Geology and electronics

computer guy

Hi everyone,

I have a girlfriend who is interested in geology.
I want to do a project that involves geology and electronics so that we can spend time doing what we like with the person we love.

However I am having difficulty working out what we can do.

I am open to suggestions.


Thank you

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Building Blocks To The Propeller Chip A web site designed to help people who are new to the propeller chip.

Guitar Hero controller using the prop (WIP) --> HERE

PJAllen

seismology

computer guy

Something simple that can be done over a weekend and that doesn't involve living in a country that is prone to have earthquakes.

Thanks for suggestion anyway PJ Allen.

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Building Blocks To The Propeller Chip A web site designed to help people who are new to the propeller chip.

Guitar Hero controller using the prop (WIP) --> HERE

PJAllen

· Simulate an earthquake.··

kenwtn

Plotter

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<sub>When you spend 10 times what it cost to build it yourself - That's when it becomes a HOBBY !

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computer guy

Thank you for your suggestions but a suggestion longer than one word would be nice.

Thank you

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Building Blocks To The Propeller Chip A web site designed to help people who are new to the propeller chip.

Guitar Hero controller using the prop (WIP) --> HERE

kenwtn

This is a home built CNC but could be a plotter.
·http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6drMZqmyXQc&feature=related

With sensors what you plot is up to you

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<sub>When you spend 10 times what it cost to build it yourself - That's when it becomes a HOBBY !

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kenwtn

Better example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D90pQRkm_VE&feature=related


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<sub>When you spend 10 times what it cost to build it yourself - That's when it becomes a HOBBY !

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computer guy

I am assuming it would plot something geological, but what.

Thank you

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Building Blocks To The Propeller Chip A web site designed to help people who are new to the propeller chip.

Guitar Hero controller using the prop (WIP) --> HERE

SRLM

Geology is not my forte, but here is an idea: make a device that can read the color information of a rock. For example, your geology girlfriend puts a rock sample in the machine, the machine goes hummm, and outputs several numbers for different color strengths (Red, Green, Yellow, Infrared, so on). It also could store the color codes of a particular rock type and display the best fit rock type along with the color code. It seems that color is an important part of geology, yet all too often a qualitative measurement instead of a quanitative measurement. With this project, while not a huge one, it will probably take a couple weekends to design, build, and test. There was a similar project discussed in a recent issue of Make Magazine that foccused on identifying liquids.

Hope this helps.

SRLM

If you built the project then your girlfriend could also use it to compare earth to other planets based on color! Cool!

computer guy

Thank you

These are some interesting ideas.

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Building Blocks To The Propeller Chip A web site designed to help people who are new to the propeller chip.

Guitar Hero controller using the prop (WIP) --> HERE

SRLM

Just as a guideline: what area of geology are you/girlfriend interrested in? There are a ton of different disciplines to choose from...

computer guy

Lets see, she has a rock collection and when we watch movies, mainly "The Core" she points out all of the flaws in the way rock formations react to lightning and such.

She just likes it in general. She knows allot about everything geological.

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Building Blocks To The Propeller Chip A web site designed to help people who are new to the propeller chip.

Guitar Hero controller using the prop (WIP) --> HERE

SRLM

Okay. Here is another idea: measure the propogation of seismic waves in a piece of earth. For this you're not expected to wait for an earthquake. Rather, you create them yourself. You have two stations, and you put them a measured distance apart (say 20 feet for now). The one is the sender, and another is the reciever. The sender slams the ground with a plate or something, and at the same time sends out a radio wave. The recieve measures the time between receiving the wave and recieving the pulse in the earth, and it also measures the intensity. You can infer a bunch of different things from this information, more if you get stuff like soil moisture, weight, and so on.

With this project, even if you don't know the rock type/ soil type, you can determine how safe the ground is to build on. Just wish some bridge engineers in Minneapolis had something of the like.

computer guy

SRLM said...
Just wish some bridge engineers in Minneapolis had something of the like.

Lol. I like your ideas.

Thank you

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Building Blocks To The Propeller Chip A web site designed to help people who are new to the propeller chip.

Guitar Hero controller using the prop (WIP) --> HERE

SRLM

I may be overloading you, but your mention of the Core got me started: how about a device the measures the amount/type of dissolved rock in a water sample. This was inspired by the strata from a cave, but you could use it anywhere rock is dissolved. In fact, this could probably be a function to be installed on the first suggestion to further enhance its capabilities.

So correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that any project you build will be to do some sort of measurement. Else, if I did something active like drilling, it would be engineering (unless it was a tool of some kind. Hmm, have to think on that one.)

SRLM

Here would be an interresting project: a device to meaure radiated heat. I'm assuming that different rock/soil types radiate the heat from the sun at different rates, and hence can be used to determine composition. Isn't that how astronomers calculate the make-up of distant planets? Anyway, you could build a device that you point at the sample that you want to measure, and leave it out for a cycle of heat/cold. It then measures the rate of heat dissapation. The device would probably have to measure windspeed/temperature and maybe provide shade for the example, but that is something that you would have to research.

SRLM

An enhancement to the first design or a whole new project: a device that measures the magnatism of a rock. The device could have two different functions: find and measure. The first would dirrect you to a patch of ground that has a deviation from the normal magnetic dirrection, and the measure could take a sample and measure how strong it is with relation to the overall earth magnetic field. This could probably be done fairly simply with a compass: just take the rock sample and measure how it deflects the compass as the rock is rotated 360 degrees. You could then infer/calculate the strength.

If none of these work for you, I suggest that you ask your gf exactly what it is that she wants to measure, and then build a device to suit. Just don't let her ask for a rock timeline/dating device. I think spectrography and radioactive decay is probably outside the limit of the hobby line.

jazzed

Is there a way to send a wave through the ground (and get an echo) without physically touching it? Your Geologist may have an answer (I'm certainly not a Geologist). Being able to map what's "down-under" would be very useful it seems. Where is the water table? When I start drilling for oil, how many layers of rock to I have to go through? Just where is the magma layer under my house anyway? What about detecting faults? Is my house over a fault or a sink hole? I've seen 3D images of how faults look like the great New-Madrid.

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SRLM

For my suggestion above, I intended that one of the BS2s would have some sort of ram, maybe powered by a solanoid. I don't think that it's possible to really do ground mapping without physical contact. The best way to map the ground is probably sound waves, and if your emitter wasn't on the ground I think the waves would just bounce off. Of course, some would go in, but to get any significant amount you'll need a really loud sound (for non-contact). My analysis.