Temperature and Thermal Properties of Matter

An old bomb calorimeter made by the Parr Instrument Company for show-and-tell. Circa 1964.

What it Shows

An inverted trash can is launched into the air by an exploding bottle of liquid nitrogen.

Link to Liquid Nitrogen Trashcan video can be found here https://harvard.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=6f33f468-528c-4ab5-acd6...

What it shows:

The demonstration shows density fluctuations in liquids. These fluctuations are particularly spectacular near critical points. A binary fluid mixture of methanol (29% by weight) and cyclohexane (71%) becomes opalescent when heated up to its...

The microcystaline structure of a steel wire changes from body-centered-cubic to face-centered-cubic as it is heated to red-hot.

What it shows:

Iron atoms are arranged in a body-centered cubic pattern (BCC) up to 1180 K. Above this temperature it makes a...

Room temperature water boils in an evacuated bell jar and then freezes due to rapid surface evaporation.

Three-dimensional plaster model of PVT relationships. Other versions exist, one by J.C.Maxwell and shown here.

Images of the plaster phase surface of water.

Observation of phase changes with corresponding pressure changes.

A two ml. plastic microcentrifuge vial and a small shop vise are used together to melt dry ice.

Wear safety glasses for this demo. The vial can explode, or shoot out of the vice, from the...

CO₂ and He balloons in liquid nitrogen.

What it shows:

Cooling a gas causes a proportional decrease in volume with the drop in absolute temperature. A gas such as helium, which remains close to ideal at low temperatures, shows a four-fold decrease in volume...

A 5-gallon bottle containing air and water vapor is slightly pressurized; a sudden release of the pressure cools the vapor, forming a cloud.

The bottle is a heavy Pyrex carboy with tooled mouth. A one-holed rubber stopper fits the mouth and is air-tight. A...

Evaporation of water on duck's head cools vapor inside causing low pressure, etc.

How it works:

Dippy Duck is a small heat engine consisting of a hollow glass barbell with opposite ends able to seesaw about a knife edge pivot. One end of the barbell is...