Science Smarts: At-home storm chasing
By Patty Rooks on June 24, 2023.
Oh my we have had a couple of weeks of extreme weather right here in Alberta. I think last I heard there were 10 confirmed tornadoes in one day in this province. This is unheard of – we rarely hear of one or two every few years. I truly hope that everyone did stay safe with this wild weather we are experiencing. Perhaps you are as curious as I am, and wonder just what a tornado looks up close. I am not brave enough to be one of those “storm chasers” so I thought we could make our own. Let’s get started! *Remember to ask an adult before doing this experiment. Materials – Two empty clear 2L bottles with lids – Water – Drill – 3/8″ drill bit – Good strong glue – Small piece of sand paper – Glitter or small buildings/animals (optional) Procedure 1. Remove the lids from the 2L bottles. Using the sand paper, rough up the tops of them quite well. This will allow the glue to adhere better (in my opinion!). 2. Glue the two lids together – flat sides to flat sides. Use a really good strong glue to stick these together. I also like to put a bead of glue all around the outside of the caps just for added stability. They are going to be put to the test, so you want them to be good and solid. Allow the glue to set and harden for a little while. 3. Drill a 3/8″ hole in the middle of the lids that you glued together. Make sure you go all of the way through. 4. Fill one of the bottles about ½ full of water. 5. If you wish, add a small shake of glitter or some small plastic hoses or animals. This is optional. 6. Carefully screw the tops onto the full water bottle. 7. Put the empty water bottle on top. 8. Make sure the bottles are secured tightly. 9. Flip the bottles over and rapidly rotate the bottles in a horizontal circle a few times. Set on the counter and observe what happens. What is going on? When you turn the bottles upside down, you should have observed a funnel shape or tornado! This vortex forms in the bottle as the water flows from the top bottle to the lower bottle. When you rotate the bottles, the water in the upper bottle starts to rotate. As the water rotates, a force is acting upon it – centripetal force. This centripetal force pulls the water toward the centre of the bottle, and then gravity kicks in as it helps pull the water throughout the hole in you drilled in the lids. As the water drains into the bottom bottle, you should see the vortex forming. This of course this ONLY LOOKS like a tornado. A tornado is actually formed from a thunderstorm in a cumulonimbus cloud. The perfect combination for a thunderstorm is warm moist air meeting up with some cool dry air. As these two air masses meet, they create a great deal of instability in the atmosphere. A change in the wind direction and speed at high altitudes then allow the air to move horizontally. The rising air from the ground pushes up on the swirling air stretching the cloud longer and toward the ground with a funnel like appearance. Once this funnel cloud touches the ground it is called a tornado! Keep your eyes out this summer; you never know what you may see! Patty Rooks, Senior Scientific Consultant PRAXIS, “Connecting Science To The Community”. Contact Praxis at praxis@praxismh.ca, http://www.praxismh.ca, Tweet or follow us @PraxisMedHat, or friend us on Facebook. Address: #12 826 11 Street S. E., Medicine Hat, Alberta, T1A 1T7 Phone: 403-527-5365, email: praxis@praxismh.ca. 31-30
