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Experiments: Krampf Experiment of the Week, Bottle Tones
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I know that it has been a while since some of you heard from me. The past
few weeks have certainly been interesting. This week, I finally got some
relief from my eye troubles. My cataract surgery at the end of November left me with my left eye very near sighted, with a strong astigmatism, and my right eye very far sighted, with a strong, but differently oriented astigmatism. Life since then has been very blurry, and pretty much a constant headache.
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Posted by rick on Friday, February 15 @ 08:14:01 MST (1368 reads)
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Experiments: Krampf #477 A Different Rainbow
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This Week's Experiment - #477 A Different Rainbow
Greetings from our home in Jacksonville. After so much time on the road, it is great to have some time at home. I have been enjoying cooking, catching up on reading, flint knapping, and doing some writing.
Tomorrow I begin a new project, which you should find interesting. We are going to make video versions of some of the past experiments. I am starting with some of the early experiments that many of you never saw. From those, I
am selecting the ones that I think will work best on video. It will take a while to tape and edit the first ones, but we should have the first one up soon. We will also be posting some of my other science videos, so everyone can
have them free of charge. I will let you know when and where they are posted.
This week's experiment is one that you have probably seen a thousand times, but you might never have noticed what you were really seeing. To try it, you will need:
a glass of water
detergent
a straw
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Posted by rick on Wednesday, March 07 @ 14:17:31 MST (1278 reads)
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Experiments: Krampf #476 Melting Speed
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This Week's Experiment - #476 Melting Speed
Greetings from Titusville, FL. Last week, we had a wonderful visit from our niece Shawna. This was her first visit to Florida, so we made it a whirlwind of fun, including Butterfly World, an airboat ride in the Everglades, Monkey
Jungle, the Anhingha Trail in the Everglades, 2 days of fun and food in Key West, Southbeach, and Parrot Jungle Island. I think she went home needing a vacation to recover from her vacation.
This week's experiment is an old classic that is still fun. It has to do with heat transfer and melting ice. To try it, you will need:
a flat, thick piece of plastic or wood. I used a cutting board from the kitchen
a heavy, metal pot or pan
2 ice cubes
Place both the cutting board and the pot on a flat surface. Touch the surface of both, noticing if they feel warm or cool. You will probably find that the metal feels cooler than the cutting board. Then place an ice cube on
each surface, and watch carefully to see what happens.
Most people would expect that since the metal felt cooler, the ice on the metal would melt more slowly. Instead, the ice on the cutting board just sits there, while the ice on the metal surface quickly melts. Why?
The answer will also explain why the metal felt cooler in the first place. Metal is a good conductor of heat, providing a quick, easy pathway for the energy to flow. On the other hand, the cutting board is a poor conductor of heat.
When two objects touch, heat energy will move from the warmer one to the cooler one. How fast the heat moves depends on the temperature difference, and how well the objects conduct heat. The greater the difference, and the better the materials conduct heat; the faster the heat will move.
That is why the metal felt cooler. Actually, both the metal and the cutting board were room temperature, but the metal is a better conductor of heat. It pulled heat away from your finger faster, causing your finger to feel
cooler.
With the ice cubes, the process was reversed. Heat moved from the warmer surfaces of the metal and the cutting board to the colder ice. With the cutting board, the surface touching the ice was quickly cooled to a temperature near
the temperature of the ice. At that point, the process slowed down, because the cutting board is a poor conductor.
With the metal, as the heat moved into the ice, more heat was conducted in to replace it. The process continued, and the ice melted quickly. Some companies sell special defrosting plates, that are supposed to defrost food very
quickly. They are simply metal plates. You can do the same thing with a metal pan.
The same thing will happen with other cold things, which is why you should not serve ice cream in a metal bowl.
Have a wonder filled week!
************ ********* ********* ********* *
This weekly e-mail list is free from charge. You are welcome to forward itto friends, print it in your newsletter, repost it on the Internet, etc., as long as you do not charge for them and my name and e-mail address are
included.
Please forward this e-mail to anyone that you think might enjoy it.
To join the list, send a blank e-mail to: krampf-subscribe@ topica.com
on-line archives are located at:
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/krampf/ messages
http://www.topica. com/lists/ krampf/read
************ ********* ******
Robert Krampf's on-the-road schedule:
My calendar is now on-line. You can see a detailed calendar, with dates,
times, schools, etc. at http://www.krampf. com/tour. html
************ ********* ******
Check out my web site at:
http://www.krampf. com
From Robert Krampf's Science Education Company
PO Box 60982
Jacksonville, FL 32236-0982
904-388-6381
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Posted by rick on Tuesday, February 13 @ 13:10:11 MST (1452 reads)
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Experiments: Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week #468 Foam
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Greetings from Ft. Lauderdale. Nancy and I are enjoying the South Florida weather while I am doing energy and electricity shows for Florida Power and
Light. Nancy is adapting to "life on the road" and seems to be enjoying it quite a bit. We have been doing quite a bit of bird watching and nature photography, as well as enjoying the local food.
It has been far too long since I did an experiment with ice cream, so I thought this week would be a good time to correct that. We are going to investigate foam. For this, you will need:
a bottle of water
carbonated soda
ice cream
OK, to begin with, what is a foam? According to the Wikipedia, "a foam is a substance that is formed by trapping many gas bubbles in a liquid or solid."
OK that should be easy enough. We just need a lot of bubbles. Pick up the bottle of water. Be sure that the lid is on tightly and then give it a good, hard shake. While you are shaking, you should be able to see that there
are quite a few bubbles of air in the water. Now, stop shaking the bottle.
Instantly, the bubbles disappear. Pure water is not good at keeping bubbles. Its surface tension, that "stickiness" that we looked at last time, gets in the way and causes the bubbles to collapse. What we need is something added
that can stabilize the surface of the bubbles. We could use soap, which does a very good job of disrupting the surface tension and makes very good bubbles, but soap does not taste very good.
Pour some soda into a glass. Now we have some foam! Dissolved substance in the soda help to stabilize the bubbles, making them last longer. Still, after sitting for a minute or so, most if not all the foam will be gone. If we
want the foam to hang around longer, we need to add some chemicals to make it stronger, and I know just where to find them.
Add a scoop of ice cream to a glass and pour some soda over it. This time, we get even more foam, and the foam lasts much longer. Ice cream is already a foam, with as much as half of its volume made up of air bubbles. To keep
these bubbles in place as the ice cream freezes, they add proteins, such as eggs and cream, which can both be whipped into a very nice foam. These proteins make the bubbles in the ice cream stronger, letting the manufacturer add more air. This makes the ice cream lighter in texture. It also makes the end product cheaper to make, since as much as half of what they are selling you is air.
As you pour the soda over the ice cream, some of the proteins mix with the soda, making the foam last much longer. How much longer? I don't know. I always find myself eating the experiment before I can find out.
Have a wonder filled week.
************ ********* ********* ********* *
This weekly e-mail list is free from charge. You are welcome to forward it to friends, print it in your newsletter, repost it on the Internet, etc., as
long as you do not charge for them and my name and e-mail address are included.
Please forward this e-mail to anyone that you think might enjoy it.
To join the list, send a blank e-mail to: krampf-subscribe@ topica.com
on-line archives are located at:
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/krampf/ messages
http://www.topica. com/lists/ krampf/read
************ ********* ******
Robert Krampf's on-the-road schedule:
My calendar is now on-line. You can see a detailed calendar, with dates,
times, schools, etc. at http://www.krampf. com/m_tour. html
************ ********* ******
Check out my web site at:
http://www.krampf. com
From Robert Krampf's Science Education Company
PO Box 60982
Jacksonville, FL 32236-0982
904-388-6381
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Posted by rick on Thursday, October 19 @ 16:26:53 MDT (1271 reads)
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Experiments: Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week
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This Week's Experiment - #466 Heat Waves
Greetings from Jacksonville, Florida. I am making the last minute preparations for a very special trip. On September 5th, I will be celebrating my 50th birthday. I wanted to make it a very special trip, so I invited two very dear friends to take a trip with me. James and Nancy joined me last summer for the first two weeks of my grand journey out west. Now the three of us are heading west again, but this time we are flying. We plan to start my birthday
journey with a couple of days in Death Valley. I know that sounds like a very strange place to celebrate a birthday, but as a geologist, I have always wanted to see it, and it will provide a very nice contrast for the rest of the
trip. After visiting the lowest point in the continental U.S., we will drive to Sequoia National Park, to see Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental U.S., as well as the glorious Redwoods. I have seen the redwood groves
in Northern California, but have never made it to see the REALLY big ones.
What better way to spend my 50th birthday than with two very special friends, surrounded by these incredible trees.
This week's experiment came from making iced tea. I was putting the water on to boil (Yes, I know that makes some of you cringe, but to make true, Southern Sweet Tea, you have to boil the water), and I got caught up in watching the water as it heated. To try this, you will need:
a pot of water
a stove or hot plate
plenty of light
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Posted by rick on Wednesday, September 06 @ 19:32:51 MDT (1068 reads)
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| Tuesday, August 15 | | · | Krampf #465 Water Spots |
| Wednesday, April 26 | | · | Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week |
| Saturday, March 04 | | · | Krampf's Experiment of the Week |
| Monday, October 03 | | · | Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week |
| Wednesday, August 24 | | · | Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week |
| Thursday, April 28 | | · | Krampf #423 Black and White Smoke |
| Friday, April 08 | | · | Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week #421 Water Drops |
| Thursday, March 24 | | · | Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week |
| Tuesday, December 28 | | · | Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week |
| Wednesday, December 08 | | · | Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week |
| Monday, November 29 | | · | Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week |
| Tuesday, November 16 | | · | Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week |
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