Science North by Exotic Chicken

Exotic Chicken - reporting from Science North, Sudbury, Ontario.

There were so many great exhibits at science North it is hard to say which one was my favorite...

-At the lapidary lab I had a chance to polish a rock using a series of 6 wet grindstones.

-I liked the beaver exhibit because it lets you observe the beavers’ webbed feet and flat  tail when it's swimming and when it's in its house.  

-The Flying Squirrel show is amazing because you can see the flying squirrel in action.  For every meter of height, the Flying Squirrel can go 2 meters.  

-At the Insectarium, they let you hold a Malaysian Walking Stick and a huge green jungle nymph.  Personally my favorite insect was the teal flower beetle.
-The 3D movie wildfires! features Sioux Lookout water bomber pilots at the 2012 Pickle Lake Fire.  There were lots of special effects in the movie such as wind (fans) blowing when when the helicopters took off  and glowing red lights on the theater walls when the fires raged.  A 3D movie about the MNR in our small town- cool!

At another location, Dynamic Earth is a mining museum incorporated with Science North.  The types of ore they mine are copper and nickel.  The main attraction in Sudbury is probably the giant nickel which happens to be right next to the Dynamic Earth museum.  The part I found most interesting is how mining has become way more sophisticated since the 1880s.

In 1880 they used candles, pickaxes, shovels, leather helmets, dynamite, hammers and chisels. By the 1950s, they were using hand-held drills, rock carts and motorized shovels. Present-day technology includes safer explosives, multifunction drills, drones, thermal maps, and remote control vehicles.  

The most unique feature of dynamic Earth was that you can actually go down the mine shaft and most of the museum is located underground.

At Science North they have science shows regularly each half an hour. My favorite show was ping-pong balls exploding.

First of all you need supplies: liquid nitrogen, a weighted bottle with a screw-on cap, a bit of water in a large container (like a garbage can) and a big box of ping-pong balls.

How to make it work:

-Step 1 dump the liquid nitrogen into the bottle

-Step 2 get the ping pong balls ready with an assistant’s help

-Step 3 put the bottle with liquid nitrogen into the container with water and quickly dump in the ping-pong balls

In about 5 Seconds  it will explode with an ear-shattering boom.  

Liquid nitrogen’s boiling point is -197 degrees so when it is put in cool water it boils faster and since there is a screw-on cap it creates pressure inside the bottle. The ping-pong balls fly everywhere when the bottle bursts with so much pressure, some of the ping-pong balls even broken in half.  

Crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzy cooooooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!