I am teaching a high school class and i am trying to explain just how small atoms and molecules are compared to our normal scales and how the nanosecond/picosecond are such small scales....i am looking for say a video or demo that can be shown in class. If anyone knows of a link or can help it would be much appriciated.
Thanks so much
2007-07-02 05:49:06 · 4 answers · asked by nathaniel49 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
The best film is an oldie - "Powers of Ten" by Eames. This film shows powers of 10 from small atoms to the size of the universe. Great video work with this film.
Analogy for atomic size - if the nucleus was the size of a dime sitting on the 50 yard line of a football field, the electrons would be orbiting somwhere around the goal posts at each end.
Avogadro's number (6.02 x 10^23) - If you had Avogadro's # of basketballs they would form a lump with the same volume as the Earth. If you had that # of eggs they would cover the surface of the Earth to a depth of 1 km.
Hold up a graduated cylinder with 18 mL H2O in it. Tell them it contains 1 mole of H2O molecules, or Avogadro's # of molecules are in that small amount of H2O.
2007-07-02 06:02:48 · answer #1 · answered by physandchemteach 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
The person above beat me to the punch suggesting the power of 10 movie. There is a website and book too. I have made worksheets to go with the website before. The website has time scale info too.
I would also recommend the mole song about avogadro's number. It has a bunch of calculations of how big a mole of something on the macroscopic scale would be. I make my kids perform a similar calculation and find for example that a mole of skittles is within an order of magnitude or two of the mass of pluto for example
2007-07-02 06:38:31 · answer #2 · answered by Cindy B 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
A good demo to go along with teaching atomic structure is putting styrofoam in acetone and talking about how much empty space there is in an atom. A lot of kids don't get the concept of empty space, they think that there is air in between electrons and they think that the nucleus is like a cell nucleus.
Anywho, when you put styrofoam into acetone it breaks it down, and since styrofoam is made mostly of air, it can be compared to having a lot of empty space. You can put a ton of styrofoam into a small container with acetone.
2007-07-03 03:14:40 · answer #3 · answered by smilam 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
try here http://powersof10.com/
2007-07-05 22:37:23 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋