Peta won t
he Zinc Zone back in November 2011, here’s what she’s been doing with her prize money…
Since winning I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here I have been truly inspired by the highly imaginative questions asked by the students and I wanted to use the prize money to produce some demos of fun science experiments that they could do at home themselves to keep the science fun happening outside the classroom.
Measuring the speed of light with chocolate
Peta's 'Speed of Light with Chocolate Experiment!'
This was discussed by the students in a number of the chats leading me to produce this little step-by-step that I released onto Google+ and advertised on Twitter. It received a lot of +1’s and was shared over a hundred times by both individuals and even Cadbury’s UK themselves, therefore receiving an even wider audience.
Find Peta’s ‘Speed of Light Chocolate Experiment’ here!
‘Galileo vs Aristotle: The Easter Showdown!’
The second step by step experiment looked at the rate at which different masses fall. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher from over two thousand years ago, believed a heavy ball would fall faster than a lighter one, Galileo, an Italian physicist, thought this should not be the case as something that broke apart as it fell would suddenly change it’s acceleration. So for Easter we had a chocolatey test…
Peta's 'Galileo vs Aristotle Chocolate Experiment'
Two identical eggs, one opened, filled with chocolate and resealed such that we now have two identical volumes with different masses. Then they were dropped simultaneously and filmed with the help of the camera stand bought with I’m a Scientist prize money. The film of the drop can be seen on the website.
The result: Galileo was right! So physics is safe for now but it’s always good to have a check yourself. Plus you get to eat the destroyed chocolate at the end.
Find Peta’s ‘Galileo versus Aristotle Experiment’ here!
In addition to this I have started hosting ‘Ask a Scientist’ Google Hangouts and in discussions about having some of these recorded. These are advertised as and when on my Google+ page.
Watch out for more ‘Chocolatey Science’ and ‘Ask a Scientist’ hangouts coming soon…
