Mr. Richards' Blog

Kyle Litwack's physical science project: engineering a popsicle stick bridge. He tested two different models, a single truss (strong) and a more flexible, suspension model (for looks). The results he filmed below. Thanks for sharing the video, Kyle.

Hopefully I'll have some more of our "Got Science?" event to share, but in the meantime, here is a video of our liquid nitrogen explosion finale (thanks Sarah Richards for filming, Diana Ervin for picking up the LN2, and Kyle, Leeanna, Trinity, Riley, Gabriel, and Cody for helping out with the event!)

In preparation for our "Got Science?" science demonstration this Thursday, we spent part of last week experimenting with liquid nitrogen. One of the most impressive experiments is to confine liquid nitrogen in a bottle. Because liquid N2 boils at -321 F, it generates a massive amount of steam (and pressure). Eventually, the bottle bursts in a powerful explosion. When confined and arranged under 1000 ping pong balls, the result is pretty neat! We also succeeded in creating water bottle rockets, deflating balloons in liquid nitrogen and getting liquid air, and other interesting projects. Thanks to Kyle Litwack for this video.