Ask Theodore
So, Theodore has been overwhelmed by the fabulous response and all the great questions that we've been getting. He and his team have been hard at work to find the answers.
Question
Theodore's first experiment comes from Mrs. D'Annecy's first grade class in Florida. They write:
Theodore, I have an idea for an experiment. I know that water boils at 212° and freezes at 32°. If the outside temperature were 0°, could you throw boiling water in the air from a pan, and watch it freeze in midair? I saw pictures of this being done in a magazine. It must have been captured by a high speed camera. The pictures stuck with me as fascinating.
Would the outside air need to be colder than 0°? How would the wind speed affect it? How much water could you throw to create the desired effect?
Great question. There's only one way to find out.
Theodore enlisted Mike and Dr. Kim's help to answer his question. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Guida)
SAFETY WARNING: If you live somewhere cold, where you'd like to try this, remember that water freezes at 32˚F and you are likely trying this at extremely cold temperatures. If you spill the water on your skin and it freezes, it can be very dangerous. Always try this with an adult and take proper safety measures.
Materials
- Thermos
- Boiling water
- Beaker
- Cameras
Theodore with the necessary materials.
Method
- Examine weather data.
- Go outside on a REALLY cold day and throw boiling water into the cold air.
- Make observations. Record results with photo and video cameras.
- Share results and drink hot cocoa.
It's a bit cold outside.
Results
We were surprised to find that the boiling water didn't hit the ground with a splash. Instead, the water froze in mid-air and was either:
- carried away by the wind as a sort of cloud, or
- hit the ground as tiny frozen ice pellets.
We also noticed that water froze to the sides of the beaker.
Let's go to the photos.
Here Mike is just starting to pour. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Guida)
Here Mike is pouring the water and you can see where it is liquid and where it is becoming a cloud. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Guida)
Mike has just started to toss the water. You can clearly see that it is all still liquid. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Guida)
If you look closely, you can see the ice pellets forming in mid-air. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Guida)
Here, Mike is just starting to toss the water. You can see the ice pellets and cloud forming! (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Guida)
Now you can see the larger cloud that formed and if you look really close, you can see the ice pellets. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Guida)
Theodore also made a video about this experiment.
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Conclusion
This experiment was just plain fun! Theodore tried it multiple times with the whole team and found that:
Cold water behaved very differently than the boiling water. Cold water just spilled out and wet the snow on the ground. Not a lot of freezing in mid-air.
Small amounts of the hot water seemed to change right to ice pellets. Large amounts of hot water produced ice pellets and the cloud effect.
Things happened really fast. The camera set to high speed really helped us to understand what was going on.