Drinking Dino Heat Engine
This dinosaur themed heat engine available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Drinking T-rex Desk Toy
Get also: the related Drinking Bird Heat Engine
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Drinking Dino Heat Engine: So what physics presents did you get this year? I got this Dippy Dino heat engine- where cooling by evaporation at the head leads to lower pressure in the top bulb such that the dichloromethane fluid (colored green) rises up the neck making the T-Rex top heavy and the dino tips over dipping its face in the water and letting the fluid return to the bottom bulb. The process repeats as long as the top stays wet. A fun and silly variation on the famous drinking bird physics toy- and the T-Rex was a closely related ancestor to the dinosaurs that live today- birds!
Pop Pop Boat
Get one here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Pop-Pop Boat
From Amazon: BUY NOW Pop-Pop Boats
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Wikipedia has the details on the physics and history of this little steamboat toy
Pop-Pop Boat: birthday candle powered, super simple steam engine named after the sound it makes when operating. The engine is just a metal box, heated by the candle, with two pipes coming out of it. Steam builds up pushing water out with an explosive pop- which then creates a vacuum sucking more water in to repeat the process. Patented in 1915 these were very popular in the 1940's.
Vintage Wilesco Steam Engine
Available from these sellers:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Wilesco Model Steam Engines
Click this link for the: small candle engine
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Wikipedia has a very nice description of the history and inner workings of steam engines
Vintage Wilesco Steam Engine: a working model reciprocating piston steam engine complete with boiler, flywheel, governor, and whistle. The invention that powered the industrial revolution on a desktop! My father bought this model D16 in 1970- with just a little cleaning and oiling it fired right up. Wilesco has been producing model steam engines since 1960 and still manufactures and sells the D16.
Tea Candle Steam Engine
Get one from these fine sources:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Tea Candle Steam Engine
From Amazon: BUY NOW Tea Candle Steam Engine
Other interesting engines available here: Simple Heat Engines
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Tea Candle Steam Engine: a functional piston steam engine complete with boiler and flywheel. Takes about 2 minutes to get going after the candle is lit. The invention that powered the industrial revolution on a desktop! Made by Wilesco.
Tea-Light Floating Engine
Get one from my friends at Grand Illusions!
From Grand Illusions Ltd.: BUY NOW Floating Steam Engine
Engines of similar design are used in pop-pop boats
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Tea-Light Floating Engine: a candle powered super simple steam engine. The engine is just a coil of copper tubing filled with water. Steam builds up pushing water out with an explosive jet- which then results in a vacuum in the coil which pulls more water in to repeat the process. The water expulsion is in the form of jet directed out the end of the tube whereas the refill comes back in to the tube from a larger range of angles- so on balance the engine moves opposite to the direction of the jets.
Bimetal Seesaw Engine
Available in limited supplies here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Candle See-Saw
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Bimetal Seesaw Engine: candle powered heat engine. A coiled bimetal strip, like that found in a thermostat, uncoils when heated by the flame while moving a counterweight that shifts the center of mass to the left and takes the coil out of the flame. The coil then cools returning the counterweight to the right which places the coil back over the flame- and the process repeats until the candle burns out. Any device that converts heat energy into mechanical motion is called a heat engine- like the very simple one here.
Stirling Engine
Get one here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Low Temp Stirling Engine
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Stirling Engine: low temperature difference engine turns a fraction of the heat of hot tap water into mechanical motion. For this engine the heat source is the hot tap water, and the heat sink is the room temperature air. Really nice model and super inexpensive for a display engine of this type.
Mini-Drinking Bird Heat Engine
Small and large drinking birds available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Mini-Drinking Bird Heat Engine
See more drinking birds in my collection
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Mini-Drinking Bird Heat Engine: this hummingbird sized heat engine is the latest species added to my drinking bird collection. This little guy comes with the traditional top hat and his own plastic goblet- which is the perfect height for a standard drinking bird to share. Cooling by evaporation at the head leads to lower pressure in the top bulb, the pressure in the bottom bulb pushes the dichloromethane fluid up the neck making the bird top heavy and the bird tips over dipping its beak and letting the fluid return to the bottom bulb. The process repeats, and as long as the top stays wet and cooler than the bottom this heat engine will continue to cycle.
Horizontal Hand Boiler
This device available here:
From Edicational Innovations: BUY NOW: Horizontal Hand Boiler
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Horizontal Hand Boiler: liquid-gas phase transition. The boiling point of dichloromethane is slightly below body temperature and heat from a hand will induce vaporization of the liquid which increases pressure in one bulb pushing the red (dyed) liquid through the glass pipe to the other bulb. The process can repeat by switching the hand to the other side, but as both sides heat up the transfer is less vigorous. An inexpensive toy demonstrating phase changes and other thermodynamic physics.
Drinking Bird Engine Experiment
Get this famous physics toy from these sources:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW: Drinking Bird Engine
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Drinking Bird Engine
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Wikipedia has wonderful details about the rich history (and further descriptions of the operational principals) of the Drinking Bird.
Drinking Bird Engine Experiment: what happens if you feed a drinking bird alcohol? This experiment compares the drinking rate (time per one full engine cycle) of two identical bird devices- but the glass on the left is filled with 70% isopropyl alcohol whereas the glass on the right contains tap water. After wetting the tops of both birds we count how many times each one “takes a drink” over a 5 minute duration (shown at x6 speed). This classic physics toy is a functional heat engine where cooling by evaporation at the head/beak provides the operating temperature difference. Isopropyl alcohol has a more rapid evaporation rate than water for room temperature and low humidity- so which bird will win?
Bimetal Seesaw Engine
Available in limited supplies here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Candle See-Saw
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Bimetal Seesaw Engine: candle powered heat engine- with bears! A coiled bimetal strip, like that found in a thermostat, uncoils when heated by the flame while moving a counterweight that shifts the center of mass to the left and takes the coil out of the flame. The coil then cools returning the counterweight to the right which places the coil back over the flame- and the process repeats until the candle burns out. Any device that converts heat energy into mechanical motion is called a heat engine- like the very simple one here.
Drinking Bird Heat Engine
Get this famous physics toy from these sources:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Drinking Bird Engine
From Amazon: BUY NOW Drinking Bird Engine
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Wikipedia has wonderful details about the rich history (and further descriptions of the operational principals) of the Drinking Bird.
Drinking Bird Heat Engine: time lapse of 15 minutes into 15 seconds (4 cycles). Cooling by evaporation at the head leads to lower pressure in the top bulb, the dichloromethane fluid rises up the neck making the bird top heavy and the bird tips over dipping its beak and letting the fluid return to the bottom bulb. The time lapse allows a clearer picture of how the fluid rises, shifting the center of mass, and how tipping makes the glass column lift out of the fluid in the bottom allowing the pressure to equalize and letting gravity pull the fluid to return to the base. Process repeats as long as the top stays wet. So much physics in one hypnotic toy!
Galileo Thermometer
Many versions to choose from- get one here!
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Galileo Thermometer
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Galilean Thermometer: time lapse- 60 minutes condensed to 20 seconds. One of my favorite physics toys, but challenging to make into any kind of interesting video. Here a change of about 14 degrees F is shown as the device cools down and the bulbs rise. I filmed the process three times each with somewhat different intermediate states. This thermometer works on Archimedes' principle of buoyancy- as the the water in the column cools down its density increases and objects (glass bulbs) with less mean density begin to rise. The bulbs are calibrated into 2 degree F increments from 70 F to 82 F.
Turbine Convection Color Candle
Available here:
From MOMA: BUY NOW Convection Color Candle
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Turbine Convection Color Candle: a simple heat engine by designer Achille Castiglioni- rotational motion resulting from the convection of hot air due to the candle flame of a tea light. All moving parts of thin stainless steel with semitransparent colored panels. Energy transfer: chemical bonds to heat to kinetic energy of the rising air to rotational kinetic energy of the turbine.
Drinking Giraffe Heat Engine:
This giraff version is hard to find, however the famous bird physics toy is available from these sources:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW: Drinking Bird Engine
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Drinking Bird Engine
See aslo: Drinking Dino
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Drinking Giraffe Heat Engine: a rare vintage version of the famous drinking bird heat engine- but in the form of a long necked mammal! With four legs instead of two the physics is the same- cooling by evaporation at the head leads to lower pressure in the top bulb such that the volatile fluid rises up the neck making the giraffe’s neck top heavy and the critter tips over dipping its face in the water and letting the fluid return to the bottom bulb. The process repeats as long as the top stays wet. The vintage packaging (made in Taiwan from the 1970s) identifies the liquid as trichloro monofluoro methane with red dye.
Double Radiometer
Often available here::
From Mr.Sci Science Factory: BUY NOW Double Radiometer
A wide variety available here, including some nice blown glass displays:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Radiometers
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Double Radiometer: a rare version of this classic physics toy with two rotators enclosed in the same partial vacuum chamber. Light heats up the vanes which then heat up the very thin gas left in the bulb- the black side of the vane is hotter and any gas molecules that comes into contact with the black fly off at a faster speed imparting impulse to the rotor. The bottom rotor has black on the right side of each vane and rotates clockwise, the top rotor has black on the left sides and thus has the opposite rotation.