Have you recovered from Halloween yet? Well brace yourselves – it’s time for Bonfire Night. It’s a bit difficult to ignore really, especially if your cat or dog is plastered to your leg. Just thank your lucky stars you haven’t got a Fainting Goat as a pet. Why are fireworks so loud these days? Whatever happened to the mildly entertaining ‘Silver Showers’ and the subtle effects of ‘Traffic Lights?’ Now it’s all – ‘The Mighty Scud’, the ‘Wailing Banshee’ and the gulp-inducing ‘Armageddon’. Just as you remove your fingers from your ears and marvel at the wonderful stars, the delayed blast kicks in. Whoa! Happens every time… Never mind, grab a bit of Cinder Toffee and enjoy the display.
Now don’t laugh, this is a real creature with a very real problem. Not serious though, we wouldn’t be poking fun at the poor prostrate critter if it were – this is not You’ve Been Framed y’know!
The Tennessee Fainting goat is known by a number of names such as Stiff-leg, Nervous, Wooden-leg, and Scare Goat. These are one of the few goats that are indigenous to the U.S. There are two strains of this animal. Most of those found in Tennessee and the eastern U.S. are smaller. Fainting goats have bulgy eyes which are very unusual and which distinguish them from other breeds. They also have very long ears that stand out to the side of their head. However, their most obvious trait is an inherited muscle condition called myotonia congenita. When the goat is being fed or becomes startled its muscles become stiff allowing the goat to fall on the ground in a fainting position.However the goat is still conscious throughout so technically it has not has not fainted. After a few seconds it recovers and continues as before. This inherited trait leads to an increase in their overall muscle mass.This is because as the goat gats older it learns to brace itself rather than falling over. Putting the muscles under tension so frequently leads to an increase in muscle. Look at the size of the necks on weightlifters. Point taken.
They used to be used to protect sheep flocks since if an animal threatened the flock the sheep could run away while the Fainting goat fell over, providing the predator with an easy meal while the sheep escaped. Charming! Talk about taking advantage of someone’s affliction.
In Issue 205 Paul (Soupy) Campbell (mad science teacher – his words, honestly) asked:
“If light travels in straight lines, even when refracted then why are rainbows curved?”
Well Soupy (or may we call you Soup?), Ian Parsons has an answer for you. He says
“The light does travel in straight lines; it is the boundary from your viewpoint that appears curved in an arc. If you move then the boundary line at which the refraction becomes visible moves with you. Hence one can never find the pot of gold because it just keeps moving away from you.”
Thanks Ian. Once again the scientist was NOT stumped!
So what’s this week’s stumper?
Dr Alan P Glaze of Regents Park Community College asks
“When you inflate a long balloon, why does it always inflate at the end nearest the blower? Also, if you partially inflate the balloon, the inflated section is clearly under some pressure. The as yet un-inflated section appears to be under very little internal pressure. Unless my physics has completely deserted me, the inflated section, and the un-inflated section are at the same pressure as they are freely connected. So what's going on?”
What indeed. Over to you - scientific community. Peruse the possibilities whilst passively partaking of your pyrotechnics.
If you can help or if you have a burning question of your own then send usan email with STUMP THE SCIENTIST in the subject line to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk
Cinder toffee is rather easier on the teeth than normal toffee. The foaming action produces a sea of bubbles in the toffee that make it easier to chomp through. Just the thing whilst you are ooohing and aaahing at all the pretty fireworks!
You will need:
450g (1lb) Granulated Sugar
300ml (1/2 pint) Water
3 tbsp Golden Syrup
50g (2 oz) Butter
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
4 tbsp White Vinegar
What to do:
Grease a shallow baking tray (approx. 9 x 5 inch).
Put the butter, water and vinegar into a large heavy pan and heat gently, stirring until the butter has melted.
Add the sugar and golden syrup and allow to fully dissolve.
Bring to the boil.
Continue to boil without stirring until the mixture reaches the 'hard crack' stage, this is about 138C/280F on a sugar thermometer, if you have one. Otherwise you can test the mixture by dropping a few drops into a cup of cold water where the toffee should solidify and form hard, brittle threads. Remove from heat.
Add the baking soda and watch it froth up.
Stir the mixture until the bubbles subside a little and pour into the tray. When set but still warm, mark into squares.
Break into pieces when cold (You may need a hammer for this, but be careful and watch your fingers!) Store in an airtight tin if you can't eat it all at once.
What’s going on?
When sugar solutions (syrups) are boiled they begin to lose water, the amount lost affects how they will behave when they cool down. A small water loss gives only a thickened syrup, but if a lot is lost then the solution cannot hold all the sugar so a solid product is formed. By varying the water content different effects can be achieved. The temperature the solution reaches is related to the amount of water present, so a thermometer is an easy way of telling if you have reached the desired stage. Otherwise, you have to physically check the solution by cooling a small amount in some water.
Bicarbonate of soda reacts with acidic liquids to produce bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. This general reaction is often used in baking to help a mixture rise. Soda bread, scones and many sponge cakes all rely on this reaction to produce a light, edible morsel rather than a dense brick. In this case tartaric acid acts as the acid, but other acids include lemon juice, vinegar, or lactic acid in sour milk and yoghurt. Baking powder is a dry mixture of bicarbonate and acids, which reacts when wet.
Toffee is mostly just sugar, but it is in quite a different form to the sugar crystals that you have at the start of the recipe. As the sugar crystals dissolve into the hot liquid, the sugar molecules in the crystals break apart from each other to produce a sugar solution. As the mixture boils it loses water and becomes thicker. When it starts to cool, the liquid becomes too thick too quickly to allow the sugar molecules to join up into large groups again. Instead of a granular product that crumbles in the mouth (like fudge), we end up with a glassy structure that is very chewy.
This week’s activity was taken from the Planet Science Diner where there are plenty more ideas for mouthwatering morsels!
We can barely contain ourselves! Those wonderful folks at Evans Publishing have given us a set of SIX books in the Science Essentials – Physics range. Science Essentials - Physics is packed with the latest scientific information and is an ideal support for physics students at Key Stage 3 level. The series will also be of interest to older students, for example the fascinating features boxes outline recent physics research and encourage the reader to look more closely at the world in which they live.
Titles in the set are Electricity and Magnetism, Energy and Matter, Forces and Motion, Light and Colours (very topical!), The Solar System and Beyond and Sound and Vibrations.
So do you want to win the set? If so, send your answer in an email with your name and address, and the words PHYSICS ISESSENTIAL in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk.
The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 8th November.
'Flushed Away', the new film by Dreamworks is in UK cinemas from 1st December. It follows the adventures of high-society rat Roddy and tomboy sewer rat Rita in the beautifully engineered sewers under London as they try to escape the evil Toad. The story is of a journey and is about the formation of an unlikely friendship set in a mini underground London made entirely from re-used rubbish thrown away by humans "up top".
The ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) are producing 10,000 copies of an educational game based on the film ‘Flushed Away’ for Key Stage 1 to be distributed free of charge to primary school teachers. About 1,500 copies are being sent to targeted groups, the remainder are available to order through the ICE website. The game is a cross-curricular end-of-term treat with curriculum-linked extension activities and will be available for pre-ordering in the next couple of weeks. It will be distributed from mid-November.
The game is not explicitly about Civil Engineering. Rather, it is about encouraging the creativity, problem-solving and invention in children that is essential to Engineering and Science using appropriately pitched numeracy, investigation and design activities.
Will nothing induce you to have a go at the November Quiz? Nothing has induced us to put together these 10 questions about those little areas of life, the universe and everything where something should be but isn’t, or nothing should be but is. Confused? Your prize, should you be positive rather than negative in your answers is big fat nothing, with a very groovy designer flask surrounding it. It keeps your favourite food or drink hot or cold (but how does it KNOW…?)
BA CREST (CREativity in Science and Technology) is a nationally recognised award scheme for students aged 11-19. The national BA CREST Science Fair brings together winners of the BA CREST Award regional finals along with self-nominated students, all of whom have carried out outstanding science, engineering and technology projects. Judges select the top projects and young scientists for a range of prestigious prizes, including cash, iPods and international trips.
The 2007 fair will take place on Friday 23 February at the Royal Society in London.
Applications for self-nomination are now open. Individual students or teams of up to 3 aged 15-19 can apply to come to the Fair. To do so students must submit an application form, a 4 page project report and a teacher/ supervisor reference. The best projects will be chosen to attend the Fair and expenses will be paid for students with a BA CREST Gold Award. For further information and to apply online click here.
The deadline for applications is 1st December 2006.
6. Recommended Websites of the Week
Got no plans for Bonfire Night? Why not stay in and watch a display or two on your computer? It's easy to create your very own Phantom virtual fireworks show. Shoot fireworks over beautiful skylines including NYC, Miami, Louisville, Denver, Cleveland, Paris, France and more!
It's the time of year for fireworks night and in this literacy activity, pupils find out how fireworks work and why they burn so fast. They make and annotate a paper firework model with information about reactions, energy changes and safety. Pupils then use their models to explain firework chemistry and safety to new firework factory workers.
The second is Fireworks. Fireworks use fast-burning fuels to release fabulous bursts of energy. But why do they burn so brightly and how is the energy release controlled? In this data sort activity pupils explore the chemistry of sparklers, bangers and rockets and learn why fireworks are so difficult to put out once they catch fire.
BBC’s H2g2 Fireworks is well worth a look and tells you the difference between rockets, fountains and aerial shells. As if we didn’t already know – there goes the Fainting goat again…
Are you fascinated by unfolding an origami model and marvelling at the intricate crease pattern which forms the "blueprint" of the fold? You should get into Origami mathematics.
That’s all for this week but remember – if you’ve got anything to add then drop us a line: planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk.We’re open to contributions 24/7.
