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Informal Science Education Network              <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>1.  Exploding a marshmallow for s'mores
>2.  Liquid Nitrogen ice cream
>3.  Mentos fountain
>4.  If I could ever get the exploding Jell-O pudding to work I would do that too!

Love the food demo idea at a dinner party!!

One of my favorite food demos is getting a hardboiled egg into a bottle using air pressure.  Somewhere recently, I saw that a science company had bottles for sale that were the right size to use...I
just can't remember which company it is.  In the past, I used large glass apple juice bottles (Martinelli??), but they don't make the big gallon sized jugs anymore, at least they don't distribute
them here.  Their smaller bottles might work, but I haven't tried those recently.

Boil the egg, de-shell it, stick a couple of birthday candles in one end, light 'em, stick the candles into the mouth of the bottle which is held upside down. The egg is held at the bottle's mouth
until the burning candles use up enough oxygen so that the outside air pressure pushes the egg against the bottle's mouth & you don't have to hold it anymore. The candles will burn out, and the
outside air pressure pushes the egg into the bottle.

Getting the egg out is my favorite part - and you can do it without making egg salad.  Shake the egg down to the mouth of the bottle (but it will be too big to get out).  Put your mouth over the
entire mouth of the bottle and blow in as hard as you can.  Then, move your mouth away from the bottle very quickly.  The increased air pressure that you produced inside the bottle will push the egg
out onto the floor or table.  It's quite cool - practice it a few times, though.

Another favorite doesn't exactly involve food, but it is the old crush-a-pop-can-using-air demo.  Did that one for my family at Christmas last year.  They didn't bat an eye when I asked for a bowl of
ice water, a blowtorch, a can, and tongs.  :>)  


Michelle

Michelle Nichols, Master Educator for Informal Programs
Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum
1300 S. Lake Shore Dr.
Chicago, IL  60605
312-322-0520 
312-322-9181 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
http://www.adlerplanetarium.org

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