Atmospheres

Sunday September 1, 2013

Scientists do experiments here on Earth to better understand the physics of distant worlds. We’re going
to simulate the different atmospheres and take data based on the model we use.


Each planet has its own unique atmospheric conditions. Mars and Mercury have very thin atmospheres, while Earth has a decent atmosphere (as least, we like to think so). Venus’s atmosphere is so thick and dense (92 times that of the Earth’s) that it heats up the planet so it’s the hottest rock around. Jupiter and Saturn are so gaseous that it’s hard to tell where the atmosphere ends and the planet starts, so scientists define the layers based on the density and temperature changes of the gases. Uranus and Neptune are called ice giants because of the amounts of ice in their atmospheres.


Materials


  • 4 thermometers
  • 3 jars or water bottles
  • Plastic wrap or clear plastic baggie
  • Wax paper
  • Stopwatch
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How Much Energy Does the Sun Produce?

Friday November 4, 2011

Without the sun, there would be no life on Earth. The sun warms the earth, generates wind, and carries water into the air to produce rain and snow. The energy of the sun provides sunlight for all the plant life on our planet, and through plants provides energy for all animals.


The sun is like a giant furnace in which hydrogen nuclei (atoms without electrons) are constantly smashed together to form helium nuclei. This process is called nuclear fusion. In this process, 3.6 billion kilograms (8 billion pounds) of matter are converted to pure energy every second. The temperature in the sun exceeds 15 million degrees.


Nuclear fusion is one kind of energy. Other forms of energy include: mechanical energy, heat, electrical energy, chemical energy, and light. Mechanical energy is the energy of organized motion, such as a turning wheel. Heat is the energy of random motion, such as a cup of hot water. Electrical energy is the energy of moving charged particles or electrons, such as a current in a wire. Chemical energy is the energy stored in bonds that hold atoms together. Light is any form of electromagnetic waves, such as X rays, microwaves, radio waves, ultraviolet light, or visible light.


Energy can be converted from one from to another. For example, the nuclear energy of the sun is converted to light, which goes through space to the earth. Solar collectors of mirrors can be used to focus some of that light to heat water to steam. This steam can be used to turn a turbine, which can power a generator to produce electricity.


Most of our energy needs are met by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas. The chemical energy stored in these substances is released by burning these fuels. When fossil fuels burn, they combine with oxygen in the air and produce heat and light.


Fossil fuels are not renewable. When they are used up, they are gone forever. However, renewable energy sources such as wind, sun, geothermal, biomass and water power are renewable. They can be used over and over to generate the energy to run our society.


Tremendous amounts of renewable energy are available. For example, the solar energy that falls on just the road surfaces in the United States is equal to the entire energy needs of the country. Although there are sufficient amounts of renewable energy, we must improve our methods of collecting, concentrating, and converting renewable energy into useful forms.


In the following experiments, you will learn something about the amount of energy the sun produces at the earth’s surface and how heat energy can be stored.
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How Can Water Be Used to Store Heat Energy?

Friday November 4, 2011

Temperature is a measure of the average hotness of an object. The hotter an object, the higher its temperature. As the temperature is raised, the atoms and molecules in an object move faster. The molecules in hot water move faster than the molecules in cold water. Remember that the heat energy stored in an object depends on both the temperature and the amount of the substance. A smaller amount of water will have less heat energy than a larger amount of water at the same temperature.


Increasing the temperature of a large body of water is one way to store heat energy for later use. A large container filled with salt water, called brine, may be used to absorb heat energy during the day when it is warm. This energy will be held in the salt water until the night when it is cooler. This stored heat energy can be released at night to warm a house or building. This is one way to store the sun’s heat energy until it is needed.


Solar ponds are used to store energy from the sun. Temperatures close to 100°C (212°F) have been achieved in solar ponds. Solar ponds contain a layer of fresh water above a layer of salt water. Because the salt water is heavier, it remains at the bottom of the pond-even as it gets quite hot. A black plastic bottom helps absorb solar energy from sunlight. The water on top serves to insulate and trap the heat in the pond.


In a fresh water pond, as the water on the bottom is heated from sunlight, the hot water becomes lighter and rises to the top of the pond. This convection or movement of hot water to the top tends to carry away excess heat. However, in a salt water pond, there is no convection so heat is trapped. In Israel a series of salt water, solar ponds were developed around the Dead Sea. The heat stored in these solar ponds has been used to run turbines and generate electricity.
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Can Wind Be Used as a Source of Energy?

Friday November 4, 2011

The United States has large reserves of coal, natural gas, and crude oil which is used to make gasoline. However, the United States uses the energy of millions of barrels of crude oil every day, and it must import about half its crude oil from other countries.


Burning fossil fuels (oil, coal, gasoline, and natural gas) produces carbon dioxide gas. Carbon dioxide is one of the main greenhouse gases that may contribute to global warming. In addition, burning coal and gasoline can produce pollution molecules that contribute to smog and acid rain.


Using renewable energy-such as solar, wind, water, biomass, and geothermal-could help reduce pollution, prevent global warming, and decrease acid rain. Nuclear energy also has these advantages, but it requires storing radioactive wastes generated by nuclear power plants. Currently, renewable energy produces only a small part of the energy needs of the


United States. However, as technology improves, renewable energy should become less expensive and more common.


Hydropower (water power) is the least expensive way to produce I electricity. The sun causes water to evaporate. The evaporated water falls to the earth as rain or snow and fills lakes. Hydropower uses water stored in lakes behind dams. As water flows through a dam, the falling water turns turbines that run generators to produce electricity.


Currently, geothermal energy (heat inside the earth), biomass (energy from plants), solar energy (light from concentrated sunlight), and wind are being used to generate electricity. For example, in California there are more than sixteen thousand (16,000) wind turbines that generate enough power to supply a city the size of San Francisco with electricity.


In addition to producing more energy, we can also help meet our energy needs through conservation. Conservation means using less energy and using it more efficiently.


In the following experiments, you will use wind to do work, examine how batteries can store energy, and see how insulation can save energy.
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Cartesian Diver

Sunday October 23, 2011

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French scientist and mathematician who used this same experiment show people about buoyancy. By squeezing the bottle, the test tube (diver) sinks and when released, the test tube surfaces. You can add hooks, rocks, and more to your set up to make this into a buoyancy game!
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Instant Ice

Thursday June 30, 2011

Supercooling a liquid is a really neat way of keeping the liquid a liquid below the freezing temperature. Normally, when you decrease the temperature of water below 32oF, it turns into ice. But if you do it gently and slowly enough, it will stay a liquid, albeit a really cold one!


In nature, you’ll find supercooled water drops in freezing rain and also inside cumulus clouds. Pilots that fly through these clouds need to pay careful attention, as ice can instantly form on the instrument ports causing the instruments to fail. More dangerous is when it forms on the wings, changing the shape of the wing and causing the wing to stop producing lift. Most planes have de-icing capabilities, but the pilot still needs to turn it on.


We’re going to supercool water, and then disturb it to watch the crystals grow right before our eyes! While we’re only going to supercool it a couple of degrees, scientists can actually supercool water to below -43oF!


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Hot Ice Sculptures

Thursday June 30, 2011

Did you know that supercooled liquids need to heat up in order to freeze into a solid? It’s totally backwards, I know…but it’s true! Here’s the deal:


A supercooled liquid is a liquid that you slowly and carefully bring down the temperature below the normal freezing point and still have it be a liquid. We did this in our Instant Ice experiment.


Since the temperature is now below the freezing point, if you disturb the solution, it will need to heat up in order to go back up to the freezing point in order to turn into a solid.


When this happens, the solution gives off heat as it freezes. So instead of cold ice, you have hot ice. Weird, isn’t it?


Sodium acetate is a colorless salt used making rubber, dying clothing, and neutralizing sulfuric acid (the acid found in car batteries) spills. It’s also commonly available in heating packs, since the liquid-solid process is completely reversible – you can melt the solid back into a liquid and do this experiment over and over again!


The crystals melt at 136oF (58oC), so you can pop this in a saucepan of boiling water (wrap it in a towel first so you don’t melt the bag) for about 10 minutes to liquify the crystals.


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Cloud Tracker Weather Instrument

Wednesday June 29, 2011

One of the most remarkable images of our planet has always been how dynamic the atmosphere is a photo of the Earth taken from space usually shows swirling masses of white wispy clouds, circling and moving constantly. So what are these graceful puffs that can both frustrate astronomers and excite photographers simultaneously?


Clouds are frozen ice crystals or white liquid water that you can see with your eyes. Scientists who study clouds go into a field of science called nephology, which is a specialized area of meteorology. Clouds don’t have to be made up of water – they can be any visible puff and can have all three states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas) existing within the cloud formation. For example, Jupiter has two cloud decks: the upper are water clouds, and the lower deck are ammonia clouds.


We’re going to learn how to build a weather instrument that will record whether (weather?) the day was sunny or cloudy using a very sensitive piece of paper. Are you ready?


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Thermometer

Wednesday June 29, 2011

First invented in the 1600s, thermometers measure temperature using a sensor (the bulb tip) and a scale. Temperature is a way of talking about, measuring, and comparing the thermal energy of objects. We use three different kinds of scales to measure temperature. Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin. (The fourth, Rankine, which is the absolute scale for Fahrenheit, is the one you’ll learn about in college.)


Mr. Fahrenheit, way back when (18th century) created a scale using a mercury thermometer to measure temperature. He marked 0° as the temperature ice melts in a tub of salt. (Ice melts at lower temperatures when it sits in salt. This is why we salt our driveways to get rid of ice). To standardize the higher point of his scale, he used the body temperature of his wife, 96°.


As you can tell, this wasn’t the most precise or useful measuring device. I can just imagine Mr. Fahrenheit, “Hmmm, something cold…something cold. I got it! Ice in salt. Good, okay there’s zero, excellent. Now, for something hot. Ummm, my wife! She always feels warm. Perfect, 96°. ” I hope he never tried to make a thermometer when she had a fever.


Just kidding, I’m sure he was very precise and careful, but it does seem kind of weird. Over time, the scale was made more precise and today body temperature is usually around 98.6°F.


Later, (still 18th century) Mr. Celsius came along and created his scale. He decided that he was going to use water as his standard. He chose the temperature that water freezes at as his 0° mark. He chose the temperature that water boils at as his 100° mark. From there, he put in 100 evenly spaced lines and a thermometer was born.


Last but not least Mr. Kelvin came along and wanted to create another scale. He said, I want my zero to be ZERO! So he chose absolute zero to be the zero on his scale.


Absolute zero is the theoretical temperature where molecules and atoms stop moving. They do not vibrate, jiggle or anything at absolute zero. In Celsius, absolute zero is -273 ° C. In Fahrenheit, absolute zero is -459°F (or 0°R). It doesn’t get colder than that!


As you can see, creating the temperature scales was really rather arbitrary:


“I think 0° is when water freezes with salt.”
“I think it’s just when water freezes.”
“Oh, yea, well I think it’s when atoms stop!”


Many of our measuring systems started rather arbitrarily and then, due to standardization over time, became the systems we use today. So that’s how temperature is measured, but what is temperature measuring?


Temperature is measuring thermal energy which is how fast the molecules in something are vibrating and moving. The higher the temperature something has, the faster the molecules are moving. Water at 34°F has molecules moving much more slowly than water at 150°F. Temperature is really a molecular speedometer.


Let’s make a quick thermometer so you can see how a thermometer actually works:


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Hygrometer

Wednesday June 29, 2011

Hygrometers measure how much water is in the air, called humidity. If it's raining, it's 100% humidity. Deserts and arid climates have low humidity and dry skin. Humidity is very hard to measure accurately, but scientists have figured out ways to measure how much moisture is absorbed by measuring the change in temperature (as with a sling psychrometer), pressure, or change in electrical resistance (most common).

The dewpoint is the temperature when moist air hits the water vapor saturation point. If the temperature goes below this point, the water in the air will condense and you have fog. Pilots look for temperature and dewpoint in their weather reports to tell them if the airport is clear, or if it''s going to be 'socked in'. If the temperature stays above the dewpoint, then the airport will be clear enough to land by sight. However, if the temperature falls below the dewpoint, then they need to land by instruments, and this takes preparation ahead of time.

A sling psychrometer uses two thermometers (image above), side by side. By keeping one thermometer wet and the other dry, you can figure out the humidity using a humidity chart. Such as the one on page two of this document. The psychrometer works because it measures wet-bulb and dry-bulb temperatures by slinging the thermometers around your head. While this sounds like an odd thing to do, there's a little sock on the bottom end of one of the thermometers which gets dipped in water. When air flows over the wet sock, it measures the evaporation temperature, which is lower than the ambient temperature, measured by the dry thermometer.

Scientists use the difference between these two to figure out the relative humidity. For example, when there's no difference between the two, it's raining (which is 100% humidity). But when there's a 9oC temperature difference between wet and dry bulb, the relative humidity is 44%. If there's 18oC difference, then it's only 5% humidity.

You can even make your own by taping two identical thermometers to cardboard, leaving the ends exposed to the air. Wrap a wet piece of cloth or tissue around the end of one and use a fan to blow across both to see the temperature difference!

One of the most precise are chilled mirror dewpoint hygrometers, which uses a chilled mirror to detect condensation on the mirror's surface. The mirror's temperature is controlled to match the evaporation and condensation points of the water, and scientists use this temperature to figure out the humidity.

We're going to make a very simple hygrometer so you get the hand of how humidity can change daily. Be sure to check this instrument right before it rains. This is a good instrument to read once a day and log it in your weather data book.

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Anemometer

Wednesday June 29, 2011

Most weather stations have anemometers to measure wind speed or wind pressure. The kind of anemometer we’re going to make is the same one invented back in 1846 that measures wind speed. Most anemometers use three cups, which is not only more accurate but also responds to wind gusts more quickly than a four-cup model.


Some anemometers also have an aerovane attached, which enables scientists to get both speed and direction information. It looks like an airplane without wings – with a propeller at the front and a vane at the back.


Other amemometers don’t have any moving parts – instead they measure the resistance of a very short, thin piece of tungsten wire. (Resistance is how much a substance resists the flow of electrical current. Copper has a low electrical resistance, whereas rubber has a very high resistance.) Resistance changes with the material’s temperature, so the tungsten wire is heated and placed in the airflow. The wind flowing over the wire cools it down and increases the resistance of the wire, and scientists can figure out the wind speed.


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Barometer

Wednesday June 29, 2011
French physicist Blaise Pascal. He developed work on natural and applied sciences as well being a skilled mathematician and religious philosopher.
French physicist Blaise Pascal. He developed work on natural and applied sciences as well being a skilled mathematician and religious philosopher.

A barometer uses either a gas (like air) or a liquid (like water or mercury) to measure pressure of the atmosphere. Scientists use barometers a lot when they predict the weather, because it’s usually a very accurate way to predict quick changes in the weather.


Barometers have been around for centuries – the first one was in the 1640s!


At any given momen, you can tell how high you are above sea level by measure the pressure of the air. If you measure the pressure at sea level using a barometer, and then go up a thousand feet in an airplane, it will always indicate exactly 3.6 kPa lower than it did at sea level.


Scientists measure pressure in “kPa” which stands for “kilo-Pascals”. The standard pressure is 101.3 kPa at sea level, and 97.7 kPa 1,000 feet above sea level. In fact, every thousand feet you go up, pressure decreases by 4%. In airplanes, pilots use this fact to tell how high they are. For 2,000 feet, the standard pressure will be 94.2 kPa. However, if you’re in a low front, the sea level pressure reading might be 99.8 kPa, but 1000 feet up it will always read 3.6 kPa lower, or 96.2 kPa.


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Rain Gauge

Wednesday June 29, 2011

Also known as an udometer or pluviometer or ombrometer, or just plan old ‘rain cup’, this device will let you know how much water came down from the skies. Folks in India used bowls to record rainfall and used to estimate how many crops they would grow and thus how much tax to collect!


These devices reports in “millimeters of rain” or “”centimeters of rain” or even inches of rain”.  Sometimes a weather station will collect the rain and send in a sample for testing levels of pollutants.


While collecting rain may seem simple and straightforward, it does have its challenges! Imagine trying to collect rainfall in high wind areas, like during a hurricane. There are other problems, like trying to detect tiny amounts of rainfall, which either stick to the side of the container or evaporate before they can be read on the instrument. And what happens if it rains and then the temperature drops below freezing, before you’ve had a chance to read your gauge? Rain gauges can also get clogged by snow, leaves, and bugs, not to mention used as a water source for birds.


So what’s a scientist to do?


Press onward, like all great scientists! And invent a type of rain gauge that will work for your area. We’re going to make a standard cylinder-type rain gauge, but I am sure you can figure out how to modify it into a weighing precipitation type (where you weigh the amount in the bottle instead of reading a scale on the side), or a tipping bucket type (where a funnel channels the rain to a see-saw that tips when it gets full with a set amount of water) , or even a buried-pit bucket (to keep the animals out).
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Desalination

Sunday October 31, 2010

This experiment is for advanced students.


Lewis and Clark did this same experiment when they reached the Oregon coast in 1805. Men from the expedition traveled fifteen miles south of the fort they had built at the mouth of the Columbia River to where Seaside, Oregon now thrives.


In 1805, however, it was just men from the fort and Indians. They built an oven of rocks. For six weeks, they processed 1,400 gallons of seawater, boiling the water off to gain 28 gallons of salt.


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Convection Currents

Sunday September 5, 2010

Every time I’m served a hot bowl of soup or a cup of coffee with cream I love to sit and watch the convection currents. You may look a little silly staring at your soup but give it a try sometime!


Convection is a little more difficult to understand than conduction. Heat is transferred by convection by moving currents of a gas or a liquid. Hot air rises and cold air sinks. It turns out, that hot liquid rises and cold liquid sinks as well.


Room heaters generally work by convection. The heater heats up the air next to it which makes the air rise. As the air rises it pulls more air in to take its place which then heats up that air and makes it rise as well. As the air get close to the ceiling it may cool. The cooler air sinks to the ground and gets pulled back near the heat source. There it heats up again and rises back up.


This movement of heating and cooling air is convection and it can eventually heat an entire room or a pot of soup. This experiment should allow you to see convection currents.


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Sensing Temperature

Sunday September 5, 2010

Temperature is a way of talking about, measuring, and comparing the thermal energy of objects.


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Food Dye Currents

Sunday September 5, 2010

When something feels hot to you, the molecules in that something are moving very fast. When something feels cool to you, the molecules in that object aren’t moving quite so fast. Believe it or not, your body perceives how fast molecules are moving by how hot or cold something feels. Your body has a variety of antennae to detect energy. Your eyes perceive certain frequencies of electromagnetic waves as light. Your ears perceive certain frequencies of longitudinal waves as sound. Your skin, mouth and tongue can perceive thermal energy as hot or cold. What a magnificent energy sensing instrument you are!


Let’s find out how to watch the hot and cold currents in water. Here’s what you need to do:


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Making Clouds

Sunday September 5, 2010

Indoor Rain Clouds

Making indoor rain clouds demonstrates the idea of temperature, the measure of how hot or cold something is. Here’s how to do it:


Take two clear glasses that fit snugly together when stacked. (Cylindrical glasses with straight sides work well.)


Fill one glass half-full with ice water and the other half-full with very hot water (definitely an adult job – and take care not to shatter the glass with the hot water!). Be sure to leave enough air space for the clouds to form in the hot glass.


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Soaking Up Rays

Sunday September 5, 2010

Heat is transferred by radiation through electromagnetic waves. Remember, when we talked about waves and energy? Well, heat can be transferred by electromagnetic waves. Energy is vibrating particles that can move by waves over distances right? Well, if those vibrating particles hit something and cause those particles to vibrate (causing them to move faster/increasing their temperature) then heat is being transferred by waves. The type of electromagnetic waves that transfer heat are infra-red waves. The Sun transfers heat to the Earth through radiation.


If you hold your hand near (not touching) an incandescent light bulb until you can feel heat on your hand, you’ll be able to understand how light can travel like a wave. This type of heat transfer is called radiation.


Now don’t panic. This is not a bad kind of radiation like you get from x-rays. It’s infra-red radiation. Heat was transferred from the light bulb to your hand. The energy from the light bulb resonated the molecules in your hand. (Remember resonance?) Since the molecules in your hand are now moving faster, they have increased in temperature. Heat has been transferred! In fact, an incandescent light bulb gives off more energy in heat then it does in light. They are not very energy efficient.


Now, if it’s a hot sunny day outside, are you better off wearing a black or white shirt if you want to stay cool? This experiment will help you figure this out:


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Liquid Crystals

Sunday September 5, 2010

If you’ve completed the Soaking Up Rays experiment, you might still be a bit baffled as to why there’s a difference between black and white. Here’s a great way to actually “see” radiation by using liquid crystal thermal sheets.


You’ll need to find a liquid crystal sheet that has a temperature range near body temperature (so it changes color when you warm it with your hands.)


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Water Purification

Wednesday June 30, 2010

Ever wonder how the water draining down your sink gets clean again? Think about it: The water you use to clean your dishes is the same water that runs through the toilet.  There is only one water pipe to the house, and that source provides water for the dishwasher, tub, sink, washing machine, toilet, fish tank, and water filter on the front of your fridge.  And there’s only one drain from your house, too!  How can you be sure what’s in the water you’re using?


This experiment will help you turn not only your coffee back into clear water, but the swamp muck from the back yard as well.  Let’s get started.
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Streaming Water

Tuesday June 1, 2010

Fill the bathtub and climb in. Grab your water bottle and tack and poke several holes into the lower half the water bottle. Fill the bottle with water and cap it. Lift the bottle above the water level in the tub and untwist the cap. Water should come streaming out. Close the cap and the water streams should stop. Open the cap and when the water streams out again, can you “pinch” two streams together using your fingers?


Materials: A tack, and a plastic water bottle with cap, and bathtub


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Sneaky Bottles

Tuesday June 1, 2010

This experiment illustrates that air really does take up space! You can’t inflate the balloon inside the bottle without the holes, because it’s already full of air. When you blow into the bottle with the holes, air is allowed to leak out making room for the balloon to inflate. With the intact bottle, you run into trouble because there’s nowhere for the air already inside the bottle to go when you attempt to inflate the balloon.


You’ll need to get two balloons, one tack, and two empty water bottles.


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Squished Balloon

Tuesday June 1, 2010

Fire eats air, or in more scientific terms, the air gets used up by the flame and lowers the air pressure inside the jar. The surrounding air outside the jar is now at a higher pressure than the air inside the jar and it pushes the balloon into the jar. Remember: Higher pressure pushes!


Materials: a balloon, one empty glass jar, scrap of paper towel , matches with an adult


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Fountain Bottle

Tuesday June 1, 2010

As you blow air into the bottle, the air pressure increases inside the bottle. This higher pressure pushes on the water, which gets forced up and out the straw (and up your nose!).


Materials: small lump of clay, water, a straw, and one empty 2-liter soda bottle.


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Ping Pong Funnel

Monday May 31, 2010

As you blow into the funnel, the air under the ball moves faster than the other air surrounding the ball, which generates an area of lower air pressure. The pressure under the ball is therefore lower than the surrounding air which is, by comparison, at a higher pressure. This higher pressure pushes the ball back into the funnel, no matter how hard you blow or which way you hold the funnel. The harder you blow, the more stuck the ball becomes. Cool.


Materials: A funnel and a ping pong ball


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Magic Water Glass Trick

Monday May 31, 2010

Where’s the pressure difference in this trick?


At the opening of the glass. The water inside the glass weighs a pound at best, and, depending on the size of the opening of the glass, the air pressure is exerting 15-30 pounds upward on the bottom of the card. Guess who wins? Tip, when you get good at this experiment, try doing it over a friend’s head!


Materials: a glass, and an index card large enough to completely cover the mouth of the glass.


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Hot Air Balloon

Monday May 31, 2010

About 400 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci wanted to fly… so he studied the only flying things around at that time: birds and insects. Then he did what any normal kid would do—he drew pictures of flying machines!


Centuries later, a toy company found his drawing for an ornithopter, a machine that flew by flapping its wings (unlike an airplane, which has non-moving wings). The problem (and secret to the toy’s popularity) was that with its wing-flapping design, the ornithopter could not be steered and was unpredictable: It zoomed, dipped, rolled, and looped through the sky. Sick bags, anyone?


Hot air balloons that took people into the air first lifted off the ground in the 1780s, shortly after Leonardo da Vinci’s plans for the ornithopter took flight. While limited seating and steering were still major problems to overcome, let’s get a feeling for what our scientific forefathers experienced as we make a balloon that can soar high into the morning sky.


Materials: A lightweight plastic garbage bag, duct or masking tape, a hand-held hair dryer. And a COLD morning.


Here’s what you do:


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Diaper Wind Bag

Monday May 31, 2010

Lots of science toy companies will sell you this experiment, but why not make your own? You’ll need to find a loooooong bag, which is why we recommend a diaper genie. A diaper genie is a 25′ long plastic bag, only both ends are open so it’s more like a tube. You can get three 8-foot bags out of one pack.


Kids have a tendency to shove the bag right up to their face and blow, cutting off the air flow from the surrounding air into the bag. When they figure out this experiment and perform it correctly, this is one of those oooh-ahhh experiments that will leave your kids with eyes as big as dinner plates.


Here’s what you do:


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Genie in a Bottle

Monday May 31, 2010

While this isn’t actually an air-pressure experiment but more of an activity in density, really, it’s still a great visual demonstration of why Hot Air Balloons rise on cold mornings.


Imagine a glass of hot water and a glass of cold water sitting on a table, side by side. Now imagine you have a way to count the number of water molecules in each glass. Which glass has more water molecules?


The glass of cold water has way more molecules… but why? The cold water is more dense than the hot water. Warmer stuff tends to rise because it’s less dense than colder stuff and that’s why the hot air balloon in experiment 1.10 floated up to the sky.


Clouds form as warm air carrying moisture rises within cooler air. As the warm, wet air rises, it cools and begins to condense, releasing energy that keeps the air warmer than its surroundings. Therefore, it continues to rise. Sometimes, in places like Florida, this process continues long enough for thunderclouds to form. Let’s do an experiment to better visualize this idea.


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Soda Can Trick

Monday May 31, 2010

When air moves, the air pressure decreases. This creates a lower air pressure pocket right between the cans relative to the surrounding air. Because higher pressure pushes, the cans clink together. Just remember – whenever there’s a difference in pressure, the higher pressure pushes.


You will need about 25 straws and two empty soda cans or other lightweight containers


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Air Takes Space

Monday May 31, 2010

You’re about to play with one of the first methods of underwater breathing developed for scuba divers hundreds of years ago.! Back then, scientists would invert a very large clear, bell-shaped jar over a diver standing on a platform, then lower the whole thing into the water. Everyone thought this was a great idea, until the diver ran out of breathable air…


Materials: 12″ flexible tubing, two clear plastic cups, bathtub


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Squished Soda Can

Sunday January 31, 2010

An average can of soda at room temperature measures 55 psi before you ever crack it open. (In comparison, most car tires run on 35 psi, so that gives you an idea how much pressure there is inside the can!)


If you heat a can of soda, you’ll run the pressure over 80 psi before the can ruptures, soaking the interior of your house with its sugary contents. Still, you will have learned something worthwhile: adding energy (heat) to a system (can of soda) causes a pressure increase. It also causes a volume increase (kaboom!).
How about trying a safer variation of this experiment using water, an open can, and implosion instead of explosion?


Materials – An empty soda can, water, a pan, a bowl, tongs, and a grown-up assistant.


NOTE: If you can get a hold of one, use a beer can – they tend to work better for this experiment. But you can also do this with a regular old soda can. And no, I am not suggesting that kids should be drinking alcohol! Go ask a parent to find you one – and check the recycling bin.


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Can Fish Drown?

Sunday January 10, 2010

If you’ve ever owned a fish tank, you know that you need a filter with a pump. Other than cleaning out the fish poop, why else do you need a filter? (Hint: think about a glass of water next to your bed. Does it taste different the next day?)


There are tiny air bubbles trapped inside the water, and you can see this when you boil a pot of water on the stove. The experimental setup shown in the video illustrates how a completely sealed tube of water can be heated… and then bubbles come out one end BEFORE the water reaches a boiling point. The tiny bubbles smoosh together to form a larger bubble, showing you that air is dissolved in the water.


Materials:


  • test tube clamp
  • test tube
  • lighter (with adult help)
  • alcohol burner or votive candle
  • right-angle glass tube inserted into a single-hole stopper
  • regular tap water
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