Science Eureka

In the second term of school, I took the Science Eureka sabbatical. On the first day of the sabbatical, we conducted physics experiments. One of the experiment was to make the best parachute for the egg to float for the longest time from the third storey. My group and I debated on whether to have a stronger parachute which would have more newspaper on a single area, or to make it as large of an area as possible. We chose to make its area as large as possible. When we threw the egg down, the egg with the cover broke from the newspaper and straight away dropped onto the ground. The egg cracked, and the experiment was a failure. We should have made the newspaper parachute stronger by adding more newspaper to a single area.

We also did an experiment on pressure whereby we heated a normal sized empty can, with a Bunsen burner. We then inverted the top where the opening was and put it into an ice bath. What happened next was very interesting as the can seemed to be crushed. The tutors then explained that it was due to the difference in pressure inside the can and the atmospheric pressure. When we heated the can, the molecules in the air became further spaced as they had more kinetic enery. There was very little air molecules in the can, thus when the can was inverted and put into the ice bath, it rapidly cooled, and decreased the space taken by the air molecules and as the water was not fast enough to feel the empty space, the difference between the pressure of the atmosphere and the can cause the can to be crushed as to be enough space for the air to occupy.