mmasc Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Ok, I've done this lesson exactly as explained and we aren't getting fire, or even smoke! It's 104 degrees here, full sun so the day is perfect for the experiment but it's not happening. The experiment is to use a magnifying glass outdoors with a small scrap of white paper. Let the sun pass through the magnifying glass onto the paper, getting the white circle as small as possible on the paper. We've tried two different magnifying glasses, white paper, cotton balls...no.luck.at.all. Any tips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 :bigear: This is the next lesson for us to do, so I've got my ears open for tips... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Is it windy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmasc Posted August 22, 2014 Author Share Posted August 22, 2014 It is windy. We tried to shield it but that could definitely be a factor. We just switched to newspaper, and at least got smoke with that. We were happy to see a bit of success. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 I've done this years ago and wind was definitely a potential issue. You might try it again on a still day ... I doubt your kids will complain about returning to an old science lab if that means they get to set something on fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmasc Posted August 22, 2014 Author Share Posted August 22, 2014 I've done this years ago and wind was definitely a potential issue. You might try it again on a still day ... I doubt your kids will complain about returning to an old science lab if that means they get to set something on fire. Thanks for the tip. Hopefully we will have a still day someday. It's always windy here! With three boys, fire was definitely something they were looking forward to. If it's not burning or exploding, my DS6 doesn't think it's an 'experiment'. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 join the club. we just did that a few days ago. I couldn't get the fire/smoke, hole burn either. Handed it to my daughter and it happened within seconds. She held the magnifying glass just slightly different angle with slightly different size of circle on the paper. works for her everytime and never for me. it's funny. it's like it's trick paper or something. wink. I have a bunch of other little notes from when I did a run through the experiments last year. I dont' know if any of that will help for little stuff in the coming units. but here's the link to a forum. same user name on there as here. http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/forums/1/thread.aspx?id=120510 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoore530 Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Try with a magnifying glass made of actual glass rather than plastic. I can never get it to work with the cheap plastic kind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Welcome to homeschool science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewe Mama Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 We couldn't get it to work, either. I ended up finding a youTube video and said, "This is what should have happened, but didn't." They thought the video was cool, even if Mama's attempts were lame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmasc Posted August 24, 2014 Author Share Posted August 24, 2014 Well, at least now I know it wasn't just us! Science isn't really 'my thing', so it's comforting to know. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 We couldn't get it to work as directed, but I think we colored the paper with black color pencil (per a youtube video recommendation), then aimed at that spot. It burned nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabinfl Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 The quality of the magnifying glass will definitely make a difference. A glass lens will work MUCH better than plastic, if you can get a plastic one to work at all. A larger lens will also focus more energy than a smaller one. Great follow up project: compare magnifiers and research why these variables make a difference! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hands-on-mama Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 I posted this same question on Jay Wile ' s Facebook. He suggested using newspaper, so we tried paper from a telephone book. It worked quickly with that. Alsp, we tried black construction paper and it worked well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squawky Acres Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 I love this forum. The children were so disappointed when nothing happened, so I checked to see if anyone had written about this, and found that we should use a glass magnifying glass and a darker piece of paper. Thank you! Now I just have to question the wisdom of showing 6-year-olds how to make fire in the back yard . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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