Re: [asa] Easy to show experiments

I taught HS and college science for many years, and I used to have students
use a very dilute solution of oleic acid (0.5%, if I recall correctly) to
make a little slick on the surface of water in a cafeteria tray. We used
lycopodium powder to show the size of the slick. An eyedropper could be
calibrated to determine the volume of one drop. The rest was just
relatively simple mathematics, although many non-science students found that
part very challenging.

The late Phillip Morrison does something similar with cooking oil and a
pond, in the film, "The Ring of Truth: Atoms," part of a very clever PBS
series from 20 years ago. I used to show students part of that film (and
some of the others in the same series) in lab, to prepare them for the idea
of doing it.

Ted

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Received on Wed Sep 12 12:13:21 2007