"I stumbled onto it. Who knew? The Science Channel is running back-to-back episodes of "Ask Mr. Wizard," starring Don Herbert. These are the original episodes from NBC in living black and white. It's Mr. Wizard, in a white shirt, sleeves rolled nearly to his elbows, thin tie tucked into the waistband of his pants. The girl assistant looks like a 14 year old June Cleaver. I don't remember individual episodes, but the whole concept is totally familiar. I loved these shows while I was growing up. Mr Wizard and a seemingly random kid, most often with a 'New Yawk' accent. Right now, they are demonstrating how the boiling point of water changes as the pressure changes. This is something I already knew - and now I totally understand it. Really - I've learned more about this from Mr. Wizard than any of my college level courses. Between shows, Mr. Wizard himself has shown up to explain what they were doing. Yes, he's an old guy now. But he looks great and seems healthy. I wonder if he knows the effect he's had on me and a zillion other children of the 50s?"
Don Kanner [Lane Tech HS,
physics] Three
No-Trumps
Don made a presentation on candles,
based upon a Mr Wizard program featuring Don Herbert.
Don
lit a candle, and asked us what was burning, and where it was
hottest. We
discussed the issue for a moment. Don placed a
horizontally-held sheet of metal gauze intersecting about half way up
the
vertical height of the flame. When we looked down at the flame
from above,
there was no flame above the gauze, and the the flame below was hollow;
with
only its outside burning! The candle wax must melt and then
vaporize, and
it is the vapor that actually burns, by chemical reaction with oxygen
in the
air. Roy
Coleman suggested that he hold an unburned wooden match stick into
the
flame, to show that the stick begins to burn only at the edges, at
first. Don was able to re-light the candle above the gauze
sheet with a match. Don then put a glass chimney down and
centered
around a burning candle. He then sprayed smoke across the top of
the
chimney. Amazing -- the smoke flowed down the inside surface of
the
chimney to the flame, and rose above the flame through the center of
the
chimney, and out. [Don Herbert, Don Ivey, and
Don Kanner constitute
the three no-trumps.]
Fascinating, Don!
Marilynn Stone [Lane Tech HS,
physics]
Constant Speed Buggies
Marilynn showed a novel use for constant speed buggies [mp092804.html]. She tied a
loop in one end of a piece of string, and attached the other end to the
side of
the buggy. She then put the loop over the vertical shaft of a
ring stand
on the floor. When she turned on the buggy motor and released it,
it moved
on the floor at
constant speed around a circular path. Thus, she produced
Uniform Circular
Motion. She measured the radius of circular path to be R =
0.61 m, and the
time for one revolution to be T = 9.6 sec. Thus, the
speed is
v = 2 p R / T = 0.40 meters/sec.
The buggy moves
with constant speed, but not with constant velocity. (Its direction is
constantly changing.) It experiences an acceleration
toward the center of its circular motion (centripetal acceleration) of
a = v2 /
R = 0.26
meters/sec2. This acceleration is produced by
the force
of tension in the
string, which continually pulls the buggy radially inward. When Marilynn
cut the string, the buggy went on a straight path thereafter. She was
able to hit
a target some distance away with the buggy, by cutting the string at
the instant
the buggy was headed toward the target.
Good job, Marilynn!
Fred Schaal [Lane Tech HS
mathematics]
Prose and Poetry Day
In connection with the upcoming Prose and Poetry Day at his
school, Fred
read us several selections from the classic book Fantasia
Mathematica by Clifton
Fadiman [http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/WhitePulp/isbn0387949313].
In particular, he read Bertrand Russell's Dream by G. H.
Hardy, as
well as "There Was A Young Fellow Named Fisk" by that prolific
author, Anonymous. Fadiman frequently appeared on
the TV
program What's My Line.
Thanks for the ideas, Fred!
Roy Coleman [Morgan Park
HS, physics]
NCLB and Miscellaneous Stuff
Roy distributed a refinement of the proposed NCLB
(No Child Left
Behind) program, which contained some humorous acronyms, such as the
following:
Roy showed us a small car, called Push N Go, which is available in bulk at about 50 cents each from Oriental Trading Company http://www.orientaltrading.com. He uses this car, as well as its larger counterpart, for having students observe its motions, and draw graphs of Displacement, Velocity, and Acceleration versus Time, as described recently [mp092402.html]. He found that students were reasonably accurate in their descriptions of Velocity and Acceleration versus Time, but often quite in error for Displacement versus Time. That graph, although most closely related to observations, is challenging for many students.
Roy announced that a CD containing all information on the SMILE and SMART websites, as well as other information and programs, can be obtained for $10, plus any shipping costs. In particular, the CD contains programs for loading the Mozilla™ web browser to both PCs and Macintosh machines. Porter Johnson has taken real advantage of a novel feature of the Mozilla™ browser -- the scale of print fonts can automatically be changed in Print Preview, so that a document can easily be adjusted to fit on, say, a single page. Also, Charlotte Wood-Harrington said that this browser maintains better security with regard to "pop-ups" and "spyware" programs.
Very informative, Roy!
Bill Colson [Morgan Park HS,
mathematics]
Idea for School Development
Bill passed around information concerning a Science
Fair Workshop
at Sauk Valley Community College
in Dixon, IL on 30 April 2005. It contained some good
ideas
applicable in school development programs, which
will be required throughout the system next year.
Bill also asked us to identify the following objects:
| A million Watt Microphone is a ................ | Megaphone |
| A 2000 pound Mockingbird is a ................ | Kilomockingbird |
Thanks, Bill!
Rich Goberville [Joliet Central HS,
physics]
New Toys
Rich kept an eye out for presents for himself while shopping for
Christmas
gifts last year, and found several interesting items. He first showed
us a
flexible, dilating dodecahedron produced by Hoberman Designs [http://www.hoberman.com/fold/main/index.htm].
This device is a variation of the more familiar Hoberman Sphere.
The
gadget, called a FlipOut!, magically changes shape and colors
when thrown into the
air: http://hoberman.com/fold/flipout/flipout.htm.
Rich also showed off his new HoverCopter Radio Controlled Flying Saucer: http://paranoidnews.org/2010/12/pp37-hover-copter-the-radio-controlled-ufo-flying-saucer/. It serves as a more dramatic device than a toy helicopter to illustrate Newton's Third Law as the explanation for aerodynamic lift. The downward draft of the toy helicopter is rather mild, but you can point it sideways, and definitely Feel the Breeze! The radio control permits it to go up and down, but it is rather difficult for the device to hover --- as it is for real helicopters.
Neat stuff, Rich!
Bill Shanks [Joliet - New Lennox Environs,
retired]
Point n Measure Digital Tape: How Far?
Bill recently obtained Point n Measure Digital Tape
[Item W5746]
at Menard's for about $9. He turned it on, pointed its
laser beam at
a nearby wall, and showed the recorded distance as 5.01 meters (or
16 ft 5
in). We then made estimates for the area of our classroom,
ranging
from 60 meters2 to 120 meters2.
He then used
the gadget to measure the length of the room L = 11.17 meters (36
feet) and the
width W = 7.64 m (25 ft), corresponding to an area of 85
meters2 (900
square feet).
Very nice gadget! Thanks, Bill!
Walter McDonald [CPS Substitute
Teacher]
Interference of a Digital Clock
Walter obtained a new laptop computer, along with a router for
wireless
operation on the internet. When he plugged an old digital clock
into the
same receptacle, he noticed that the digital clock began to run
erratically and
quite fast. Why? One possibility was that the
digital clock,
which is supposed to count the Voltage peaks of 60 Hz AC
current,
was also counting small Voltage spikes, as well. The clock chip
might be
interpreting a voltage fluctuation as an AC voltage maximum, and
including it in
the time count. Early digital clocks would sometimes respond to
such
spurious signals, in the more recent versions this usually does not
occur.
Unfortunately, the clock soon stopped working, so that it would be
difficult to
study the problem now. What do you think about this?
Could the
wireless circuitry be involved?
That's quite a puzzle! Thanks, Walter.
Ann Brandon [Joliet West HS,
physics]
Scotch Tape Electrostatics
Ann passed out materials as described in a handout containing
the
following instructions, and we soon were doing all these things:
A very nice phenomenological experience! Thanks, Ann!
Notes prepared by Porter Johnson