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This Week's Experiment - Floating without water

First, thanks to everyone for all the wonderful messages to my mom! You
helped make her birthday very special.

I have a busy week coming up, with lots of travel. If you live near Oak
Ridge, I will be doing public presentations of my lightning show at the
American Museum of Science and Energy on Thursday of this week. I you come to
the show, be sure to say Hi.

This week's experiment is very simple, but surprisingly fun. We are used to
seeing things float in liquid, but we don't think of something floating in a
solid.

For this experiment, you will need:

a clear jar or some other clear container with a top that can be sealed
uncooked rice
a cork or pingpong ball

Fill the jar about 1/3 full of rice. Place the cork into the jar and seal the
top. Now, turn the jar upside down. The cork should be buried under the
rice. Now, start tapping the side of the jar and you will see the cork rise
through the rice to the top.

Why does this happen? It happens for the same reason that a cork floats in
water. The rice is heavier than the cork. As you shake the jar, the heavier
rice sinks to the bottom and lifts the lighter cork to the top. As I said, it
really is a simple experiment, but it has a lot of potential. Try using
different objects. If they are heavier than the rice, they will go to the
bottom. If they are lighter, they will rise. Try other things besides rice.
Sand, salt, and sugar would be fun. Try putting objects of different
densities into the rice, to see if some rise faster than others. As with many
of the simple experiments, the more I played with this one, the more fun I had
with it.

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Upcoming On-the-road schedule

June 15 - Kickoff show for MOSH summer camps, Museum of Science and History, Jacksonville, FL
June 16 - Florida Power and Light's Energy Encounter - staff training and Family Day
June 18 - American Museum of Science and Energy, Oak Ridge, TN
June 18 - 4-H Electricity Camp, Oak Ridge, TN
June 22-26 - Electricity Camp, The Center at Ponte Vedra, FL
June 29-July 3 - Science Wizards Camp, The Center at Ponte Vedra, FL
July 6 - 10 - Crime Busters Camp, The Center at Ponte Vedra, FL
July 13-17 - Dinosaurs Camp, The Center at Ponte Vedra, FL
July 18 - Space Day, Museum of Science and History, Jacksonville, FL
July 24-27 - Grout Museum, Waterloo, Iowa
August 3-7 - Nature Nuts camp, The Center at Ponte Vedra, FL
August 10-12 - Museum of Discovery, Little Rock, AR
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Each week I will e-mail you a new experiment that you can try yourself. I
look for experiments that are unusual, safe, dramatic, cheap, and fun. Since
this list includes teachers, parents, science buffs, and students, I will try
to give you a wide variety of things to try.

Please forward this e-mail to anyone that you think might enjoy it. If you
received this e-mail from someone else and would like to be on the list, just
send me an e-mail at krampf@aol.com, asking to be added to the Experiment of
the Week List. If you ever want off the list, just send me an e-mail
requesting to be removed.

Check out our web site at:
http://members.aol.com/krampf/home.html

for information on:

Watt is Electricity, the million volt electric show
The Nuts and Bolts of Lightning
Burning Questions, the science of fire safety
Educational consulting
Educator workshops

From Robert Krampf's Science Education Company
4850 A1A South
St. Augustine, FL 32084
(904) 471-4578