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.

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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 pressure of liquid carbon dioxide. Set up a camera with a close shot of an empty vial before putting in a loaded vial.

Crush a pellet of dry ice to make pieces that fit into the vial. Place a couple of pieces in the vial, and snap the lid closed.

Immediately place the vial horizontally in the jaws of the vice,...

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 when taken from room temperature 330K to liquid nitrogen temperature, 77K. Carbon dioxide however, sublimes at 194.5K, so is solid at 77K. Oxygen liquefies at 90K (S.T.P.). A qualitative demonstration of these effects can be shown with gas filled balloons.

How it works:...

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 meter of Tygon tubing is fitted to a short tube in the rubber stopper.

The bottle is kept stopped and wet, and should work off the shelf. If the bottle is dry, spray about 10 ml of distillled water inside.

To demonstrate cloud formation, fit the stopper to the bottle and apply pressure with the lungs. Blow into the...

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 filled with a high vapor pressure liquid. The other end is empty on the inside and coated with absorbent flocking on the outside.

When the flocking is wet, evaporative cooling reduces the air pressure inside the empty end of the barbell, causing the liquid at the other end to get sucked up into it. As the liquid rises...

Pure water cooled to below 273K without freezing; seeded to spontaneously crystallize.

What it shows:

A liquid can be taken to a temperature below its freezing point if it is cooled slowly and there are no nucleation sites for crystallization to begin. In this demonstration you can create a flask of liquid water at below 0°C that, when 'seeded' by the introduction of a nucleation site (in this case dry ice) will be instantaneously frozen.

How it works:

This is pretty much described in Setting it Up.

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Brass ball doesn't fit through brass ring until ring is heated.

What it shows:

Most solids (see Comments) expand when heated due to increased atomic and lattice vibrations. In this demo, a brass ring expands when heated to let a previously too small a ball pass cleanly through.

How it works:

The apparatus consists of a brass ring on a handle (figure 1), attached by a chain to a brass ball. Demonstrate that the ball is too large to pass through the ring, then heat the ring over a blue Bunsen flame for about a minute. The...

What it Shows

Black body radiators in thermal equilibrium should emit the same spectrum of radiation; inside a muffle furnace at high temperature, objects should appear the same color, whatever their material.

What it shows:

A black body box is an idealized black body radiator. That is, any light emerging from the interior of the box is purely a product of the box’s temperature.

How it works:

As...

What it shows:

The thermal radiation emitted from a black body is temperature dependant. The tungsten filament of a bulb approximates a black body, and by increasing the current through the bulb, its temperature rises...

Detection of IR radiation from hair dryer and/or special IR source.

What it Shows:

Detection of infra-red radiation by the rotation of a paddle-wheel vane inside a low pressure flask.

How it Works:

A radiometer consists of a partially evacuated flask containing a four bladed vane (see figure 1). One side of each blade is a matt black, the other silver. The black surface, being a better absorber and radiator of heat, warms the air above its surface more than the silver. The resulting higher kinetic energy of these air...

What it shows:

A changing magnetic flux induces a current in a metal ring; the magnetic field due to this current opposes the primary field, repelling the ring and flinging it into the air. That's the simple "hand waving" explanation for the beginner student—a more accurate explanation follows.

How it really works:

The jumping ring is a vivid and popular demonstration of electromagnetic induction and is used to illustrate Faraday's and Lenz's laws. A conducting ring, placed over the ferromagnetic core of a solenoid, may levitate or...

What it shows:

James Clerk Maxwell postulated that since heat involves the movement of molecules, it might be possible to separate hot and cold air in a device with the help of a "friendly demon" who would sort out and separate the fast and slow moving molecules of air. The vortex tube is such a device and does exactly that — using compressed air as a power source, it has no mechanical moving parts and produces hot air at one end and cold air at the other.

How it works:

Room temperature compressed air is supplied to the vortex tube...

When evacuated, held together by bombardment of atmospheric molecules.

What it shows:

Two brass hemispheres are brought together and evacuated, and are held together by the pressure of the atmosphere.

How it works:

Two brass hemispheres fit together to form an air-tight seal. One has a vacuum pump attachment and stop cock; the completed sphere can evacuated using a vacuum pump under a minute. As atmospheric pressure is 10⁵Nm^-2, the 11cm diameter hemispheres are held together by a force of 15000N. Invite members of your...