Whoozie Stick Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaZuCdeO5iU
At the URL above, you can find this video on YouTube!

Make a Magic Whoozie Stick!

The Wonderful Whoozie Stick

© 2009 James P. Louviere

The Whoozie Stick – An activity that challenges the onlooker to think analytically in terms of cause and effect.

Visualize this: A class of learners gathers around the teacher or his trained helper.

The teacher holds a stick. It is about as long as a 12-inch (30cm) ruler. It’s a little bigger around that a pencil, and has a series of notches along the top. At the front of the stick is a “propeller” like piece of wood with a nail through the center. The “propeller” is free to spin around the nail.

The teacher explains that “This is a Whoozie stick and it can respond to commands.”

He starts rubbing the long stick with a shorter round stick, and the propeller begins to spin. The teacher keeps the rhythm going and the propeller continues to spin without stopping. Then the teacher says “Whoozie,” and continues stroking the Whoozie stick in the same way as before, but the propeller stops and reverses its spin.

Every times the teacher says the “Magic” word, the propeller stops and reverses its spin.

This is an example of a puzzling situation where the learners are instinctively engaged in finding a logical, scientifically verifiable answer to the puzzle.

Make your Whoozie Stick and practice using it. The science will be explained at the end of the construction instructions.

Materials:

· A thin common nail with a head big enough to keep the “propeller” piece of wood from falling off the front end of the Whoozie stick.

· A wooden dowel about 3/8 inch (0.9 cm) in diameter and about 10 in. (25 cm) long.

· A wooden dowel about the same diameter, or a little skinnier, and about 6 in. (15 cm) long.

· A small flat piece of wood – cut from a craft stick or Popsicle® stick, cut to about 4 in (10 cm) long, with a center hole drilled in it. It will be held onto the front end of the 10 in (25 cm) Whoozie stick by the nail mentioned in Item 1 above. It must be able to spin freely around the nail.

Along the top of the Whoozie stick, cut a series of notches. They have to be deep enough to make the long stick vibrate steadily, and they must be placed at regular intervals along the stick so they produce a steady vibration when the short stick is rubbed to and fro over them.

Scientific Explanation:

The steady rubbing on the Whoozie stick produces a “harmonic” vibration reaction in the propeller. It has to move because of the steady bumping of the nail, but can only move in two directions, clockwise and counter-clockwise.
Moving your thumb forward or backward along the Whoozie stick changes the frequency of the vibrations, and the only way motion of the propeller can change is by stopping and reversing, since it has little "choice" the way it is limited in its motion.

© 2009 James P. Louviere Belmont, Massachusetts. USA June 26 2009, 11:21 PM\

I did not invent the Whoozie Stick. It was a traditional toy used in families in the 20th century. When I encouraged every student to bring hand-crafted object from home, one student at the Schweinfurt American School, around 1979, brought in a Whoozie Stick and demonstrated it for the class.

Like all the students, I was puzzled by the behavior of the propeller when the boy gave it the Whoozie command. He obligingly showed how to move one’s thumb in order to produce the stopping and reversing action. That, and the Water Whiffle, were perhaps the best student-furnished activities I’ve ever seen.

JPL

Seventy Four Activities I want to Publish Here and Elsewhere

E-Books I am working on:

Shapes teaches teachers to use student-made cubes, cones and cylinders to actually experience matter as something with mass and volume, and it subtly introduces the "metric system" and basic mathematical formulas like v_cyl = h b useful and meaningful. Once a teacher has taken a class through Shapes, the students will have experienced what most only hear about in lectures. Shapes is probably my most important educational publication.

There will be short books that teach Newton's Laws through hands-on experiences making and using my own inventions and my highly original activities. Here's a partial list:

The Whoozie Stick The GPV The HLG Hanzon Science Slide Show Products Biographies The Mystery Balloon

Get Your ”Hanzon” pure copper from blue crystals Making Green and Yellow Flames The Louvy-Lectrick Car

The Mobile Mousetrap Catapult String Drive Mousetrap Car Rear drive MTC Front Drive MTC

What does a larger wheel do to acceleration? What does a larger wheel do to range?

What does a larger wheel do to top speed? Homeschoolers with AirCars Do leaves think? Can Styrofoam® chips think?

What is a "force field"? What is a force? (Funny activity) How do you know a force is at work far away in space?

What's your Horsepower? How do pilots guide an airplane? How good a pilot are you? The Goliath Activity

What happens when you "fly off on a tangent"? How long do crystals take to form? The Bok and Wok of Science

The Greenhouse Effect in your Car Does Insulating a House actually Work? Are Seatbelt Laws Reasonable? The Chaffeur

and the Pretty Princess The Egg Loft: Human Factors in Safety Design The Wise Slave and the Superstitious King

The Teacher Appreciation Article Building your Science Teaching Reputation Advice about Summer Courses

Want to Travel and Live Overseas? Teachers, Should you pay a fee for Credit at a Workshop?

Asian and US Safety Practices. Your Body's Defenses Snacks or Snakes? Why are your Eyes Weakening?

Watch a water drop in slow Motion The Electric Pickle Lamp The Amazing Water Whiffle

An Interesting Tesla Coil Demonstration What is a Transformer? Can a Hammer magnetize a Needle?

Wanna Magnetized Screwdriver? What's a Magnetic Field? Is "North" always "North" of You?

How Far from Earth do Astronauts and Cosmonauts Go? How Far is a "Light Year"? Fun Trips for Students

Fun Trips for Teachers Odd Things to do in an Elevator What does a "controlled experiment" Really Control?

Peter Chin and "The Tale of the Other Dog" Thank a Teacher Today Write Right

Why is the Grass is Worn out Grass Around the Tree What is a "Radius"? Why are Radians Useful?

What came First, the Chicken or the Egg? Does Water conduct Electricity? The Salt Water Light Dimmer

The Real Reason we have Seasons Why are Warmer Oceans a Problem? Solubility of Sugar in Warm and Cold Water

Solubility of CO2 in warm and cold Water Why are “Carbon Footprints” Important What is Climate

Is Weather the same thing as Climate? Why “Oil Production” is Not What Exxon-Mobile Does Why is Math Important?

If you want to be a part of what I’m trying so hard to do, then please contact me and sign up for my newsletter!

Let's Set Fire to Steel

Blazing Steel

©2009 James P. Louviere

There’s a huge world of confusion about everyday physics. For example, today I’d like to show you a quick and lot-cost way of telling the difference between “heat” and “temperature.”

When I was a kid, my dad had a shop in our back yard. It was old, unpainted cypress wood, and the floor was simple dirt, mostly clay, and covered with sawdust from his table saw, as well as shavings from his woodworking lathe, this drill press, band saw, and hand planers, rasps, and so on. When he has to sharpen a hoe, shovel, or knife, he’s use an emery wheel mounted on his lathe and when he turned on the power, the bulky wheel would spin very fast, and he’s shove the metal blade against the wheel and sparks would shower down into the sawdust on the floor. I was really sure that he’d burn the place down, but then he was forty years older and I was, and was a combat veteran from WWI in Germany and France, and had about fifty years experience in his shop, where he used molten aluminum to make knife handles, “spiders” for ceiling fans, and other sand-cast materials. He had also wired our home, steamed bamboo into shape to produce all-bamboo rakes, and so on.

Eventually he won out by showing me that the yellow sparks were completely harmless by holding his bare hand in the shower of sparks, without being uncomfortable. I tried it myself, and sure enough, the sparks did not feel hot at all.

You see, “heat” is the amount of energy a piece of material has in it due to the vibration or oscillation of its subatomic particles. A very tiny piece of yellow-hot steel is so small that the heat it contains is very intense, but the sum total of the total mass is practically zero in real life terms. Compared to the “huge” amount of matter in my young hand back then, a tiny speck of hot metal could not heat up my hand at all/ my comparison, the hot water in my hot cocoa at breakfast could really hurt my lips and mouth. It was not even boiling yet, and its temperature was perhaps more than 500 degrees F lower than the temperature of a metal spark in the shop, but there was a lot more hot matter (mass) in the cup than in the tiny spark. It’s not the temperature alone that causes a fire – it’s the amount of hot matter that makes a difference.

Things to get before you start your Blazing Steel experiment:

· a newspaper

· a match (big kitchen match is preferred)

· some steel wool, preferably “fine” grade, but medium or coarse grade will do.

· Do not use a Stainless Steel Scrubbing Pad or a Brillo ^{(R )}Pad. Be careful – can slice one’s

fingers!

· Match or burning candle to use to set fire to the steel wool.

· Notebook (you should have one to record your various activities.

· Pen or pencil for recording your observations before and after the activity.

· a pair of pliers to pull the steel wool apart and to hold it while it flames.

What to do: In a well ventilated area, lay out a complete newspaper on a table, folded

across the front page in the usual manner. It should have at least twelve pages or so, or use two or more in order to get a thick folded set of papers.

Wear your safety glasses as usual, or goggles, just in case there’s an accident.

Grip the hunk of steel wool with a mitt and use pliers to pull off a nice piece about the size of your thumb, but not as “solid.” Make sure it is not matted – it can be “teased” using a pencil or pen to be sure it is fluffier and less compact than a tight wad of the material would be.

Do this so air can get between all the fibers of steel.

How light a match and hold it to the steel wool. If it starts burning brightly, drop it onto the newspaper and fold the paper quickly between the sheets.

Open the news paper. Write down what you observed. If you don’t keep records, you are playing, but you are not doing science. Science depends on accurate records. No records, no science.

Questions to answer in sentence form:

1. Was the steel able to burn?

2. Did the newspaper catch fire?

3. What happened when the blazing steel wool was dropped on the newspaper, and the newspaper was folded to squeeze the burning steel wool?

4. Hold the newspaper sheets that touched the burning steel wool up to the light.

5. Did the burning steel wool make holes in the paper it was lying on? Did the covering sheet of paper have holes burned in it?

6. If there were holes, measure their diameter and describe them. How big are they?

7. The burning point temperature of steel is about 800 degrees F. Does that sound like it should be able to start a fire?

8. Explain what is needed to set fire to a newspaper.

9. Check your answer against this on I made up: To burn newspaper, you need a supply of air and you need to have just a single piece of paper so that the paper is easy to heat up, and there’s enough hot matter to sustain the heating until the paper begins to turn into vapor. Solid paper itself does not burn until it vaporizes.

10. Which reaches a higher temperature, a burning piece of paper or a burning piece of steel?

11. Why is it true that a tub of luke warm water can have more total “heat” than a burning piece of steel wool?

12. Someone once said, “In story of the Titanic, the iceberg held more heat than the captain’s cup of hot coffee?” Is this true? (Don’t forget, ice forms at 32 deg F, or 0 deg. C. “Absolute zero” is 273 deg. colder than ice in an iceberg. So icebergs do have “heat energy.” Now what’s your answer? Why?

A brick out in the yard in the shade on a warm summer day may contain a lot more “heat” than a spark from a grinding wheel.

Can you think of any other activities you could try to see if you can show for sure that “heat” means one thing, and “temperature” means a completely different things.?

Can you recall any surprises you ever had regarding heat and temperature?

Explain.

Before you put you neat notebook away, be sure you record the date you did this activity.

What did this activity do for you? How did you “change”?