Visible Water Vapor
Objectives:
Students predict the appearance of a cold object and contrast that appearance with an identical warm object. This works in dry weather but works most dramatically with high humidity.
Materials:
*Two identical items, such as magnifying glasses or cans of cola. Any other pair of identical glass or clear hard plastic items that can show condensation will do fine.
*A bucket of ice.
Focus:
Tell students to imagine a cola in an aluminum can in the refrigerator . What happens when you take it out?
Procedure:
Put the first glass in the ice at least twenty minutes before the experiment. Show the students the warm glass. Ask them to describe it. Is it dry? Write a simple sentence that describes it. Ask the students to predict how the other glass will appear when we remove it from under the ice. Write down the predictions. Will it be wet or dry? Why? Will there be any other differences?
When all the students have written a prediction remove the first glass from under the ice and hold the two items side by side. The cold glass will quickly be coated in condensed vapor. This helps prove that there is water in the air called water vapor.
Close:
Use verbal sentences and descriptions to compose written descriptions. Compare and contrast the two glasses as they appear now. Draw the difference. How many differences are there? For example: "The cold glass is wet and foggy. The warm glass is dry and clear. We can see through the warm glass but not through the cold one."
Enrichment:
On a warm sunny day take two identical drinking glasses to a patch of grass. Put one upside-down in shade and the other upside-down in the sun. The one in the sun will have drops of water condensing on the inside in ten minutes or so. The glass in the shade never will. There is water in the air called water vapor.
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