Peregrine often thinks up "experiments", most of which we never get around to doing. One of his recent ideas was to make ocean water with salt and water. He did it not long ago and was thrilled that his experiment "worked". Today I wanted to have some "special time" with him. While Raphael slept and Poppy watched a movie, Peregrine and I took his ocean water experiment a little further. You should definitely listen to this while you read!
Evaporation and condensation,
The water cycle, the water cycle,
Followed by precipitation,
The water cycle, the water cycle,
The never-ending cycle is taking place
All the time and everywhere....
(Even in our kitchen!)
Here's our mini ocean, a couple of tablespoons of salt dissolved in warm water.
Evaporation
The heat of the sun (or the burner, for lack of a heat lamp and a couple of hours) causes water vapor to form into a cloud of steam.
Condensation and Precipitation
I placed four glasses around the pot, then set a large glass lid on top of them to trap our "cloud".
Through the glass lid we could watch the steam condense and run off the sides as "rain".
Just for fun we let the water boil away and were left with a crusty bed of salt...
...and a very pleased boy!
(I know I've linked to these before, but I must put in another plug for these science songs. They were recorded in the 1950s and 60s and Peregrine, and the rest of us, love listening to them. He has learned a lot of basic science concepts from them.)
Wow, that was a great post! I have never thought about doing that....
ReplyDeleteI'll think about getting my lazy keester off the couch and doing that this weekend!
I think my girls would love it.
Leanne in Longview