Other Thermal Physics Demonstrations

Please email me or use the form to suggest some more demonstrations.

Demonstrations

• Small slow speed petrol or diesal engine with data acquisition facilities. Demonstrates a heat engine where the hot medium is ejected each cycle.
• Ball bearings in a perspex grid to simulate electron current conduction.
• Demonstrations of radiation - quantitative.
• Newton's law of cooling. Coffee cup and thermocouple interfaced to graph temperature versus time. This could probably be done using the experiment Temperature gradient in a copper bar.
• Brownian motion.
• Conduction through a space shuttle tile.
• Fire walking.
• Infrared imager. NB males radiate more than females (basically they have less fat to keep the heat in; they also have more muscle which produces more heat). Internal and external organs while not directly observed are evidenced by areas of brightness and darkness. turn this into a real demo even if we don't have it Also observe IR radiated from different materials such as wood painted red, blue, etc.
• Joule's experiment. Two paddles stir water in an insulated container. The paddles are driven by falling masses. It should be possible to calculate the rise in temperature for the falling masses and compare to the measured value. Show Work produces Heat produces a change in internal energy which gives a rise in temperature.
• Thermister detector.
• Portable constant volume gas thermometer. Perhaps a metal (or glass) sphere with a pressure gauge attached which could be imersed into various liquids and gases. The sphere should have a diameter of perhaps 5cm. The thermometer should have a pressure gauge able to measure from 0 to 100 kPa.
• Porous plug demonstration. Constant enthalpy. ???
• Free expansion. Build a perspex container with a wall in the middle so that gas can be held in one half of the container and the other half evacuated. The wall must be constructed so that it can easily be removed while keeping the container isolated. Demonstrates free expansion (ie delta Q, delta W and delta U all equal zero).