Hello all,
I am a PhD student in chemistry/nanoscience and I am hoping to do some outreach in schools to teach science. I have proposed to my university that I do an experiment with the children looking at light and energy. My idea was to take a sufficiently powerful laser pointer and use it to pop various balloons of different colours. The children could guess and then time which coloured balloons would pop faster than other (i.e black vs white). I could then use this to explain absorbance of light/colour/energy and various other things.
A few quick questions. I have a read a bit online but I am still unsure as to what power/. wavelength would be best for this experiment? I have a thought that 100 mw green would be good but perhaps this is too powerful ( I don't want the balloons to pop instantly)
Also any idea where I could purchase such a laser? I have a budget of £150/ $220 but will also need to buy 8x pairs of safety glasses. Is this enough money?
Thanks
I am a PhD student in chemistry/nanoscience and I am hoping to do some outreach in schools to teach science. I have proposed to my university that I do an experiment with the children looking at light and energy. My idea was to take a sufficiently powerful laser pointer and use it to pop various balloons of different colours. The children could guess and then time which coloured balloons would pop faster than other (i.e black vs white). I could then use this to explain absorbance of light/colour/energy and various other things.
A few quick questions. I have a read a bit online but I am still unsure as to what power/. wavelength would be best for this experiment? I have a thought that 100 mw green would be good but perhaps this is too powerful ( I don't want the balloons to pop instantly)
Also any idea where I could purchase such a laser? I have a budget of £150/ $220 but will also need to buy 8x pairs of safety glasses. Is this enough money?
Thanks