Popping Popcorn

Popcorn is one of those things that seems like its been around forever! Have it as a snack, at the movies, on the go, it's one of those classic snacks that never get old. But does anyone know the science behind it? Ooh ooh I do! Haha, well popcorn has one small drop of water inside of it. That one drop, when heated, will create steam. That steam is trapped, and according to Boyle's law, that steam will try to escape. It will try to escape by expanding and essentially popping that popcorn. The heat in the microwave heats the popcorn, which heats the water inside of the kernel. The new steam triggers the popping. But that was only in a microwave with radiation heating. What about in an old fashioned popcorn popper. The Hot Air Popcorn Popper! Well that uses convection heating to heat the popcorn. The hot air at the bottom of the popper rises, because hot air rises. The air, once it reaches the top, will cool down and fall again. The cold air will then become hot again. This convection will heat the water inside of the kernel and trigger the same popping as the radiation heating. Another way to pop the corn, which we didn't see in class, is through conduction. When fire from a stove heats a pan, this is conduction. Conduction is the direct transfer of heat from one substance to another. So once the pan is hot, it will heat kernels that are inside of the pan. This conduction makes the water inside the kernel steam, and triggers the same popping that happened with convection and radiation heating. WOW! Popcorn can be really complicated! How can such a simple snack be so intricate? Are you amazed? I know I am!

Collapsing Can Lab

Molecules, cans, collapsing, oh my! Air pressure is something that we humans rely on day after day. The air pressure in the earth keeps us from imploding, or exploding. If our pressure inside our body is greater than the pressure outside, we will explode. If the air pressure outside our body is greater than inside, we will implode. I know this because I experimented with air pressure by using a simple soda can. First off, we all know that when you shake a soda can, the air pressure inside gets greater. If it gets too great, it will explode! But do we normally see a can implode? Of course not! But I had a chance to see! What we did was we put some water into an empty soda can, and heated it until it boiled. That way the molecules in the soda can were all over and were expanding. That increased the air pressure. But when we quickly inverted it into a bowl of ice cold water, the air suddenly cooled down, which made the air pressure decrease. The air pressure outside of the can was wayyyyyyy more than the air pressure inside of the can, which made it implode! (It also made a really cool noise)! This example of air pressure can really help scientists experiment with air pressure!