For a quick update on the floating paper boats, the yellow legal pad boats lasted for five days before they got soggy and sunk. The gum wrapper boat was still going strong. I tried to find out if there was anything special about yellow legal pad paper, but other than the yellow dye that is added, I wasn’t able to come up with much. Do you have any ideas?
Author: Roberta (Page 516 of 562)
Want to have some more fun in the sink or bathtub? Let’s take a look at how hot and cold water act when they are together. Note: always watch children around water.
You will need:
- A plastic test tube with a cork or narrow plastic spice jar (empty) with a cap
- Food coloring (helps you to see the results)
- Ice cubes (optional:Â colored with food coloring)
Fill a tub or sink with cold water. With an adult’s help, fill the plastic container with hot tap water and then add a drop or two of food coloring. Plug the test tube or cover the jar. Sink the container of hot water to the bottom. Gently open the lid, without disturbing the surrounding water too much. What happens?
Now, do the reverse. Fill the sink with pretty warm water, but not so hot that you will get burned when you put your hand in. Put cold water into the container and add food coloring. Stopper it up and then sink it to the bottom. What do you think will happen when you release the water? Gently release the water. What happens?
If you aren’t going to do the experiment, then you can find out what happens when you put dyed cold water into a bath of warm water by watching this video (cat is optional :-).
Now, take a look at an unusual property of water. What happens when you put cold water in the form of ice into a sink of warm water? Does it float before it melts? Try freezing some ice cubes with food coloring in them to see what happens to the melt water.
When water freezes into ice, the molecules actually push away from each other a bit, making water have the unusual property of being less dense at certain cold temperatures.
Take a look at a frozen lake, puddle or pond. Because the ice freezes at the top rather than the bottom of a body of water, living things can stay underwater even in the winter. Cool!
Ever wondered where something like “Bug of the Week†might lead? Sure it is fun, but can anything really useful come out of checking the insects in your back yard once a week? It turns out some very cool things can result from regular bug watching.
A few weeks ago when I was looking at the fruit flies in my yard, I found something I didn’t recognize. I sent it to a friend of mine at the University of Arizona to identify.
Take a look:
When I looked through my camera lens I saw this fruit fly with incredible white stripes that almost glow florescent, they are so bright.
My friend identified it as Zaprionus indianus, a fruit fly native to Africa, the Middle East, southern Europe and southern Asia. This species was first found in the Americas in 1998 when it was reported from São Paulo, Brazil. It just arrived in Arizona within the last year or so. I call it “Z†because of the genus name and its fancy zebra stripes.
Here is a photo of Z under a powerful microscope:
I’ll be keeping a good eye on Z to find out what it likes to eat and how many are around. Right now it hangs out with the other fruit flies in the compost heap.
You never know when you might meet some new insect neighbors, if you just go out and look.
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.