The first one was she put a racket ball ball in liquid nitrogen. She left it there while she did a few other demonstrations. After a few demonstrations, which I will talk about in a minute, she took the ball out and dropped it on a steel sheet. It burst into a million pieces. The ball had momentarily chemically changed to glass. As soon as she took it out it started changing back again, but she dropped it before it acted like rubber.Below is a picture of the broken ball. Even if put back together, it isn't going to ricochet again.
Another experiment was when she took a strobe light and shone it on a fan that was on high. the lights were off and she messed with the strobe light changing how fast it flashed. She changed it so we could see individual petals and then individual colors, which there were to many fan blades and then she made it so we could see each blade with each individual color.
Then she plugged a huge circle in the wall. It was a hover craft which I got to stand on. It raised a few inches off the floor. At first I was unstable and had to hold onto someone for support. After I regained my stability I was perfectly fine. It was extremely fun. The reason it works is because of eight or so holes on the bottom that the air is forced to exit through. It hits the floor and spreads out evenly.
After that we got to look at an electron microscope. The man in charge showed us several different pieces of the electron microscope. He explained how different things effected the image of the molecules you were looking at. The molecules were coded in white, black, and gray. The black ones were gold, and the light gray that looked like ripples in the sand.
Then we got to visit the glass blower. She can make practically anything out of glass. Her job is to make things for the people who need special parts for their experiments. They are custom made to fit the needs of the person. She uses special "sunglasses" so she can see her work and not just the flame. The glass comes to her in tubes and she melts certain sections of the tube to make them mold-able. She took one open end and blew into it. The part she heated up swelled and became a big bulb shape. She made a swan for Ms. Leland and one for Ms. Binder. She poured green food coloring-water in it and now it also serves as a barometer. When water goes up the neck, a storm is approaching.
After that we went and looked at a pressure demonstration. The man there explained pressure and vacuums. He used a vacuum to crush an aluminum can, and then a 2 liter bottle. He was able to manually blow the bottle back up. There were three balloons in a circular flask. They were tied off with only a little bit of air inside. He hooked it up to a vacuum and the balloons expanded like you were blowing them up. When he romoved the vacuum they shrunk back to their normal size. He then put some marshmallows in a flask. He vacuumed the air out. The marshmallows swelled and then shrank back to normal size. He turned the vacuum off and the marshmallows shriveled up. He pulled one out and let us feel it. It had a texture close to that of chewing gum. He then pulled out a pressure gauge. He attached it to the vacuum and the gauge dropped to 0. He then attached it to a hand pump. Several kids, including me tried to get the gauge to 0. I got it to 2. A couple of kids got 1 1/2. He then told us it wasn't possible for a human to reach 0.
We migrated back down some halls to another room. The man in charge reminded us how electricity worked. He had us hold hands and form a circle. He had another kid put their hand on an electricity generating ball and stick their other elbow out behind them. The instructor then put his elbow next to the kids and a shock stung my wrists. I yelped and let go of the chain. I had just gotten shocked by 50,000 volts. He did it a second time but I stay ed out. Another girl said it hadn't hurt but when she got it first hand she was rubbing her wrists. The second time everyone yelped and jumped back. When people held their hand next to it it looked like it was shooting little beams at them.
We then traveled to room 103 and ate lunch They gave us each a cookie and two of the college students answered our questions about college. We had to travel outside to finish lunch so that the mathematics people could use it.
We then visited an amphitheater shaped place. The professor showed us several experiments that involved chemicals. He took a piece of dry ice and put it in a flask with a balloon attached to it. He corked the flask and the balloon slowly inflated. Every once in a while he would open the cork and release some air. Over all it was a great and fun experience.
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