Hobbies And Interests
Bouyancy
Take a tape measure, Newton meter and inflatable globe to a deep swimming pool. You may also need some additional weights depending on the size of the globe. Join the Newton meter to the globe. Putting it in a string bag and hooking the Newton meter into it is a good way to do this. Attach the end of the tape measure to a weight, and take the weight to the bottom of the pool. Keep the other end above the surface. Get into the pool and pull the globe down until the top of it is just below the surface. Record the number of newtons required to pull it down. Descend a foot at a time, and record the force measured on the Newton meter at each depth. Attach additional weights to help you pull the globe down.
Density of Fluids
Run a similar experiment, but this time you will only need a bathtub rather than a swimming pool. Pull the globe down to just beneath the surface. Now steadily add measured quantities of salt to the water. Record how the force required to keep the globe fully submerged increases as the concentration of salt increases. Record the variation on a graph. Note the concentration at which no further increases in force are seen, regardless of how much more salt is added. This is the point at which the water reached its salt saturation.
Understanding Justification
Find a globe and map of the same scale. Measure a range of countries across their widest horizontal points on both the globe and the map. Compare the measurements acquired from the globe and those acquired from the map. Note if there is a variation between the two. Now do the same with measurements between different cities. Look at how the distance from the equator and poles affects the discrepancy in measurements.
Testing Randomness
Have a group of people pass the globe around in a circle. They should close their eyes when they pass the globe around, and put their finger somewhere on the globe at random. They should then open their eyes and state whether the place on the globe where their finger is is water or land. Note the results for a few hundred passes. Calculate the percentage of times that water is selected and the percentage when land is selected. Compare this to the actual percentage of the globe covered by water, 71 percent, to see if the random process was truly random.