Research

Hypothesis:


Hypothesis

My hypothesis is that the effect of an explosion on glass, a material that has no porosity, will create porosity.

Result

I brought together small, medium and large elements of explosion (driving through the glass, exploding a small room with a glass window, and blowing up a 3 storey glass building) to test the effect of explosions on a space and the glass objects within that space. The result was that porosity was created when the glass was broken as the grains of glass permeate the space around it when the glass shatters.

POROSITY:

Porosity is a measure of the unoccupied spaces in a material. Initially, I thought about common things with porosity such as rocks and soil, but after considering the idea of explosions, I thought about glass and what happens when it breaks. After some research, I found that glass, a solid that has no porosity, could be changed to have porosity when it breaks into grains of glass, or when it is grinded into powder. Once the glass particles are melted back together, the porosity will disappear and this is why glass is transparent.
I wanted to demonstrate severe impact and snow-ball effect of an explosion on glass by showing glass breaking (the individual inter-atomic bonds between them) through the most common means, such as striking it with a solid force (eg a man running through a glass pane; a bullet), hitting it with loud sound (sound and energy waves/vibrations), and when hot water is poured into a glass of water.

MODE OF DOCUMENTATION (150 words)

I used the classic Expository mode of documentary as I used text to directly speak to the viewer and in this text, I tried to form a very strong, authoritative, and objective point of view. I did this by asking the rhetorical question “but what happens when it (glass) is broken?”, and I used images to interpret and advance my argument. The text fixes the meaning of the images and the audience is expected to trust and accept my narration. I coupled multiple images of glass breaking and it is all very dramatic in order to persuade my audience to believe and share my view- that glass, traditionally believed to have no porosity, can in fact demonstrate porosity when broken (by the impact of an explosion).

References:
http://condor.depaul.edu/~dtudor/DOCUMENTARY%20MODES.htmhttp://www.girishshambu.com/blog/2006/12/six-types-of-documentary.htmlhttp://www.mediaknowall.com/Documentary/definitions.html