Howardites

A printable worksheet for the lesson Falls and finds (Start here: Explorer). It prints on A4 without the website around it. The answers are on a separate sheet for the teacher.

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Start here: Explorer · Ages 10 and upHowardites worksheet

Falls and finds

Name:Class:Date:

Key words

Meteorite
A meteorite is a piece of space rock that has survived its fall through the air and landed on Earth.
Fall
A fall is a meteorite that people saw coming down and then collected.
Find
A find is a meteorite discovered on the ground without anyone having seen it fall.
Fireball
A fireball is an extra-bright meteor, brighter than the planet Venus.
Sonic boom
A sonic boom is the thunder-like bang made by a meteoroid moving faster than sound through the air.
Terrestrial weathering
Terrestrial weathering is the slow breakdown of a meteorite by air, water and temperature changes after it lands on Earth.

Choose the right answer

Circle the letter of the right answer.

  1. Out of 1,000 witnessed falls, about how many would you expect to be irons?
    • AAbout 400 to 500
    • BAbout 4 to 5
    • CAbout 900
    • DAbout 40 to 50
  2. How long after landing might a find be picked up?
    • ANever more than about one hundred years later
    • BAlways within a year, before it rusts
    • CAlways within a day or two of landing
    • DFrom years to hundreds of thousands of years
  3. A fireball camera films a fireball, and a fresh stone is found a week later where the track predicted. Is it a fall or a find?
    • AA find, because it was picked up a week later
    • BA find, because no person saw it land
    • CNeither, until a person reports seeing it
    • DA fall, because it was detected coming down
  4. Why do scientists grade a find's weathering so carefully?
    • AIt can affect the results of chemical tests
    • BIt shows how long it was in space
    • CIt decides the meteorite's name
    • DIt reveals which asteroid it came from
  5. Why does the mix of falls give a fairer picture of what arrives from space?
    • AFalls are noticed whatever they look like
    • BFalls are always the largest meteorites
    • CFalls only happen over cities
    • DFalls are always iron meteorites

True or false?

Is the answer given right? Tick True or False.

  1. How do chemicals from Earth get inside a find that has lain in the ground?

    Answer given: They creep in through cracks TrueFalse

  2. Which is the oldest meteorite fall from which material still survives?

    Answer given: Nogata, in Japan, in 861 TrueFalse

Write your answer

Answer in a word or a short sentence.

  1. Why can a meteorite count as a fall even if no person saw it?
  2. Two finds of the same type were found after 100 years and after 50,000 years on Earth. Which needs more care in chemical tests?
  3. What does the mix of falls tell scientists?

Task

Make a two-column table headed Falls and Finds. As you go through this course, add each named meteorite to the correct column. By the end you will have your own catalogue.

Howardites · free to copy for use in your classroom · answers are on the separate teacher's answer sheet