A Moment of Science
Helium balloons fly because they're lighter than air. As you walk through air, it's natural to think of air as weighing nothing, though that is not the case.
Have you ever been at the top of a tall skyscraper and felt the building sway? Exactly how safe are the white collars workers of big city life?
Why doesn't the flame just continue to burn underneath the bell, no matter how flat you crush it? The answer is air.
Here’s a physics classic. Suppose you drop a golf ball and a bowling ball from the Empire State Building. Which hits first? Answer? They hit at the same time. Learn more on this Moment of Science.
Here’s a question for you: Do you think you could produce enough wind to blow a ping pong ball out of a tube? Learn more on this Moment of Science.
Robert Frost once wrote a poem about coming across an old woodpile in the forest. In describing it he refers to the “slow, smokeless burning of decay.” What a great line of poetry. Neat part about it is, it’s also technically correct. Decay is an extremely slow burning process. Or, you could say, fire is an extremely fast decaying process. In either case, what you have is the combination of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Learn more on this Moment of Science.
These days kids have Styrofoam to keep soup hot, but back in my day, we all had thermoses. One of their drawbacks was that since their insides were made of glass they were pretty easily broken when dropped. The popping sound they made when they broke was cool to kids, but then we weren’t the ones who had to buy a new one. Learn more on this Moment of Science.
While it might be socially acceptable for food lovers to discuss the care of the finest wines, or the best way to brew gourmet coffee, what if your favorite beverage happens to be soda pop? Chances are, a gourmet wouldn’t have a lot to say about this topic. Learn more on this Moment of Science.
Some very adventurous people have used big suction cups to climb the fronts of glass buildings. However, they’d better not climb too high, because the higher you go, the less effective a suction cup will be. In space they’re no good at all! Learn more on this Moment of Science.
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