Location: Adler Planetarium
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2016; 5:30-10:00
pm
I had not done this for a few months and was a bit unsure
about going. The theme for today was “Weird Science” and we received a brief
write-up on the activities a couple of days prior. The main focus of the evening was something
called “Weird Science Lab” and
experiments dealing with “Van Der Graaf
Generator”. It was surprisingly warm
and with the new “Riverwalk” open, I
thought that it would be nice to walk to Adler.
While the walk was good, it took me an hour to cover the 3.5 miles and I
arrived just as Adriana was about to take the volunteers for the tour. I immediately joined that prior to checking-in.
I got my schedule and saw that we had a lot of volunteers in
attendance today. This meant that
everyone had something called “FUN!”
scheduled for an hour and mine was at 8 pm.
First stop was the “PXP Classroom”
where the “Egg Drop” demonstration
was being staged. This is the same
experiment that I have done previously with kids at “Astro Overnight”. It would
be interesting with Adults though, as they designed apparatus to protect their “Egg Astronaut” when dropped from 12
feet; plus they would be drunk. Thankfully I wasn’t on this one. We had the usual “Scavenger Hunt” where people would go around and find stickers for
places that they had visited during the evening and there was a table for them
to come and check-in. There was also the
usual “Photo Booth” and Adriana
mentioned that some people had complained that their photos were “out-of-focus” in the past. Tough crowd!
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| "Van Der Graaf Generator" |
Next we went to the “Community
Classroom” and on way there I noticed that there were other tables with
activities that were manned by non-Adler staff.
In the classroom the “Weird
Science Lab” was being staged and there was “Vacuum Chamber”, “Dry Ice
Station” with experiments to make bubbles and the “Crystal Ball” with soap solution.
Also present was the main attraction of the evening – “Van Der Graaf Generator” and some
other “Plasma” ball and disc
devices. The idea was to get someone to
stand on the stool and touch the collector of the generator. Then the volunteer would turn it on and
everyone would watch as the hair of the guest would stand up like Einstein. There were a few safety precautions, like no
metals touching the collector, no cell phones – for liability in case they
stopped working – and no “pace makers”
of course. One of the volunteers tried
it and her hair stood up all right. This
would definitely be a popular activity.
The big catch was that the volunteer would have to “discharge” the plate each time by touching it, meaning there would
be a slight static shock. Oh well. The things we do for science.
My first shift was on “UV/IR”
with another volunteer Collin, who was here for the first time. I told him that I would be back after
checking- in and returned to see that Adriana had already set up the cart with
him. There were the usual things like
the beads, sunglasses – including groovy star shaped one – different grades of “SPF sun screen” in plastic bags, the
rocks, the creepy bug in a glass block, and the normal and UV lights. I went over the pitch with Collin and Adriana
mentioned how we should let the guests do everything and just pose questions. Our cart looked like we were Street-side
vendors selling sunglasses, more than a science experiment.
People started coming and I asked a couple to stop by. I asked the lady to shine normal light on the
beads for 10 seconds and nothing happened.
Then I asked her to do the same with UV light and the beads changed
color. I then asked her to do the same
with normal glasses and sunglasses and while the normal glasses still caused
discoloration, the sunglasses did not.
Finally, we tried with the sunscreen and that was protecting the beads
as well. I then went into the
explanation of how the “High Energy UV
rays” cause changes in molecular composition of the materials, thus leading
to the change in color. Then I asked
them to shine light on the rocks and the bug, which glowed as well, thus
allowing me to make a point that it also occurs naturally. I concluded by saying that this is why one
should wear sunscreen and sunglasses when under the bright sun. They thanked me and left. I told Collin that this was the most science
anyone would do this evening and asked him to pitch to the next guests. He did a decent job, with occasional help
from me. The lady this time was very
meticulous and insisted on doing every experiment with the “control” of white light. We
also tried with “SPF 15”, “SPF 30” and “SPF 100” and realized that all of them were blocking the UV
light. I joked that we just saved them
money, but was sure that given enough time 15 would fail faster than 100. A few more people came during our hour here
and Collin and I rotated. They were also
interested in the “IR camera” nearby
and Collin was helping with that, handing out ice cubes to see change in the
image color from yellow heat to blue cold.
At 7 pm I went to my next stop at the “Weird Science Laboratory” and took over the “Van Der Graaf” station. There
was a line waiting to touch the collector plate – which worked on the principle
of accumulated charge owing to the rotating belt – and get their hair
raised. The volunteer who I relieved
explained the process to me and I was ready to go. I would ask the person to come forward and
examine their hands to ensure there were no rings on, asking them to remove if
they did. If they had a long necklace, I
would ask them to remove that as well. I
would also ask them to ensure that no piece of their clothing touched the plate
and many took off their sweaters and jackets.
Finally, I would ask if they had "pacemakers" and also to keep their
phones aside – though there wasn’t much risk of that being affected.
After checking everything I would ask them to stand on a
stool and touch the cylinder – many were a bit apprehensive at first, but it
had already been discharged. I would then instruct
them not to let go till I told them, and once everything was in order, I would
turn the motor on. The “on switch” wasn’t the easiest to reach
and I had to stretch, else I was too close to the cylinder and the guest and I would both get zapped. Once the motor was on,
their hair would stand up and then after people had a chance to take pictures,
I would switch the motor off, ask them to take hands off and not touch their
hair before climbing down. If they touched
their hair without grounding or released the cylinder while motor was running,
they could get a static shock. Once they
were down, I would discharge by touching the cylinder with my palm and getting
a small tingle.
Women were totally into this, as were some men. People could look inside this room and would
come in, fascinated by what was going on.
Some women had a lot of success with their hair and I would often say
that that was the best one of the evening.
Some would not follow instructions and get a zap. I got one too when I got close, and touched
the end of someone’s dress. One lady was
about to get on, when she said is it ok if she has an “insulin pump” on. I said
what about the power source – knowing a bit owing to my thesis – and her male
friend said just disconnect it. Way to
show concern. In the end we both agreed
that she should not do it. One lady had
the most interesting skirt that I had seen, with “LED” lights that lit up like constellations. With her as well, my recommendation was not
to do this activity. I had a lot of fun
seeing the reaction of people, especially those looking at the person doing
it. I said that we should probably put a
mirror in front of the people on the stool, so that they could see themselves. One lady had the best hair spread and asked
me if we could touch while she was up there.
I said that that would lead to a spark between us and she said, “Exactly”. Now now!
She later asked if I had heard of the “Violet Wand”. I said no and
she mentioned that it was some sort of a …kinky tool to zap each other. Ok then.
This was a lot of fun till my free hour at 8 pm, when I was
planning to attend the “Neuroscience
Lecture” in “Johnson Theater”. However, when I got there, I saw that it was
full and they were turning a lot of people away. I was disappointed, but I then went to “Grainger” to attend a show I had not
seen - “Planet Nine”. It was a nice show on the theoretical
prediction of the mysterious 9th planet and its search. It got over at 9 pm, just in time for my last
shift. I was back in the “Weird Science Lab” and now it was
full. Adriana asked me to take over the
dry ice and I said I hadn’t done that in a while and was not sure. She then said what about vacuum and I had
never done that either. So she said, “you can watch me do it”. Collin was there as well.
Adriana was good with the crowd and making them do
everything, including turning the pump on and off. She would ask people what would happen if we
put marshmallows inside or balloons or shaving cream or marshmallows in balloons
or shaving cream in balloons etc. Then
we would do the experiment to find out.
As vacuum brought the air out of all of these, they would inflate and
then fizzle out. She was encouraging people to draw faces on marshmallows and
they would expand and then shrivel. The
shaving cream formed a huge bubble and even came out of the balloon like toothpaste.
We stopped at 9:30 pm and then there was
the cleanup, which was quite fast. As I
was going to check-out, I heard one of my fellow volunteers say that the lecture that was full had been a great one. Looks like I should have been there
early. But despite that, it had been a
fun evening.
