Running Head: RECYCLING AGAINST RADIATION 1

Recycling Against Radiation

George French and Zane Vandivere

4/4/19

Dr. Psaker
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Goals

We aim to further research possible causes for the differences between the two data sets

our experiment resulted in. We will also further prepare for ISEF by extending the project and

verifying our data. To further verify the data, we plan to perform in-depth research on the

recycling process for high density polyethylene, in order to further investigate why our radiation

shields performed better than the virgin plastic shields.

Recycling Against Radiation 3

Accomplishments

We successfully measured the densities of the HDPE shields and found only a 3%

difference between them, which is negligible for the sake of the project. We won first place in

physics and the grand prize at the Prince William-Manassas Regional Science Fair. We also

received the second place award, winning a trip to NASA’s Goddard Center in Maryland.

Finally, we were also invited to a boarding school science fair.

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Data and Results

Table 1. This table shows all of the data recorded to calculate the density of the non-recycled

plastic shields. Using percent difference, we found the density of the recycled shields to be 3%

lower than the virgin shields. This difference is most likely due to measurement errors with the

volume.
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References

We have no new references to report.