Ball drop

To record the motion of a ping pong ball being dropped against a black background in a totally dark room using a camera and flash gun set at 15 Hz (15 flashes per second), you will need to follow these steps:

1. Set up your camera on a tripod or other stable surface, making sure it is pointed at the area where you will be dropping the ping pong ball.

2. Set the camera to manual mode, and adjust the exposure settings to ensure that the image is well-exposed when the flash fires. You may need to experiment with different settings to get the right balance.

3. Set up the flash gun on a separate stand or tripod, making sure it is pointed at the area where you will be dropping the ping pong ball.

4. Set the flash gun to strobe mode, and adjust the flash frequency to 15 Hz (15 flashes per second).

5. Turn off any other light sources in the room, so that the room is completely dark.

6. Drop the ping pong ball from a height above the camera and flash, making sure that it falls within the field of view of the camera.

7. Start the camera's continuous shooting mode, and let it run for a few seconds as the ping pong ball falls.

8. Review the images on the camera's display or on a computer to see the motion of the ping pong ball as it falls.

By using a flash set to strobe at a high frequency and shooting in a completely dark room, you will be able to capture the motion of the ping pong ball as it falls, showing the effects of gravity on its motion.

Making Crystals

 One of my most enjoyable experiments is making crystals from solutions. Sometimes we manage to produce some large, well-formed crystals when the students make copper sulfate. Even the small ones look good under the microscope.

Microtome

Dissections mean opportunities to create slides of what the students are looking at and learn how to slice very thinly so we can see what is going on at the cellular level using a Microtome. A microtome is a scientific instrument used to cut very thin slices of material, known as sections. These sections can then be mounted on a microscope slide and viewed under a microscope for further analysis.

Microtomes are commonly used in a variety of scientific fields, including biology, pathology, and materials science. In biology, microtomes are often used to prepare sections of plant or animal tissue for microscopy. In pathology, microtomes are used to cut sections of human or animal tissue for histological examination. In materials science, microtomes are used to cut sections of materials for microscopic examination to study their structure and properties.

There are several types of microtomes, including manual microtomes, motorized microtomes, and cryomicrotomes. Mine is really basic. Manual microtomes use a hand crank to advance the material through a blade, while motorized microtomes use an electric motor to do the same. Cryomicrotomes are used to cut frozen sections of material, such as tissue that has been preserved in cryogenic fluids.

 

Calculating Vectors with Pasco Capstone

 Using the ball launcher on the @Pascoscientific smart cart and then analysing the video footage and putting in the vectors to show that the x and y vectors are independent and a classic quadratic graph for the flight of the ball.

Amber

 Really old-fashioned static electricity using Amber to pick up pieces of paper. The more you clean and polish it the dirtier it becomes

Electrostatics

 Electrostatics - there is nothing like a Wimshurst machine to demonstrate electrostatics: hand powered and can be done very slowly - does all the tricks of a Van de Graaff Generator and watch the gold leaf electroscopes that are within  a few metres respond

The mass of a volatile liquid

 Determining the volume of a mass of a volatile liquid at 100 Celcius. Quite a tricky experiment to get right. Patience is required to get the apparatus hot enough. But the idea of how much bigger a gas is comes through