Science Fair, pressure to break a bone

Tantastic

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data

Okay, basically I had a bone in ballistic gels, and I dropped a hexagon (6 sided) weight with the measurements of 1 and 1/2 inches per side from 1 feet, 1 1/2 feet and 2 feet on the ballistic gel enclosed bone. Basically I will need a formula to calculate the psi that he bone experienced.

Edit: I calculated the area of the weight to be 13 1/2 square inches, but please double check this.

According to http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/flobi.html , the N (Newton?) is 1599, can we convert it to PSI?

2. Relevant equations

How much PSI did the dropping weight cause on the bone?

3. The attempt at a solution

I tried to find a formula to calculate it, but was not really sucessful.


Edit: Okay, so the surface area is 13.5 square inches.. i do not know what formular to use to calculate PSI from this point.

ideasrule

You can't calculate it. If the bone is stiff and doesn't bend a lot, it would exert a huge force; if it does bend a lot, it would exert a small force. You really need to have something push down on the bone with its weight rather than dropping something and hoping to calculate pressure that way.

danielatha4

pounds x 4.4 = Newtons

1599/4.4 = pounds

Pounds/Area(in^2) = psi