From: Sidney Keith (sidkeith@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Dec 05 2000 - 16:25:05 PST
From: "Sidney Keith" <sidkeith@hotmail.com> Subject: Sublimation Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 16:25:05 Message-ID: <F115rjjvpjx0r4pQ3TP00008d18@hotmail.com>
That's a great name for a scientific phenomenon. The answer is the most
successful analogy I've ever used in a classroom -- Mickey Mouse as the
water molecule. The two hydrogens on top concentrate a lot of positive
charge on one side of the molecule, and this has an attraction for the
negative side of the other water molecules. As a result water stays bonded
to itself, loosely, to a far greater degree than most, more symmetrical
molecules. Once carbon dioxide breaks out its cold crystal embrace, the
molecules have slight attraction to each other and fly off.
When I asked my students what the water molecule looked like, and they found
that "Mickey Mouse" was the right answer, the humor seemed to click
something inside them -- they suddenly understood many vital physical
phenomena associated with water and the transition between phases generally.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Oct 16 2001 - 12:22:03 PDT