You can create a tornado of your own quite easily. Here are two recipes!
Take two 2-liter soda bottles, fill one with water, and purchase an item called a Tornado Tube. The tube connects the bottles so that one is upside down. (If you don't want to buy a tornado tube Dorothy suggests good old-fashioned duct tape.) Simply turn the bottle with water to the top, give the bottles a twist, and a vortex (a rotating circulation) will flow into the lower bottle.
What can you do to the bottles that will affect the size
and shape of the vortex that is produced?
You can also make a vortex by filling a mayonnaise or canning jar about three-quarters full. Add food coloring to water, along with a teaspoon of liquid dishwashing detergent and a teaspoon of vinegar. Tighten the lid, shake the jar vigorously, and then give it a good twist. The liquid will form a vortex that looks like a small tornado. It will even lengthen and then retreat like a real tornado.
How can you change the size, shape, and duration of the vortex you
made in the jar?
Equipment: Tornado tube described above is available from Edmund Scientific
Co. (609-547-8880) and at most Nature Company stores.
| |
|
|
|
