Sound in a vacuum
Sound waves are the compression and rarefaction of a medium, usually air. If we remove the medium, by vacuum, the sound has no way to propagate and we are not able to hear anything.
Sound waves are the compression and rarefaction of a medium, usually air. If we remove the medium, by vacuum, the sound has no way to propagate and we are not able to hear anything.
Due to the pendulums inertia, once started, it will oscillate in the same plane forever. However, since the pendulum is on Earth which rotates about its own axis, from our rotating point of view the pendulum’s plane of oscillation seems to be what’s rotating. The period of rotation depends on your latitude too: at the […]
Rotating the two disks of the generator in opposite directions against a metal brush will cause accumulation of static electricity. This excess charge is collected and stored in the two leyden jars. Once the electric potential is great enough, visible sparks can be seen between the electrodes.
We demonstrate piezoelectric properties by dropping (or throwing) a ball on a piezoceramic. If thrown hard enough, it will light up a neon lamp.
The current runs through the wire that is connected to both ends of the battery. The Lorentz force due to the magnetic field created by the magnet causes the wire loop to rotate, creating a motor that will spin as long as the battery can push current through the wire.
Alternating current is run through a loop, creating a very strong magnetic field inside of the coil. When magnetic objects are placed in the center of the coil, the magnetic field created by the coil causes the magnets to rotate and even levitate.
A Fresnel Lens magnifies light not by being thicker on the edge or in the middle, but my many ridges on the lens that form concentric circles. This allows the lens to be much smaller than a conventional lens but have just as much magnifying power.
For practicality, most representations of the solar system are not to scale. By placing signs for each planet, to indicate their radial distance from the sun, we are able to give a sense of the relative distances between planets.
Stars twinkle in the night sky due to the scattering of their light by turbulent motion of air in our atmosphere. But why doesn’t the light reflected from planets or the moon appear to twinkle? We use lasers to show how light coming from a single point, similar to how we see light from distant […]
In this demo, visitors will shine a high-powered flashlight at a solar powered car placed on a track. With two or more vehicles, visitors can race the cars around the track… the one who hits their car most directly with the flashlight, thereby imparting the most energy, will win the race! This teaches visitors about […]
When dropping a singular ball, it can be seen that it does go as high as it was dropped from. When stacking them however, once they all hit the ground, the linear momentum of the bottom ball transfer to the next ball and continues until all the linear momentum of the system is in the […]
Once the sphere is set in motion, it has a fixed angular momentum. Pulling the string makes the sphere smaller so that it’s moment of inertia decreases. Since angular momentum is conserved, its angular velocity increases to compensate.
Cosmic rays, which we cannot see or feel, are constantly bombarding Earth without us noticing. A tube filled with Helium gas is biased by axial and coaxial electrodes. When the Muon collides with the gas, it will locally ionize the Helium. The free charges will rush to the surface, due to the electric field, ionizing […]
The rainbow colors seen on a soap bubble are due to light’s interference with itself. The specific array of beautiful colors are caused by the thin film that makes up the soap bubble giving this type of interference the name “Thin Film Interference
If you place your finger over one end of a straw, it can easily be stabbed into a potato. This is because air gets trapped inside the straw, compressing the air molecules and giving the straw strength as it is stabbed into the potato, keeping the straw from bending.
This demonstration is simply an empty aquarium filled with dry ice. With time the dry ice will sublimate into gaseous CO2, which is denser than air, that fills the aquarium. Blowing bubbles into the aquarium, you can see that the bubbles will float due to the buoyant force of the dense CO2 gas giving the […]
Just like when a car accelerates and you feel pushed back, when the apparatus is accelerated, the air is pushed towards the back. This creates a higher pressure in the lower-back corner so that the balloon is pushed towards the upper-front corner.
When swinging the beaker of water, centripetal acceleration causes the water to be pushed into the beaker and allows no water to spill.
Through Newton’s law of inertia, this massive or “inertial” block of aluminium resists the change of movement once striked. This suppresses the force of strike, allowing a hand placed beneath the block to be safe.
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