Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My daughter who is 8 is doing a special project at school. She has picked a geyser/mud pool that is in Japan to replicate. I have no idea how to create the steam for the geyser, or how to make a bubbling mud pool. Please help.

nkweiman:

The bubbling mud can be replicated using an aquarium pump and some rubber tubing. The mud must be thin enough to blurp or bubble as air is introduced from the pump. Maybe colored pancake batter would work for mud

I am not sure how to recreate the steam. These two url's may help you set up a modified steam generater.

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/steamboat.html


http://www.all-science-fair-projects.co ... 57_58.html

Matthew W. Mulanax, Ph.D.

Hi nkweiman,

Here's a web site with links to some ideas for how make a working geyser model. http://www.wyojones.com/geystudent.htm

You could probably substitute household items for the lab glassware discussed on the site (as in the juice can example) or materials from a hardware store. (If you do want to use lab glass, I've found American Science and Surplus is one of the cheapest low-quantity glassware mail order suppliers http://www.sciplus.com/)

Another option is to try to use something other than boiling water, such as the aquarium pump idea, or something lower tech like a bottle containing water and dry ice or baking soda and vinegar connected to a tube. It seems like it would be pretty easy to make a bubbler, but trying to make a working geyser that way could be much more difficult.

If you're just trying to make something that *looks* like a geyser, but doesn't actually *work* like a geyser, then just pumping some water through a small plastic tube positioned near the surface of a pool of water and perhaps adding some dry ice for a steam effect might be all you need. (You can usually find dry ice at a wholesale ice cream supplier or from a company that runs ice cream trucks or popsicle hand carts, if there's one near where you live.)

Best,
Erik