and Saturated Soil	27.1	28.6	20.9	19.9
5. Weight of Water	10.2	6.0	5.2	6.7
6. Water Holding Capacity	.7	.3	.4	.6