When I grew up, quicksand
was a real concern. When you only had a
handful of television stations to choose, you ran across a lot of older shows
and movies. If any of these programs
were in a jungle of any kind…quicksand always played a role. The seemingly innocent pile of deadly sand
was always featured slowly (and I mean slowly) sucking in the unsuspecting adventurer. Being very young and viewing this scarred
me. I even avoided sandboxes for a few
years. I would look at the other kids
playing in the sandbox and think they were either stupid or had a death wish. It seems to me that kids today aren’t aware
of the menacing threat of quicksand.
This is another reason I’m glad I grew up in the seventies, quicksand
knowledge.
Aluminum Boats
What You Need:
Small bucket or large
bowl
Water
Scissors
20 pennies
Aluminum foil
Ruler
What To Do:
Fill the bucket with
water. Using the ruler make measurements,
cut 15 cm (6 inch) squares from the aluminum foil. Wrap one of the squares around 10 pennies and
squeeze the foil into a tight ball. Fold
the four edges of the second square and make a small boat. Place 10 pennies in the boat. Make sure you seal each corner tightly so
water cannot leak into the sides from below the boat. Set the boat on the surface of the water. Place the ball on the surface of the water.
What’s Going On:
When you dropped the
ball of aluminum foil in the water, it had a completely different result than
the boat. Although both pieces of
aluminum foil have the same weight, the ball takes up smaller space than the
boat. The amount of water pushed aside
by an object equals the force of water pushing upward on the object. The larger boat pushes more water out of the
way than the ball and creates enough upward force to cause it to float.
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