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This Week's Experiment - #256 Half Full or Half Empty?
This week, we will take a look at an age old question and try to see it from
a new angle. Seeing things from a different perspective is a very important
skill in science. To try this, you will need:
2 clear drinking glasses
a bucket or deep bowl
water
Place a glass on a flat surface and pour half a glass of water into it. Now,
sit back and look at it. Just relax and observe it. Now for that age old
question. Is the glass half full or half empty?
Think about it. The ideas behind this question is that someone with a
positive attitude will see the glass as half full, while someone that has a
negative view of life will see it as half empty. Which one is right? As we
will see, they are both wrong!
It is best to do this part of the experiment outside or in the bathtub, as
you will probably spill some water. (What fun would it be if you didn't
splash a bit?) Fill the bucket about 3/4 full of water. (Is it 3/4 full or
1/4 empty?) Put one of the glasses into the bucket and allow it to fill with
water. Once it is filled, turn it upside down. Both the optimist and the
pessimist would have to agree that the glass is now full of water.
Take the second glass and hold it upside down, above the surface of the
water. Lower it into the water, keeping it upside down. Push it down under
the surface of the water. If you did this carefully, there should not be any
water in the glass. That means that it is empty, right? No! If it was
empty, the water would move in to fill the glass. Something is in the glass,
taking up the space. What is it? Air, of course. If you tip the glass to
the side, some of the air will spill out and bubble up to the surface. You
can even catch these bubbles in the other glass, letting you pour the air
from one glass to the other.
Let half of the air spill out of the glass and then look at it carefully. Is
the glass half full or half empty? Neither, right? It is half full of water
and half full of air. That means that the glass is always full, which to me
sounds like a much more positive outlook, although it is better to have it
full of .....oh, say....a chocolate milk shake. I am positive that I would
like that.
From Robert Krampf's Science Education Company
PO Box 60982
Jacksonville, FL 32236-0982
904-388-6381
krampf@aol.com
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