Friday 9 October 2015

Possessed Lava Lamp

This is what my lava lamp looks like today: is it a snail? A cow? Or Behelzebub?

Why the lamp?
I use this to explain how convection currents are created in the atmosphere and in the mantle. 

Why the horns?
Well this is quite exciting too as the wax in the lamp is behaving a little like an underwater volcano: like those on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The lamp cooled with a plume of wax making its way to the surface. Then when it was turned on again, two areas of weakness gave way and new bubbles of wax started making their way to the surface. The lamp was turned off before they could rise and they cooled down to form the horns. 
Weird huh?

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Rain


There are holes in the sky
Where the rain gets in,
But they're ever so small
That's why rain is thin.

By Spike Milligan

National Poetry Day 2015

Monday 5 October 2015

Floods on the French River

Violent storms and flooding have hit south-eastern France, killing at least 17 people with four more missing.

The match between Nice vs Nantes had to be abandoned.

The area received 10% of the annual rainfall in 2 days!


Read the story on BBC News (with a couple of videos)

I mention this story as my parents were due to come back from Antibes yesterday. They thought that it was raining quite hard and when they went to the station to get on their TGV home, they found out that there were no trains: they will be flying home tomorrow.