Here is a video short that looks at rope tension.  Let's say you try to hang from a clothesline, or run a rescue basket across a creek - you will need to know that the tension in the rope goes way up really fast unless you let the rope sag.  You can hang down from two ropes of low strength, but hang from a clothesline of the same material, and it could snap!  Inspired by a former student who saw a theater light come smashing down when hanging from two lines at a shallow angle.  He warned them about what he learned in physics, but they didn't listen.

This is also a pilot episode using new production tools, so it is a little rough.  I wanted to get it out for testing, so the lighting is bad.  Today I am using Classroom Presenter 3, a free collaborative whiteboard application, along with Camtasia Studio that I am evaluating for future productions.  I promise a better production for the next show.

Tools used:  Classroom Presenter 3, Camtasia Studio 6, Sennheiser HS-2 mic, Alesis Nanocompressor, and Sennheiser EW100 wireless mic gear.  Final artwork applied to the m4v in iTunes.

Today we build the film can rocket, also called the film can cannon.  It's great fun, and only takes about 10 minutes to build using scrap materials from your shop.  Be careful - this project involves igniting flammable gas, so serious injury can result.  Don't try this at home!  Huge fun in class - for an added bonus, set it off in the dark.  Also, makes a great way to wake up the class with a loud bang.  Listen close - you may be able to hear Coco, one of our little yorkies, bark in the background.

Here's a cool project - how to get super-strong magnets from old disk drives.  Make sure you get old SCSI drives for this project because they have the strongest magnets.  Drives from the mid-nineties and 4 to 9 gb capacity are great, because you can get them for free from the IT junk pile.  I demonstrate the trick to removing salvaged hard drive magnets from the magnet carrier in this short video I made to demonstrate Photo Story 3 for a presentation.  Produced using a Sennheiser HS-2 mic, Photostory, and no post processing.

Here is my world famous sodium explosion video.  Over 1,000 pounds of sodium metal was treated on-site in 1987 by dropping it into a pond about 10 pounds at a time, with one big bang at the end.  Watch the sodium cannon at the end and see if you can figure out where we went wrong.  Hint:  never put an explosive in a container with one closed end and then aim the open end at your crew.  I was the senior chemist on-site at the time, and I actually came up with this idea, for better or worse.  Left a lagoon with a pH of 14, but the sodium metal was gone!

Build the amazing Cheap Physics Lenz's Law demonstrator to show that there is no such thing as a free lunch. A real crowd pleaser for under ten bucks. Video coming soon - but this will get you started.