Hurricanes form out in the ocean when powerful storms meet up together and start
swirling around generating vortexes. Vortexes are also formed in Tornado's, Whirlpools,
and Dust Devils. In the experiment below you can make a Hurricane / Tornado in a bottle!
Materials
- 2 plastic Bottles (empty 1 liter water bottles work well)
- Water
- Colored Lamp Oil (Optional)
- Food Coloring (Optional)
- Small Styrofoam Balls (Optional)
- Small Washer 1/4"
- Duct tape
Watch Video: Make Hurricane or Tornado In A Bottle
Process To Make A Hurricane or Tornado In A Bottle
1) Fill one of the empty bottles to the top with water.
2) Add a couple drops of food coloring if you want.
3) If you have small styrofoam balls put them in to simulate flying debris.
4) Put the 1/4 inch washer on top of the filled bottle.
5) Now invert the other bottle on top of it so they are connected. Use duct tape to make a
nice water tight secure connection between the bottles. One bottle should be empty and
one should be full.
6) Take a little extra time to ensure the bottles are snug / flush against the washer before
duct taping together. You want everything perfectly flat when you tape.
7) Turn the bottle with the water upside down so the water is on top. How long does it
take for the water to drain into the bottom bottle without squeezing it (a long time).
8) Now try this! Make a Vortex and watch how fast the water moves from the top bottle to
the bottom bottle. To make a Vortex put the bottle with the water on top. Hold the bottles
with your hand in the middle where the two connect. Then twirl the bottle around in a
circular motion for a few seconds and hold still. Wham!
The Science Behind Making A Hurricane or Tornado In A Bottle:
Twirling and swirling the bottle creates a vortex as the water moves down through the
hole in the washer. What you see is basically a Hurricane in a plastic bottle. When the
vortex is generated, air from the bottom bottle can more easily move to the top bottle and
the water comes out quicker. Try looking in the center of the bottle as you do the
experiment and you will see the hole in the middle also known as "the eye of the
hurricane". It takes more time for the water to move down when you let the bottle sit
without making a vortex because the water and air must take turns moving through the
hole in a burping effect. Now grab some buddies and make a hurricane or tornado in a
bottle.
The air pressure inside the center of a tornado drops. A tornado starts when cold dry air
coming from the west catches up with unusually warm, moist air from the south. The
result is whirling wind with thick, black clouds and thunderstorms. Water vapor is swept
upward as gusts of warm air rise in a spiral motion, When the air cools, it forms the
tornado's twisting, funnel shaped cloud.
The funnel shaped wind cloud whirls at enormous speeds and picks up dust, trees,
animals, water, cars, houses, and anything in its path. These objects are whirled
upwards often at tremendous speeds. The rapidly rising column of air within the funnel
lowers the air pressure in the funnels center as the tornado advances.
A house can be crushed in the midst of a tornado because the air pressure inside the
tornado is lower than the air pressure inside the house. The tornado spins, smashing
and destroying, until all the heated air that was near land has been squeezed up by the
cooler , heavier, inflowing air. Then the air stops flowing and the tornado dies.
Most of the destruction done by tornado's is caused by the massive wind speed, but
lowered air pressure can also reek havok. A tornado seldom lasts more than an hour
and usually covers about two city blocks. Only two percent of tornado's are classified as
violent. These violent tornado's can last much longer with winds up to 300 mph covering
paths up to 30 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. They can be the most destructive storms
on earth. Most deaths and injuries caused by tornado's arise from flying objects whirled
by the wind. Tornado's are sometimes called twisters or cyclones.
The Science of Hurricanes
A hurricane is a violent storm that starts in tropical waters. In the middle of the swirling
winds of the hurricane there is a calm "eye". Centrifugal force plays a large role in
hurricanes. Centrifugal force pulls an object outward when its moving in a circle. Take a
yo yo and whirl it around your head. The yo yo seems to pull away from your hand holding
the string. The faster you whirl it the stronger the pull.
Like the yo yo, the winds of a hurricane tend to pull away from the center as their speed
increases. When the winds move fast enough, a hole develops in the center. This is the
mark of a full fledged hurricane. The eye of the hurricane is a cloudless hole about 10
miles wide, within which all is calm and peaceful. But outside surrounding the eye
howling winds swirl at speeds up to 200 mph. Hurricane winds can cover an area up to
60 miles. They may rage for a week or more. They can travel tens of thousands of miles
over sea and land.
Hurricanes arise when moist warm air over tropical waters rises above 6000 feet. The
water vapor condenses, turns to raindrops, releasing heat energy. This in turn forces
columns of air to rise up quickly (updraft) to heights up to 60,000 feet. Fluffy cauliflower
like cumulus clouds become towering thunderheads.
The air from outside the storm area moves in to replace the rising air. It begins to swirl
around in an updraft due to the earth's spin. As it swirls over the surface area of the sea,
it soaks up more and more water vapor, which then gets pulled up into the updraft,
releasing still more energy as more of the water vapor condenses. The updraft then
rises faster, pulling in larger amounts of air and water vapor from the edge of the storm,
and the air swirls even faster around the eye.
Hurricane winds circulate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise
in the Southern Hemisphere. They are called cyclones in the Indian Ocean, typhoons in
the pacific, and willy willies in Australia.
swirling around generating vortexes. Vortexes are also formed in Tornado's, Whirlpools,
and Dust Devils. In the experiment below you can make a Hurricane / Tornado in a bottle!
Materials
- 2 plastic Bottles (empty 1 liter water bottles work well)
- Water
- Colored Lamp Oil (Optional)
- Food Coloring (Optional)
- Small Styrofoam Balls (Optional)
- Small Washer 1/4"
- Duct tape
Watch Video: Make Hurricane or Tornado In A Bottle
Process To Make A Hurricane or Tornado In A Bottle
1) Fill one of the empty bottles to the top with water.
2) Add a couple drops of food coloring if you want.
3) If you have small styrofoam balls put them in to simulate flying debris.
4) Put the 1/4 inch washer on top of the filled bottle.
5) Now invert the other bottle on top of it so they are connected. Use duct tape to make a
nice water tight secure connection between the bottles. One bottle should be empty and
one should be full.
6) Take a little extra time to ensure the bottles are snug / flush against the washer before
duct taping together. You want everything perfectly flat when you tape.
7) Turn the bottle with the water upside down so the water is on top. How long does it
take for the water to drain into the bottom bottle without squeezing it (a long time).
8) Now try this! Make a Vortex and watch how fast the water moves from the top bottle to
the bottom bottle. To make a Vortex put the bottle with the water on top. Hold the bottles
with your hand in the middle where the two connect. Then twirl the bottle around in a
circular motion for a few seconds and hold still. Wham!
The Science Behind Making A Hurricane or Tornado In A Bottle:
Twirling and swirling the bottle creates a vortex as the water moves down through the
hole in the washer. What you see is basically a Hurricane in a plastic bottle. When the
vortex is generated, air from the bottom bottle can more easily move to the top bottle and
the water comes out quicker. Try looking in the center of the bottle as you do the
experiment and you will see the hole in the middle also known as "the eye of the
hurricane". It takes more time for the water to move down when you let the bottle sit
without making a vortex because the water and air must take turns moving through the
hole in a burping effect. Now grab some buddies and make a hurricane or tornado in a
bottle.
The air pressure inside the center of a tornado drops. A tornado starts when cold dry air
coming from the west catches up with unusually warm, moist air from the south. The
result is whirling wind with thick, black clouds and thunderstorms. Water vapor is swept
upward as gusts of warm air rise in a spiral motion, When the air cools, it forms the
tornado's twisting, funnel shaped cloud.
The funnel shaped wind cloud whirls at enormous speeds and picks up dust, trees,
animals, water, cars, houses, and anything in its path. These objects are whirled
upwards often at tremendous speeds. The rapidly rising column of air within the funnel
lowers the air pressure in the funnels center as the tornado advances.
A house can be crushed in the midst of a tornado because the air pressure inside the
tornado is lower than the air pressure inside the house. The tornado spins, smashing
and destroying, until all the heated air that was near land has been squeezed up by the
cooler , heavier, inflowing air. Then the air stops flowing and the tornado dies.
Most of the destruction done by tornado's is caused by the massive wind speed, but
lowered air pressure can also reek havok. A tornado seldom lasts more than an hour
and usually covers about two city blocks. Only two percent of tornado's are classified as
violent. These violent tornado's can last much longer with winds up to 300 mph covering
paths up to 30 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. They can be the most destructive storms
on earth. Most deaths and injuries caused by tornado's arise from flying objects whirled
by the wind. Tornado's are sometimes called twisters or cyclones.
The Science of Hurricanes
A hurricane is a violent storm that starts in tropical waters. In the middle of the swirling
winds of the hurricane there is a calm "eye". Centrifugal force plays a large role in
hurricanes. Centrifugal force pulls an object outward when its moving in a circle. Take a
yo yo and whirl it around your head. The yo yo seems to pull away from your hand holding
the string. The faster you whirl it the stronger the pull.
Like the yo yo, the winds of a hurricane tend to pull away from the center as their speed
increases. When the winds move fast enough, a hole develops in the center. This is the
mark of a full fledged hurricane. The eye of the hurricane is a cloudless hole about 10
miles wide, within which all is calm and peaceful. But outside surrounding the eye
howling winds swirl at speeds up to 200 mph. Hurricane winds can cover an area up to
60 miles. They may rage for a week or more. They can travel tens of thousands of miles
over sea and land.
Hurricanes arise when moist warm air over tropical waters rises above 6000 feet. The
water vapor condenses, turns to raindrops, releasing heat energy. This in turn forces
columns of air to rise up quickly (updraft) to heights up to 60,000 feet. Fluffy cauliflower
like cumulus clouds become towering thunderheads.
The air from outside the storm area moves in to replace the rising air. It begins to swirl
around in an updraft due to the earth's spin. As it swirls over the surface area of the sea,
it soaks up more and more water vapor, which then gets pulled up into the updraft,
releasing still more energy as more of the water vapor condenses. The updraft then
rises faster, pulling in larger amounts of air and water vapor from the edge of the storm,
and the air swirls even faster around the eye.
Hurricane winds circulate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise
in the Southern Hemisphere. They are called cyclones in the Indian Ocean, typhoons in
the pacific, and willy willies in Australia.
Weird Science Kids
fun cool exciting easy science experiments and
Eduacational Toys for kids
fun cool exciting easy science experiments and
Eduacational Toys for kids
