Experiments Planned for Winter Break - The Buttered Toast Experiments

GeoCities.us » ResearchTriangle » Institute

Experiments Planned for Winter Break
proposals, not results · back to the summer experiments

Winter break this year runs from the last day of school before Christmas until the first week of January, which means it includes the night the year turns to 2000. That is an opportunity no scientist should waste. Here is what I plan to test, with hypotheses written down now so I can't change them later. Mr. Legrand says writing your hypothesis down before you see the data is the most honest thing a scientist does.

W-1. Toast, Part II: Higher Drops

Question: If the table height decides how far the toast turns, do even higher drops keep changing the odds?
Hypothesis: From the garage workbench (about 40 inches) and from the third step of the stepladder (about 5 feet), more slices will land butter-side up than from the kitchen counter, but still not most of them.
Method: Same as Experiment 1, same push. 50 slices from each height.
[Mom's note: In the garage. The garage has a concrete floor and is your father's problem.]

W-2. Every Clock in the House at Midnight, January 1, 2000

Question: What happens to the clocks and dates in our house at the Y2K rollover?
Hypothesis: Almost nothing. Most of our clocks (the stove, the microwave, the VCR, my alarm clock) don't keep a year at all, so they can't get it wrong. The family computer is from 1995, and I think its internal clock might roll over to the wrong year, because some older PCs do. My calculator watch does not know what year it is and never has.
Method: At 11:55 p.m. on December 31, write down what every clock and date display in the house says. Repeat at 12:05 a.m. Then turn on the computer and check the date. Shawn will be the second observer. Dad says he will be "on the couch, observing the ball."
[Mom's note: The only thing in this house I'm worried about at midnight is whether anybody remembered to buy milk.]

W-3. Does Hot Water Freeze Faster Than Cold?

Background: This one is a real argument. It's called the Mpemba effect, after Erasto Mpemba, a student in Tanzania who noticed in the 1960s that his hot ice cream mix froze before the cold ones, and later wrote it up with a physics professor. Scientists still don't agree on when it happens or why.
Hypothesis: Under the conditions in our freezer, the cold water will freeze first, but it will be closer than people think.
Method: Two identical plastic cups, 100 mL each, one at 140°F and one at 70°F, put in the freezer side by side at the same time. Check every 5 minutes for the first ice and for frozen solid. 5 trials, switching which side of the freezer each cup goes on.
[Mom's note: Not on the shelf with the Christmas cookies.]

W-4. Is It Ever Too Cold to Snow?

Hypothesis: No. It can snow when it is very cold, but cold air holds less water vapor, so the heaviest snows will happen when it's closer to freezing.
Method: Every time it snows over break, write down the outdoor temperature and measure the new snow with a ruler in three places in the backyard and average them. If it doesn't snow, I will report that too. Negative results are still results.

W-5. Salt or Sugar on Ice?

Hypothesis: Salt melts ice faster than the same weight of sugar, because a gram of salt breaks into more particles in water than a gram of sugar does, and it's the number of particles that lowers the freezing point.
Method: Three ice cubes on three plates on the back porch: one with a level teaspoon of salt, one with a level teaspoon of sugar, one with nothing (control). Measure the meltwater every 10 minutes with a measuring spoon.
[Mom's note: The porch, fine. Not the driveway. Your father will want to know why the driveway is sticky.]

W-6. How Much Electricity Do the Christmas Lights Use?

Hypothesis: Less than Dad thinks.
Method: Read the electric meter on the side of the house at 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. on three nights with the lights on and three nights with them off, with everything else as close to normal as possible.
[Dad's note: I am very interested in this one.]

W-7. Does the Refrigerator Light Really Go Off?

Hypothesis: Yes. There is a switch in the door frame you can push with your finger.
Method: Shawn's idea. He doesn't believe the switch. He wants to put the camcorder inside the refrigerator with the door shut. I have explained that the camcorder will see nothing either way, because it will be dark either way, unless the light is on. Shawn says that's the point. He may have a career in science.
[Mom's note: Two minutes. Then the camcorder comes out and the door stays shut.]

Results will be posted in January. If you have done any of these and want to compare data, or if you think my method has a problem, please e-mail me. Peer review is part of science. Mr. Legrand says so, and so does Mom, in her own way.

Back to the Buttered Toast Experiments

[email protected]

Proposals last updated Tuesday, September 21, 1999