Not really an engine

[DavesWimshurst]

Another hard day at work:



This is for a demo. 
Dave

[Stilldrillin]

That`s great Dave!

Reminds me of my Chemist son, making his concoctions..... Including black powder!   

But, what are gummy bears? 

David D

[raynerd]

Dave, we call it Screaming Jelly Baby's over here - "Jelly Baby's" are the sweets we use. 

I have done this a fair number of times and I always just do it with a clamp and stand. Will have to consider putting it on a bearing and doing two opposite each other!!

I have a couple of chemistry related videos that my students put together for me over on my youtube channel. Sorry about the music selection!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/craynerd

Have you ever tried to introduce any other engine related projects or activities? I have been thinking about Stirling engines under the topic of "energy resources" but that is lower school and I think tin can stirling would only be suitable for older higher ability. I have just finished making a tin can Stirling to see how it works and have managed to get a runner but it has taken time!

Thanks for your post.

Chris

[Brass_Machine]

Dave,

I moved it to 'neat stuff' and out of backyard ballistics... this is more like a jet engine type of thing

Eric

[NickG]

awesome, now I know why my 3 year old goes absolutely loopy after only a few of them!

[DavesWimshurst]

This demo is to be worked into a show at Scitech, the science museum where I work.  Here is Mary Hawthorne dumping boiling water into about 20 liters of liquid nitrogen as a finale to her show.



This is another part of the show involving liquid nitrogen and a 2 liter pop bottle.  Note this must be done in a special manner involving putting water in the bottle to delay the action.  Definitely not to be done by the untrained, very scary.  Mary has had years of experience doing these kinds of shows, mostly for Fermilab.



We now use a blast shield in front of the box, but this is my best video.

In answer to Chris's question Mary uses the LTD Stirling engine I made for her for demos with kids using their hands to generate the needed heat.



Close up of the flywheel.  Kids love it!



Dave

[Brass_Machine]

Dave,

You work at a museum? How very cool is that? I saw a job once at a museum in California where they guys make some of the displays etc... They had a very nice work shop etc...

Me? I work for a college!

Eric

[raynerd]

David

We don`t often have liquid nitrogen but we do a similar experiment to the exploding bottle with a smaller drinking bottle containing dry ice which we can make on top from a dry ice valve on the CO2 bottle. Same idea, something else I like to do is place small amounts of dry ice into eppendorfs and then throw a handful on the floor. They all go off like little fire crackers at random times. Not quite as explosive as the (what looked to be) a 1 litre bottle full of liq. nitrogen.

I really like the idea of stirling engines but I`m trying to find a reason or area of the curriculum that it could be related to. I understand it would be a nice demo of science and technology alone but I think if it could be incorperated into an area of the curriculum all the better. Energy and energy resources? ... any links there?

Chris