Wal-Mart Fizzix Demonstration
NJSTA Convention – Somerset, NJ
Tuesday, October 09, 2001
Sorta Outline of My Fizzix Stuff :
Explanations of the stuff I did and / or mentioned.
0. Fortune Fish! – How the heck do these things work?
1)
Water Balloons : Demo of the tremendous Heat
Capacity, or Specific Heat, of our friend, H2O. It happens
o
to be 4180 J/kg C . That’s more than any other common substance. Blow up one balloon and set a match to it. Sorta
predictable, huh. Now, fill another – same type – with water. Now, hold it over the head of some unsuspecting kid
(volunteer, of course…) and set a match to it. The balloon WILL NOT react. REASON? The water has such a high
heat capacity, ie the ability to absorb and hold thermal energy, that whatever heat the balloon’s latex is getting is
IMMEDIATELY sucked up by the water on the other side of the balloon. The heat has no chance of sticking
around and causing the balloon material to expand. (NOTE : This did fail me once, I think it was just old dry balloon
material. I think….But it was certainly worth the look on that kid’s face when he got soaked after I promised he

wouldn’t!)
2)
Video Fizzix : or “Lies Mickey Told Me”.
a) Wile E. Coyote : [a] FanMobile [b] BalloonMobile [c] TubMobile
b) MIB, Space Cowboys, Armageddon, Robin Hood, Red Planet, T2, Waterworld, Payback, etc.
3)
Phone Book Friction : The
books are virtually IMPOSSIBLE to pull apart. The books will actually tear
apart before separating. Here’s why, sorta… Think of a single phone book sitting on a table. It’s Ff = sN where, in
this case, N = W. This is the minimum force required to make the book decide to move across the table. Now, by
“shuffling” the book’s pages, assuming 500 pages, you have now multiplied the Ff by 500, sorta. The top page has
only its weight pushing down, the next page (belonging to the other book) has the weight of page one on it. The 3 rd
page has 2 pages pushing down on it. The 4th has 3, the 5th has 4, . . . So, the bottom of the book is pressed with a
force equal to the weight of the portion of pages above it. Assume, again, the pages overlap by ½ their width so
that each book provides approximately ½ its weight to the force on the bottom pages. Then, the weight on the
bottom pages is
W = (1/2 W) (2 books) = W of one book, (duh!)
The normal force between a given pair of page surfaces is = the weight of the pages above. This N varies from zero
at the top to W at the bottom, so its average between pages is ½ W. Thus, the maximum static friction force
between a pair of page surfaces is, on average,
Ff = sN = ½ s W
There are 999 page surfaces in contact, since the top is just exposed to air, so the total max Ff is
Ff = 999( ½ s W)  500 s W
Thus, the friction is 500 times the friction between one book and the table. That’s lots, sorta.
This was found in the book “Physics Begins with an M”, John Jewett, Allyn & Bacon Pub.
4)
Hovercraft :
Simple Pressure vs Force vs Bernoulli vs Pascal.
Daryl L. Taylor
1996 Presidential Awardee
www.DarylScience.com
5)
CO2 Bubbles : Sorta simple; Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) and Vinegar (Acetic Acid) combine to form
CO2 gas and a sorta-lime gook. The sorta balanced equation is
NaHCO3 + HC2H3O2  NaC2H3O2 + H2O + CO2
(You’ll have to verify my chemical manipulations with a real chem human.)
The CO2 is much denser than regular room air. Under regular room conditions according to my Handy-Dandy CRC;
Air @ 1.29 g/L and CO2 @ 1.97 g/L. So, the CO2 stays in the bottom of the vessel. An air bubble thrown into the
vessel will sink due to it having a slightly larger density than air due to part of its volume being composed of soap.
However, upon bumping into the CO2 layer, the bubble stops and floats. Why, then, does it slowly sink and end up at
the bottom? Diffusion of the CO2 thru the soap film
will eventually equal out the densities. Cool, huh?
6)
Density / Buoyancy Stuff
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
Pepsi v. Diet Pepsi and a Pub Draft for me.
Mystery Corks
Warm Air RISING?
Al Boats
Dancing raisins and mothballs
Balloon in big Jar (Candle Works as well..)
Horizontal Floating (Balloon in car &
Candle in Jar)
h) Overflowing Pepsi
i) Fatal CO2
j) Pouring CO2
7)
PhySci / GenSci Stuff
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
i)
j)
k)
l)
m)
n)
o)
p)
q)
r)
s)
t)
u)
v)
w)
x)
y)
z)
Slow Freefall
FAST Freefall (s)
Real Rainbow
BlueBockers
Radio in Chicken Wire
Magnetic File Cabinet
Dbl Sunset & radius of earth
Glue Stick Sunset
Doll Inertia
BON
m-stick break
Sound Rings
Pickle Light Source
True Mirror
3-D Magnetic Field Viewer
Cyalume Sticks
Rockets
Tug-O-War
Magic Mirror
Happy / Sad Balls
E3
Posters
Doppler w/ Tuning Forks
Chrysler Ad
M3
Rope Trick
aa) Baggy Sand
8) Miss E. Lanius
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
i)
j)
k)
l)
m)
n)
o)
p)
q)
r)
Misconceptions
Slime
Flight Patches
Wine Glass Inertia
Newton’s Hammer
Matchbox & Keys
Magnus Effect (s)
Falling TP
Bungee Jumpers fall >g!
CD Spectroscope
Lentz’ Law
Egg-n-Sheet Toss
Van De Graff with Pie Plates
Anti-Gravity
Bernoulli Tricks
Coin drop
AM Radio Hair Static
CHOICE OXIDE GLASS
s) Dropping a slinky
t) Size ‘6’ Foot
u) Bar Napkins!!!