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Kepler's Machine

Working model to show Kepler's 1st and 2nd laws and the equivalence of the area law to the law of equants.

What it shows:

A demonstration illustrating the equivalence of Kepler's second law, the Law of Areas, with the Law of Angles.

How it works:

In order to determine the orbit of Mars using circular orbits, Kepler had to offset the focus of Mars' orbit from the Sun to a point C (figure 1). Kepler's 2nd Law of planetary motion states that a planet's orbit around the Sun will sweep out equal areas in equal times....

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Convection Cell (Thymol Blue Cell)

What it shows:

Here we set up a convection cycle, where we heat part of a fluid; it expands, rises, then cools and sinks. A two dimensional model for real convection cycles in the atmosphere, oceans or stellar interiors.

How it works:

The convection cell is made from two sheets of 0.5cm plexiglass (front clear, rear translucent), separated by a 0.5cm gap for the liquid, the indicator thymol blue. The sides are plexi and the top left open, but the bottom is sealed with a hollowed brass rod. The brass serves two purposes. Firstly...

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BCC to FCC

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 phase transition to a face-centered cubic lattice (FCC). The transition from BCC to FCC results in an 8 to 9% increase in density, causing the iron sample to shrink in size as it is heated above the transition temperature.

How it works:

A three meter length of iron...

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Solid, Liquid, Gaseous CO2

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,...

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Cloud in a Bottle

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...

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Dippy Duck

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...

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Bouncing Photon

A photon (modeled by a bouncing ping-pong ball) is observed from two reference frames and provides the motivation for time dilation.

CRT Paddle Wheel

A beam of cathode rays (electrons) impinging on a paddle wheel cause it to spin and travel down the vacuum tube.

crookes tubes

What it Shows

A paddle wheel is suspended by its axle inside a Crookes tube so that when the paddle vanes spin the entire...

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Roller Coaster Potential

What it shows:

Potential energy curve with potential barrier illustrates electron-atom, atom-atom or ion-ion interactions.

How it works:

This is a one dimensional potential well model with a potential hill that can be used to represent several scenarios. The wooden model is made of a sandwich of three strips of plywood (1/4"-1/2"-1/4") forming the cross section as shown in figure 1. A 1" ball bearing fits snugly enough into the groove that it won't fly out when it hits the barrier.

figure 1. The roller...

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