Flashlights win over the plasma ball.  You see, Scientifics sent me a Plasma Ball for Christmas. (Thanks for thinking of me!)  Here’s what I found.

You can . . . Touch it.  Watch the blue light streams focus on your touch points.

You can . . . Look at it.

I looked up all the science behind this plasma (gases inside) and electric current light.  I can’t begin to paraphrase.  It’s all about electrons and conductive gases.

As my kids touched and looked with the lights out, they felt the heat from the light which made them nervous.  So, they turned off the ball and got out their flashlights.

Plasma balls are cool and all but light you can play with rocks!  Here’s what you can do.

• Shine the flashlight into a mirror. What happens?
• Set the flashlight on a table to shine onto a wall.  Get in between the beam of light and the wall.  What happens?  (This is a nice time to try out your dance moves.)
• Stretch an uninflated balloon over the light of the flashlight.  Observe the color.  Mix with another colored balloon.
• Experiment with materials to see what is see through and what isn’t.  (Translucent vs. opaque)
• “Find me” game.  Turn off all lights and flashlights.  One person moves around then says, “Try to find me.”  Guess where she or he is standing and turn on your flashlight pointing at that person.

Yes, the plasma ball looks beautiful.   But right now, the flashlights are all that we need.

Simple pleasures.

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Tag(s): flashlight, light, plasma ball, Science