Experiment: Testing the infiltration capacity of soils

Materials: Tins with their tops and bottoms removed, water

Method

1. Gently push the tins into the ground, make sure that they are in different soil types
2. Pour 100ml of water into the cylinders and measure how long it takes for the water to disappear using the a stop watch

Results

• The water quickly disappeared in sandy soils
• It took longer to disappear in loamy soils
• It took even longer to disappear in clay soils

Conclusion

• Water quickly infiltrates sand soil when compared with clay soil

NB There are other factors that affect infiltration and thus this experiment should not be done in summer when the water table is high and the soil is near its infiltration capacity

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