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What's the Matter?

I'm beginning to discover that everything we endeavor to learn and research about, has a background to learn first, or more connected things to learn after. I guess that's where the eternality of learning comes in - I'll need eternity to get it all down!

JD wanted to learn about electricity, having just completed his merit badge for Radio (and consequently, his Technician's Amateur Radio License). Easy, right? Not so fast.

Everything I found about electricity connected it to magnetism. So maybe we need to study that. Question is, do we study it BEFORE or AFTER electricity? I've found books doing it both ways.

Then, there came a new problem. We will be talking about atoms of electrical energy. We haven't ever talked about that. Now, we have to study matter.

I decided that, rather than stretch the subject out for weeks, matter could been discussed competently and understandably in one day. A quick run-through of atoms (and a short perusal of the periodic table of elements), molecules, and the states of matter, ended in two experiments. One showed the three states of matter in relation to water - we melted an ice cube and demonstrated how it could go from a sold (ice)to a liquid (water) to a gas (steam).

That was fun, but I had a topper for that. Using a bottle with vinegar in it, we topped it with a balloon that contained some baking soda. Mix the two and - voila! -carbon dioxide gas that inflated the balloon. It was striking and exciting!

But it didn't end there. JD found more information on atoms and molecules in a favorite book of his, and AR drew her own little picture of a hydrogen atom and another of three states of matter (a cup, water, and - ahem - flatulence).

It seems they got it. If only magnetism and electricity were that simple.

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