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psocopteraHelp me design this experiment!
So on Wednesday at the farm Junie went on the moon bounce, and she was having fun until a bunch of big kids rushed on and started bouncing her too much, at which point it was briefly unclear whether she was going to be able to crawl to the doorway where I was reaching out for her, or whether she was just going to cry helplessly and I was going to have start a) yelling at the big kids or b) crawling in there myself with Q in the Ergo. (She made it, with encouragement.) Anyways, today she asked me "why those big kids made me bounce too much" and I said, oho, a why question about physical properties! to the laboratory! we must construct an apparatus!
My vision was that if we could make a bouncy surface, we could try resting a bigger pebble on it and dropping a smaller pebble, and then reverse them, and see for ourselves that a heavier thing can bounce a lighter thing higher than a lighter thing can bounce a heavier thing.
The biggest problem was making a bouncy surface - I tried cutting a latex glove open and stretching it over the top of a pitcher (a nice oblong shape), holding it on with rubber bands, but the cuts meant that it just ripped when I tried to stretch it. I tried using an uncut glove, wrist at one end fingers at the other, but things inevitably fell through the gaps, which was a pain. I tried putting the glove *over* the end of a jar but the fingers were in the way; I tried inverting them into the jar, which Junie thought was hilarious because now she could wear the glove and have her hand in the jar, but anything dropped on it just fell into the hole.
The other problem was that both objects immediately flung themselves off of the surface (and it turns out the larger rock, falling from the height of a pitcher, had enough force to make a mark in the corian countertop, oops. at least it didn't get our toes.). I substituted a small apple and a cork for the rocks, making them less hazardous, but still just as inclined to leap off.
In a perfect universe, I think I would somehow have two clear channels above the bouncy surface, so that we could drop an object down into one, and the other object would jump up into the other. So... can anyone help me figure out how to do something like this? Preferably using common household supplies?
So on Wednesday at the farm Junie went on the moon bounce, and she was having fun until a bunch of big kids rushed on and started bouncing her too much, at which point it was briefly unclear whether she was going to be able to crawl to the doorway where I was reaching out for her, or whether she was just going to cry helplessly and I was going to have start a) yelling at the big kids or b) crawling in there myself with Q in the Ergo. (She made it, with encouragement.) Anyways, today she asked me "why those big kids made me bounce too much" and I said, oho, a why question about physical properties! to the laboratory! we must construct an apparatus!
My vision was that if we could make a bouncy surface, we could try resting a bigger pebble on it and dropping a smaller pebble, and then reverse them, and see for ourselves that a heavier thing can bounce a lighter thing higher than a lighter thing can bounce a heavier thing.
The biggest problem was making a bouncy surface - I tried cutting a latex glove open and stretching it over the top of a pitcher (a nice oblong shape), holding it on with rubber bands, but the cuts meant that it just ripped when I tried to stretch it. I tried using an uncut glove, wrist at one end fingers at the other, but things inevitably fell through the gaps, which was a pain. I tried putting the glove *over* the end of a jar but the fingers were in the way; I tried inverting them into the jar, which Junie thought was hilarious because now she could wear the glove and have her hand in the jar, but anything dropped on it just fell into the hole.
The other problem was that both objects immediately flung themselves off of the surface (and it turns out the larger rock, falling from the height of a pitcher, had enough force to make a mark in the corian countertop, oops. at least it didn't get our toes.). I substituted a small apple and a cork for the rocks, making them less hazardous, but still just as inclined to leap off.
In a perfect universe, I think I would somehow have two clear channels above the bouncy surface, so that we could drop an object down into one, and the other object would jump up into the other. So... can anyone help me figure out how to do something like this? Preferably using common household supplies?
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-31 10:39 pm (UTC)Maybe stretched over a tin that could sit inside a larger box or some other container?
Brainstorming there.
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Date: 2012-08-31 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-31 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-01 12:07 am (UTC)what about balloons, even if you don't have any they can be gotten relatively cheaply at the drugstore.
air mattresses have already been suggested, but you can see it even on a regular bed mattress or a couch (especially in the difference between mommy sitting down and Q sitting down.)
no subject
Date: 2012-09-01 10:59 am (UTC)Anything else inflatable. E.g an inflatable wading pool could probably be somehow rigged to be useful.
Big flat sheets of spandex such as a bathing suit.
The cheap latex kind of swimming caps.
Stretch whatever it is over a smaller bowl and put the whole thing in a larger bowl so it won't escape so far? I'm not sure your second object is actually going to jump straight up.
Slinkies are really good for simple 1D wave experiments, but she might not make the connection between that and the 2D stuff.
Seesaws are actually a related idea, only without the bounciness.
Also kind of related is that thing where you drop a pile of bouncy balls and if the top one is really small, it shoots off very fast.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-04 12:52 am (UTC)