Mr. O! A Video Blog from the Children's Museum of Houston

Science is the Tops

Mr.O — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 03:32:53 +0000

In a temporary exhibit, we have a top spinning table which always leads to the question: why does spinning a top make it stay balanced when not-spinning makes it fall over?

Believe it or not, top spinning involved very complicated physics complete with calculus equations. But, to simplify it, we’ll refer back to Newton’s First Law of Motion: An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. So, a spinning top tends to keep spinning and not get pulled over by gravity. Eventually, as friction causes it to slow down, gravity becomes the stronger force and pulls it over.

To get a better understanding and make your own top that draws pictures, check out the video!

Savory Science

Mr.O — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:00:52 +0000

Nobel-Winning Experiment

Mr.O — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:03:35 +0000

Butterfly Blues

Mr.O — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:01:31 +0000

Dealing with Density

Mr.O — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:57:24 +0000

Nanocoatings

Mr.O — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:54:23 +0000

Highs and Lows of Pressure

Mr.O — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:06:13 +0000

We all use straws on a regular basis to enjoy our drinks. But did you know that you don’t actually suck on a straw? That’s right folks – you don’t suck on a straw – lower pressure does not pull on higher pressure. Suction is fiction in terms of physics. In fact, nothing sucks – not your vacuum, not your turkey baster or syringe. People don’t even get sucked out of planes during explosive decompression.

Let me say it one more time to be clear: Nothing sucks! So what is happening? Well, the air is BLOWING. That’s right – nothing sucks, it blows. I’ll pause for the giggles to end.

Air always moves from areas of high pressure to low pressure – it blows. When drinking with straws like kids with juice boxes enjoying lunch at the Fresh Cafe at the Children’s Museum of Houston (yes, blatant plug ), we create areas of low pressure in our mouths by expanding them. The outside air, in trying to equalize pressure, squeezes on the box and the liquid in the box gets pushed up the straw and into your mouth.

Check out the video to see how we can use this concept to turn straws ineffective!

Special thanks to our friends at Region’s Bank for making our O Wow Moments possible!

(Almost) Impossible Acts of Balance

Mr.O — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:15:54 +0000

In Getting a Sense of Balance, a prior O Wow Moments episode from the Children’s Museum of Houston, we discussed how your sense of balance is generated by the semicircular canals. But what we didn’t discuss is what your body does with the signals from the semicircular canals.

It all comes back to the concept of center of mass. We’ve discussed center of mass in prior episodes like Balancing Act and Tippy Towers. Basically, if you keep your center of mass over your feet, you’ll stay balanced. If it moves too far past your feet, you become off-balance.

So, when we do simple tasks like standing on our tiptoes, standing on one leg, or touching our toes, our bodies shift around to help keep our center of mass over our feet. But, what if we don’t allow these shifts to occur. Try out the activities on the video and see just how impossible these acts are.

I threw in one other NEARLY impossible act. Actually, it is only impossible for men to do; however, most women can accomplish it. Namely – picking up a chair. Well, technically, picking up the chair with your head on the wall (there’s a little more to it than that – watch the video and see). BTW – this little task was part of a very funny scene from All in the Family…have fun!

Special thanks to our friends at Region’s Bank for making our O Wow Moments possible!

Getting a Sense of Balance

Mr.O — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:38:01 +0000

We have a great activity in the lower level of our PowerPlay exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Houston called “Surf and Snow” that encourages everyone to hop onto some balance boards and see how long they can keep their balance! So, we decided to use it to explore balance in this O Wow Moments episode.

So, how do we keep our balance? Well, while our eyes play a major role in telling us our orientation, our ears also play a role! Specifically, three structures in each ear called the semicircular canals that act like accelerometers – they sense when our head changes motion. This information is processed by the brain which sends signals out to our muscles to cause us to shift our bodies to maintain our balance.

Of course, we can have a little fun with the semicircular canals as well by spinning around and around to get dizzy. That dizziness is caused by overstimulation of the canals because when you spin you are constantly accelerating! Give it a try (unless you are prone to motion sickness – we only want you to lose your balance, not…well, other things…).

Special thanks to our friends at Region’s Bank for making our O Wow Moments possible!

Singing Glasses – Changing Tone

Mr.O — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:47:26 +0000

Like I didn’t get in enough trouble with Ms. Manners from the other Singing Glasses video, I decide to push my luck and explore the sound being created again in this O Wow Moments video, but time we’re going to look at tone.

First let’s talk about how to get a wine glass to “sing.” First, get a wine glass (kids, make sure to get your parents’ permission first before attempting this experiment; husbands – get your wives’ permission). While crystal makes excellent sounds, it is more fragile than glass and more expensive. So, since glass will work fine, I’d recommend using glass over crystal.

Once you have a glass, fill it about halfway with water, wet your finger and rub it around the edge. It takes a little exploration with how much pressure to use, but you should eventually get a great tone coming from it. It occurs because your finger makes the glass vibrate by constantly pulling a little, slipping, then pulling again.

Now that you can make a glass sing, change the amount of water in the glass – maybe pour some out or add in some more. What happens to the sound? Remember that the frequency, or tone, depends on how fast waves are passing a given point. Because sound travels at a specific speed, the frequency is affected by the wavelength, or the length of the waves you are creating. By changing the amount of liquid, you change the wavelength and therefore hear different tones.

Next step is to create a wineglass harmonica – a whole bunch of glasses filled to different levels to create different notes so that you can play songs. If you make one, please send us a recording! Personally, I’d love to hear a wineglass harmonica version of “Louie, Louie…”

Special thanks to our friends at Region’s Bank for making our O Wow Moments possible!