Measuring Temperatures

We measured the rise in temperature several times today and took an average. We sat the kitchen thermometer in the snow and the needle dropped down as far as it could..we guess that it must have been somewhere in the thirtys. We timed it until it reached 250 degrees. The average was 42 seconds. The highest temperature we got was off the scale. Our oven thermometer only goes to 500 degrees and the needle went beyond that point.

Light and Dark - Solar Power

An experiment with light and dark objects to burn

Mirroring a parabolic dish

Yes it is Science Fair time once again and this year Pappa and I are doing solar power with reflected sunlight. In this video I show how I stick the reflective tape on to our parabolic dish. I also talk about how this parabolic reflector works and why we don't need those pesky bubbles.

First we had to prepare the dish by sanding it out so it was smooth and down to almost bare metal. Then we painted it glossy black to help with the reflection.

Sanding the dish

Painting the dish gloss black