It's time for another great science experiment with Captain Zoom and her crew of scientists, Amy and Mark, with Let's Find Out.
The RTÉjr show is produced with support from Science Foundation Ireland and it's filled with exciting experiments, curious kids and a trip to a faraway place.
Watch it now on the RTÉ Player here!
This time out, Zoom wonders why her balloon doesn’t rise up into the sky. She watches some children making paper snakes float by heating the air underneath it and discovers that hot air rises!
Teachers and educators can download the full lesson plan here...
REMEMBER! You NEED adult supervision for ALL the experiments!
You will need:
- Some paper
- A small plate
- Coloured pens or pencils
- Tape
- Thread or string
- A scissors
- A toaster
What to do:
- Place the plate on top of the paper and use it to draw a circular shape.
- Ask an adult to cut the circle out with scissors.
- Now draw a spiral shape from the outside of your circle to the middle point of the circle. Make the spiral a few centimetres wide. (You can check out the video link to see how to make the shape on your paper plate)
- Again, ask an adult to cut along the spiral line with the scissors.
- This spiral is your curled up paper snake, use the coloured pens to decorate it.
- Once your snake is ready, attach a short length of thread to the top of his head with tape.
- Ask an adult to press down the toaster and hold your snake about 10-15cm above the toaster.
- After a few moments you should notice that your snake starts to spin.
The science bit
Why does your snake spin? It is all down to what happens when air is warmed up. As the toaster gets hot it starts to warm up the air above it and warm air always rises so the air above the toaster starts to move upwards. As this moving air passes by your snake it makes the snake move too and because the snake is a spiral shape, it turns in circles and spins!
Also in this episode
Mark and Amy make a hot air balloon for Zoom and see if it can take off by itself.
And the whole crew go see some real hot air balloons that are big enough to carry people!
Click here to see all the experiments from the series!
