A kid looks at me and asks: "what do you do again?". What to answer? Do I bore her with the memory saving hacks I employ to reduce the computational load of a data assimilation scheme in the context of a global hydrological model? I can already see her suppressed yawn. So no, I do not answer her truthfully. I say "this is what I do!". And than I do experiments with her (not on her, that is unethical). Using stuff laying around. To show her what science is and inspire her.
Monday april 13th I gave a presentation called "5 experiments in 5 minutes". I demonstrate five experiments that anyone can do together with kids. The presentation was recorded and I posted it under this blog.
Below I wil describe the experiments done, so anyone can do them at home.
Photoframe raingauge
prototype acoustic raingauge (disdrometer)
This experiment demonstrates how to make a copy of the first prototype of the acoustic raingauge that I am developing with colleagues in Delft.
A manual in Dutch can be downloaded here.
Cake and booze hydrology
This experiment explains why it is important to know different landscape types if you want to predict floods, which is what hydrology is (mainly) about.
Making CO2
This shows how to make carbon dioxide: CO2, which can be used to extinguish fires.
Plasma cutter
This experiment was thought up by the Slow-mo guys. (Or at least, I saw it first on their youtube channel). You can watch their video here.
Elephant toothpaste
My final experiment is one that can be found all over the internet: making elephant toothpaste. Mixing hydrogen peroxide with liquid soap and adding yeast results in an explosion of very stable foam that looks like toothpaste that an elephant would use. I like this video, that focus on using ingredients that you can get at home. He uses clear-hair-developer as his source of peroxide. This one includes an explanation of the reaction and is much more spectacular, but they use 35% peroxide, which may be hard to get. Warning: do not get peroxide on your skin! If you do, wash directly away with water. Hairdressers do not use gloves without a reason when applying peroxide to peoples hair!
So those are "5 experiments in 5 minutes". Have fun!