My Science Fair Project
My page on Science Fairs suggests teachers do projects to provide an
example for the students they mentor. This page documents me following
my own advice. My idea is to keep the page fairly simple; background is
given at this page.
Motivation
I'm interested in glaciers that flow down valleys. I happen to
know that glaciers slide down these valleys like blocks of ice to some
degree but that they also flow down the valleys like molasses. The
flowing part is what I'd like to investigate, and rather than buying a
lot of molasses or syrup I thought I'd look into making some type of
caramel that flows slowly at room temperature. Once I get that figured
out I'll build a model valley and glop in a bunch of caramel to be my
glacier ice. I want to see if the ice flows faster over shoulders of
rock that intrude into my valley. I also suspect that the caramel will
be useful for other experiments related to ice flow, so I hope to pick
up some useful "technology" in passing.
Plan
1. Investigate a couple types of caramel.
2. Build a valley
3. Watch the caramel flow down the valley.
Initial Research into Caramel
Caramel can be made wet or dry. Dry simply means one heats up sugar in
a pot until it melts. Some steam escapes (sugar is carbon plus hydrogen
plus oxygen; heating it liberates hydrogen and oxygen as water.) Wet
caramel includes other ingredients. Web pages with recipes are easy to
find.
Dry Caramel
Does temperature-shocked dry caramel harden? Or does it remain viscous?
Erica and Sammy both predict it will be hard, and Erica cites Creme
Brulle. I predict it will be soft.
250ml sugar pot oven high constant stirring
Sugar became clumpy, then melted clear, then darkened to caramel color.
Suggest this was water escaping leaving dark carbon.
Water shock 15 seconds.
Caramel was viscous when hot, brittle when cooled to room temperature.
Can cool rapidly by pulling hot caramel into ribbons which will
fracture, very interesting.
Rob's prediction was wrong of course.
Wet Caramel
First attempt was 250 ml water plus 250 ml whole milk.
The milk scalded despite frantic stirring.
Results were a burned version of the dry caramel, a complete failure.
This is a bad recipe.