3/54 Flying Potatoes—Twice-Baked Potato—Part 2

Today I did the anticipated redo of my “Flying Potatoes”. With my new and improved materials in hand, I was confident there would soon be potatoes in my tree.

I cut the potato in half and pushed the pipe into it. Now that my pipe was sharp, it was easy-peasy to plunge it in.

After successfully getting two potato pieces inside the pipe, I headed outside. I felt so confident and optimistic, ready to demonstrate Boyle’s Law.

I positioned my dowel rod and pushed it up, through the pipe moving the potato piece.

To my surprise, the potato piece just fell out the end of the pipe and dropped to the ground.

NO! What happened? I noticed that when I pushed the potato through the pipe, I did not feel any air resistance. That means the air did not compress and that only means one thing, no air seal.

  I know that it isn’t the potato. If you look at the potato piece in this picture, it is not a mashed potato like the previous run. The form is nearly perfect.

  The dowel rod has no other function than to push the potato pieces. I do not think that it has a part in the failure of the experiment.

  So that leaves me with one material, the pipe itself.  We felt the inside of the pipe and it was really rough. Thus, there are little tiny marks in the pipe allowing air to pass through.

  What am I going to try now? Well first I am going to try to sand the tip of the pipe on the inside. Thus, when I stab the potato, the piece will be cut a bit bigger and grow tight as I push it further inside, creating a tighter seal.

  If that is unsuccessful (hopefully not), then I will buy a clear plastic tube. Because it is a different material, it might create a better seal. In the experiment, Steve Spangler said we could use a PVC pipe or the plastic kind of pipe so that we could see what is going on inside. But since I already had PVC in my shed, I just went with it.

  This has been a bit of a frustration but this is where I learn the most. I consider this day an………

3/54 Flying Potatoes—Twice-Baked Potato—Part 1

   Today I wanted to revisit “Flying Potatoes” and test my hypotheses.Unexpectedly, we woke up this morning with icy snow on the ground and church canceled but I still wanted to do something. I was desperate to satisfy my science craving.  I realized that I had a bit of preparing to do.

  I looked over the procedure (once again), discussed it with my parents, and looked up videos of Mr. Spangler performing the experiment. Now I have a better and more complete understanding of the process and what I might’ve done wrong. I observed in the videos that the dowel rod should be pretty long before the stopper stops it. It really needs to be longer than 6 inches. I moved it down to about twelve and a half inches.

 

My finger is where the duck tape stopper was and you can see there at the bottom where it is now.

   Now the more challenging part, the PVC pipe. I first took the orange utility knife and further “sharpened” it. Although it was working, it was not easy.

  My dad then stated, “Cut down the pipe most of the way and I will get the sander out.” 

  After my part was done I got my safety glasses, coat, and shoes and headed out to the garage which is where Daddy showed me how to work the sander. You learn something new every day!

   

It was honestly fun to learn but it vibrated so vigorously, it tickled my knees! At the end of the day I had a pipe with two (truly) sharp ends.

  Now I am ready to shoot some potatoes across the yard very soon!

   

3/54 Flying Potatoes

Now for an experiment that was part of the title, “Flying Potatoes”. After I had measured, cut, and flared the end of a PVC pipe, I stuck the not-so-sharp end into the potato (Not as easy as it looks).

 

Once I had a piece of raw potato in one end, I pushed it up into the pipe approximately six inches from the flared end. After that, I stuck the pipe in again now ready to shoot some potatoes.

  Taking a dowel rod with a duck tape stopper, I went outside to our freshly raked backyard. Anxious to see what would happen, I put the rod at the end of the pipe against the potato and pushed it through! The air should push on the other potato piece and send it flying.

  

  In that second picture there you could see that I have a bit of confusion on my face. That is because when I pushed the rod, the potato did come out, even though it made a hilarious sound it only came out a few feet in front of me…. what happened? 

  This was a perfect opportunity to practice the scientific method. My hypothesis: I did not compress the air fast enough. So I tried again, only this time moving the rod faster. The results were a little disappointing. The potato came out and immediately dropped down.

   Then I realized that when I pushed the potato, the rod moved way too easily.

   Hypothesis #2: Not a proper air seal. So I put fresh potato in the pipe (it takes a lot of effort) and redid the test. It made a wonderful sound but still did not work. It still felt like I did not have a good seal.

  What now? Well, my brilliant mother suggested I put some oil on the potato to help it slide easier and just might help the seal  I was on a important mission of science! I pushed the pipe into the potato and then pulled the pieces out and covered them in vegetable oil and stuck them back in.

 

I redid the test without success.

  After all of these tests, I was extremely tired and I was losing daylight so I stopped for the day. I wasn’t going to continue, but since I have been writing all of this down, I realized something. Look at how hard I am pushing down on this potato.

 

  Observation #1: My pipe was just not sharp enough. In fact, it was not sharp AT ALL! So I should take more time to make it sharp so that it would be easier for the pipe to past through the potato.

Observation #2: I am practically using all my might to get that pipe into that hard potato and so what is happening to that potato? Put yourself in that poor potato's shoes. I do not know about you but I would be screaming. It is being crushed and deformed. By the time the potato is in the pipe, it is bent and turned into mashed potatoes!!

  So this gives me enough reason to try again and to not stop until I succeed. Also, if I quit I would be missing one of the best parts of science.

Stay tuned.

 

Who is Steve Spangler?

  Now that you have seen some of the experiments from Steve Spangler, I can see that you might be thinking, “Who is this guy?”.

  Never fear! To learn more about this inspirational scientist, you can go to www.stevespanglerscience.com

  I encourage you to explore this site. You will be surprised at what you will discover.

The Secret to the Holey Potato

   Now is the time to reveal the secret to the “Straw Through Potato” experiment.

   If you look back at the pictures you will notice that every time I tried to put the flimsy straw through the dense potato, I had my thumb firmly covering the top of the straw. Because of this, the air could not escape. That means as the straw went thought the potato, the air inside compressed. As a result, the air pushed against the sides of the straw making the straw an instant Superman! What does that make the potato?

2/54 Straw through Potato

   I came home from church today and changed right into my lab coat and safety glasses, fired up to do some science. Today, I took a potato from the fridge and a straw from the cabinet. My goal: Get that puny straw through that dense, uncooked potato.

   Making sure all of my fingers were out of the way, I held the potato at its end. Taking some of the strongest straws we had, I held it ready to strike the innocent tuber. After an attempt or two, I got the straw all of the way through.

  

After that, I had to keep going….

And going…

The poor potato. It became a potatopine.

Afterwards, I painted all the little holes so you could see all of them. I named it “The Holey Potato”.

You should try to see if you can do it! You will most likely find it very difficult (but try anyway!). In a few days, I will reveal my secret to this unusual mystery. 
Note: If you are going to try this experiment, You need to get the procedure. It is always a good idea to know exactly how you are going to do an experiment. Look around for it at www.stevespanglerscience.com 

1/54 Floating Ping-Pong Balls and Flying Toilet Paper Part 2

   What about the flying toilet paper? Well let me tell you, it blew my mind! There I was armed with a leaf blower. My brother, Christopher, held the PVC pipe with the toilet paper roll on it. We were ready to make the back yard a mess. Aiming the air over the top of the roll, I turned it on. SHOOM! The toilet paper started reaching out and it kept going and going! At the end of the day, I had an arm full of awesomeness!

1/54 Floating Ping Pong Balls and Flying Toilet Paper

   On a cloudy day in New Mexico, I was stirring up some science. I had taken a girl’s tool, a hairdryer, and a round play-thing, a ping-pong ball, and put them together to demonstrate a mind-boggling principle, Bernoulli’s Principle.

  As I placed the ball into the upward stream of air, it stayed in place. Moving the hairdryer left and right, the ball moved with it. I did the same enthralling thing with a balloon weighed by a penny in it. Then I tried using more than one ping-pong ball, I could not place more than three. Even then, three balls stayed in the moving air for only a few seconds.

    Finally, with one ball in the stream, I took a toilet tube and held it over the ball. Then all of the sudden it went through the tube and shot out the other end. I was AMAZED!

  At the Explora Museum where I volunteer, there is actually something very similar to this, but much bigger. I was so excited to take it into my living room.  

   

Starting the Book “Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes”

Out of the two books, I am starting with “Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes”. A total of 29 experiments in this one book of excitement. The first chapter, “The Power Of Air”. Let’s get this show on the road!

Why Am I Doing This?

   Exactly, why am I doing this? Well we all know one of the best parts of science is doing the experiments. I have wanted to do this but I have never gotten to it until now. What got me going then?

   One day I found myself being lazy. After school I would just plop down on my brown couch and watch TV all afternoon. One day I thought, “There must be something better I could do.” I remembered my two Steve Spangler science books on my third shelf. “I should really do those,” I thought, “I would have a blast!” But high-school really kicked in and life got busy.

  For my enjoyment, I volunteered at a conference.That is when something unexpected happened. I saw Steve Spangler himself!! I got to meet him and see him do a short, but enthralling, demo. Seeing what he does inspired me to do this crazy journey. 

A Little Bit About Me

  Hello, My name is Melissa Ober and I am fifteen years old and I live in Los Lunas, New Mexico. I have grown up here and I do not want to leave. New Mexico’s beauty is beyond wonderful. We are not called the “Land Of Enchantment” for nothing. I live with my brother, parents, and my Boston Terrier dog, Dexter. I have been homeschooled all my life and I would not change that for the world.

   I would much rather do science than a lot of things. Yes, I am a nerdy teen and I am proud of it!! 5 out of 6 of my family (including me) is involved and has an interest in science and/or mathematics. The other one is an artist. Science is in my blood.

  I have always enjoyed science. Biology and Chemistry are my favorite. I love dissecting and making things blow up (who doesn’t?). I love the whole robots thing too but I do not like to build them (I would leave that part to my brother). Most hated subject…. History. But I do appreciate it a little more now that we took a trip to D.C. 

  A few things I love doing on my own time is reading a nice book, visiting my friends, and watching something along the lines of Mythbusters, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, you get the idea. But once a week I go  and volunteer at the Explora Children’s Science Museum in Albuquerque. It is a hands-on science museum where kids get to learn many different aspects of science. Then I have my Chemistry class the next day (LOVE it!).  But spending time with my family watching Star Trek is one of my favorite things to do. With my two older sisters moved out, I figured out family time is important.