The parental dilemma.

[pat]

You want your kids to be inquisitive. So why am I annoyed by them turning the fan so that it points up so that they can see which things they can make airborne? So far: coke cans and towels yes, toys generally no, although if you stack a couple of Coke cans and put a small figure on top, the Coke cans will take the toy with it when they blow away. I put my foot down about water though, as it is an electrical fan. Fortunately, it has a good fan guard.

However, at least they're doing something. I wish I was in a better space, I could turn this into a teaching moment around wind.

[Edit: Kevin has discovered that if you place an empty plastic Easter egg on top of the fan, it will spin in place for a second before blowing away. Can any of you science geeks out there explain why this might be so, so I can impress him with my extensive (non-existent) aerodynamics knowledge? Also, he is experimenting with how baseballs spin when placed on top of the fan.]

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Have 'em write up their results and send them to the Annals of Improbable Research.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Heh, Emily and Caroline discovered that this week with a balloon.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

WRT the spinning plastic Easter egg, my guess is that it requires less energy to rotate it about its center of ballance than it takes to push it completely away, so initially it goes into spin mode. As energy keeps being applied it eventually just flies away.