Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Studying Jupiter

There is a Great Red Spot on Jupiter which is basically like a massive hurricane on earth. We made a "hurricane in a bottle" as an example of what a hurricane on Jupiter might look like.


We got 2 plastic soda bottles and a plastic bottle joiner. If you don't have a plastic bottle joiner lying around like I did, place a washer between the two bottles and then use duct or electrical tape to seal the bottles together.

They absolutely love doing experiments but always look so serious when doing them.
Cracks me up!
The Fashionista filled one bottle with 500mls of water and then Agent Smelly connected the bottles with the connector.



Just like an egg timer you flip the bottles over BUT you must move them in a circular motion, to get the water swirling in order to form the hurricane-shaped funnel.



The little madams played with this for ages. They added some glitter and watched the glitter move through it but that wasn't enough so The Fashionista suggested adding food dye, so it ended up blue! That looked kind of cool actually. Then they added another 500mls to see if it went better with more water. I was a little surprised by how something so simple kept them amused for so long.

Said giant timer currently is residing in their bathroom and they give it a flip each time they go in there.

We were supposed to do this experiment ages ago but I had to go buy cheap soda especially so we had some bottles to use. Then someone who shall remain nameless, but puts the rubbish out, put them out with the recycling bin so I had to go through it all over again. It ended up taking us about 3 weeks to simply get 2 bottles to use!
 

2 comments :

  1. Lisa, I love the blue glittery hurricane in a bottle. You can tell it was made by girls! I'm always so impressed by the experiments you do together. Perhaps your girls will be scientists one day.

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    1. I like doing experiments with kids. It's one time you see children's eyes really light up and them getting fully involved during learning. I hadn't thought of what a boy might do, but yes I wonder if they would colour and glitter their water ... hmm, probably not.

      The Fashionista has been talking about becoming a forensic anthropologist ... she has seen "Bones" too many times! When she was little she used to sneak into the lounge unbeknownst to we great parents (our couch is the middle of the room) and lay quietly on the floor behind the couch so she could watch Bones! I only found out when she told some other parent ... she was only quite young and I was mortified ... lol

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