This is how eighth grade physics students make waffles when demonstrating
potential and kinetic energy for their classmates.
Physics teacher Kimberly Morgan surprised her students
by asking them to
take a simple task and make it complicated.
Having just completed their study of energy, the students worked
in teams
to build "Energy Conversion Contraptions."
The contraptions were patterned after Rube Goldberg's cartoons of
complex machines designed to perform a simple task. His machines
are
defined in Webster's Dictionary as "accomplishing by complex
means
what seemingly could be done simply."
The students did a superb job of making things complicated. Dominos
were
employed in many of the projects to set off a chain reaction.
But fire seemed to be the most popular element.
One
group employed the combination of Mentos and Diet Coke to create
an
impressive reaction shown in the video above.
By
the end of class, the room was sticky and smoky, but the students
had demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for opening cans of soda,
turning on an iPod and zipping up a jacket in very inventive ways,
all relying on the laws of physics as seen through the eyes of eighth-graders.
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