Marshmallow in microwave

We were eating dessert with my roommate tonight, and decided to heat up marshmallows with chocolate.  When heated in the microwave, the marshmallow expanded instead of melting.  This is because marshmallows are made of foamed sugar. When it is heated, the water in the foam heats up and the trapped air in the foam causes the marshmallow to expand.  When the microwave stopped, the marshmallow collapsed because the air was no longer being heated.

Lava lamps

My roommate has a lava lamp and I became mindful of how they work.  Lava lamps have colorful wax in them; this wax floats around in a clear liquid.  The wax moves up and down due to the heat in the lamp.  When the wax heats up, it becomes less dense than water because wax expands when it is heated. The wax becomes more fluid and floats to the top of the lamp, where it cools down and then descends.

Momentum in ice skating

I was watching figure skating today, and was noticing the different positions that the skater assumes when spinning.  When the girl wanted to spin faster, she would pull her body together and keep her arms and legs close together.  This way, she maintains the same angular momentum.  As she wanted to slow down, she would pull one of her legs out and stretch her ams out wide.  By stretching out her arms, she enlarges her moment of inertia and therefore slowing down.

Anti-static dryer sheets

As I was thinking of how static builds up in a dryer, I thought of ways to stop the static.  One method is dryer sheets.  The material in these sheets are positively charged.  The positive charge balances out the charges between the clothes when they are rubbing and tumbling in the dryer.  Fabric softeners also work.  They are usually positively charged and create a lubricating layer on the clothes which acts as an anti-static agent.

Static electricity in the dryer

Today, as I was taking my towels, out of the dryer, I noticed that they had static electricity. After a little research, I noticed that one of the reasons for this might be because of detergent that is left in the clothes after they come out of the washer. The detergent is removed from the clothes during the drying process, and the removal of these particles may create static electricity.  Also, the rubbing of the towels against each other might have created polarity in between them, creating static electricity, which is why I got shocked when I removed the towels from the dryer.

Lightning

Today, I became aware of how lightning forms during a storm. Thunderstorms usually come after hot days.  Warm, moist air rises quickly and forms comulonimbus clouds.  Inside the clouds, water droplets and ice particles rub and hit against each other, creating static electricity. Positive chargers accumulate at the top of the clouds, and negative charges accumulate at the bottom of the cloud. The ground is positively charged. Electricity flows in between the ground and the clouds, creating a difference in electricity.  When this difference is too big, it is released in the form of lightning.

Beer foam

I saw someone pouring beer into a glass today, and noticed that a lot of foam was formed. This is because when the liquid is poured quickly into another container, carbon dioxide is released. Carbon dioxide can be formed as a by product during the making of beer.  The glass into which the beer is poured is also a factor in the formation of foam.  When the glass is nonporous, it tends to retain more oil, and when the beer comes in contact with the oil, it bubbles will then stick to the glass' surface instead of rising to the top, thus reducing the amount of beer foam.