- An opened cardboard box
- A tray of ice cubes
- A tray of dry sand
- A stick of incense
- A lighter (supervised by an adult)
- An oven
>> Wacky weather pattern shows several chances for wintry precipitation
STEP 1: First, put dry sand on a tray and bake it in the oven on 200 degrees for around 20 or 30 minutes.
STEP 2: Next, take the cardboard box and put it on a table, opened facing you. Place the tray of ice and the tray of hot, dry sand into the box.
STEP 3: Then, light the incense and put it between the ice and sand. You should see the smoke from the incense move towards and over the sand. This is the "wind" blowing!
Why does this happen?
The hot sand is producing warm air which is less dense and rising.
Over the cold ice, the air is denser and sinking. The cold air is flowing towards the warm rising air and creating a breeze which blows the smoke from the incense.
The cold, dense air over the ice is moving to replace the warm, rising air that is over the sand. You can see this process happen if you live near the ocean.
During the day, the sun heats up the water and land, but this process happens at different rates. The land heats up faster. The dense air over the cool ocean sinks and flows from the ocean to the land producing a sea breeze during the day. The process is reversed at night.
Don't forget to check out more experiments from Storm Center 7 Meteorologist Jesse Maag every Wednesday at 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. If you perform this experiment don't forget to share your photos with us using the hashtag #SC7ScienceLab
Does your child have a weather question you want to see Jesse answer? Send an email to Jesse.Maag@cmgohio.com and you might see Jesse perform an experiment based on your question!