Adler After Dark

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!

"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 9^th 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.