Hello everyone! Second to
last experiment, let’s get to it!
Fire tornado. The materials
to this one are unique. A Lazy Susan is among them. A big thank you to my
pastor, Mr. Nagy, for giving me his Lazy Susan for my experiment!
The other materials are a
metal screen, sponge pieces, lighter fluid, a lighter, a pan, a container to
hold your fire, and a fire extinguisher.
Now I did not own some sort
of bowl or cup that would hold my flame. With my mom’s permission I took a empty
can and filled it part of the way with tiny rocks for weight. Then, I laid tin
foil over it and pushed the foil down into the can making a nice little
cup.
I covered the Lazy Susan
with foil to protect it. The metal screen needed to be stapled into a cylinder
and I carefully cut and measured the screen according to the instructions in the
book.
Enough set-up talk, let’s
get to experimenting!
I found that this
experiment was very tricky. So many variables, so many safety precautions, and a
whole lot of patience. First, I had to test if my home-made fire cup, I needed
to know if it would work. I put the pieces of sponge into the can and soaked
them in lighter fluid. With my handy lighter, I lit the sponges.
I have adult supervision
and many safety precautions in place. DO NOT ATTEMPT!!
It worked perfectly! My
handy pan that you may recognize from “egg drop” served as my flame smother-er
(I just made that up, didn’t I?).
I have a can full of flame
on a Lazy Susan…… time to spin it! Let’s see what happens.
The flame became more
vigorous but no tornado effect that we are looking for. That’s where the metal
screen comes in. By carefully placing the screen in the middle of the Lazy
Susan. I gently spun the the board around.
But between the screen
having trouble staying up and the gentle breeze, it was extremely difficult to
get a noticeable effect. But through trial and error and a whole lot of
patience, I did create the desired fire tornado! Take a look at this amazing
work of science!!
Pretty amazing!
After all the spinning,
shifting, and testing we did to try to accomplish the tornado, it felt great to
finally get the effect we were going for.
But that is not all. There
is more to this story of fire and……um…. a Lazy Susan (Dramatic speech
FAIL!)
While I was trying to get
another tornado effect, the screen dramatically shifted and then tipped over,
knocking the can over while the lighter fluid was still burning!! I
instinctively grabbed the fire extinguisher and on the orders of my mother, blew
out the flames. We didn’t want the fire to reach the ground. Thankfully there
was no damage to anything or anyone!
Whew!! That was a close
one. I was particularly glad that I kept the flames away from that pile of
leaves. THAT, my friends, is why you take extra safety precautions when
performing an experiment. It was kind of cool to use a fire extinguisher for the
first time. It was also the first time my mom had to use one… she said she
always knew that I was going to be the reason why she had to use a fire
extinguisher for the first time!
Why did I have so much
trouble getting my fire tornado? I think the big part was the breeze but also I
think I need to get a stronger metal screen. This one was very flimsy so I
should revisit this experiment sometime in my future and try it with different
materials and conditions but first I will have to recharge my fire
extinguisher!!
The WOW-rating for this
experiment is an 8. It was so great when we had that pillar of fire climb the
air like a ladder! But why did it make a tornado with the screen? The rising
molecules around the flame and the combined rotational motion of the air caused
by the screen create the beautiful swirl that you see.
Now I don’t really need to
remind you to DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I have seen videos of teachers doing this
experiment in their class and it going terribly wrong. Please take this
seriously.
We only have ONE MORE
EXPERIMENT!!! This next one I have been waiting to do since I saw Steve
Spangler do it way back when I was 14 years old. You are not going to want to
miss this one.
