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This gentleman puts out a great science experiment once a week for FREE.....just email him at KRAMPF@aol.com
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Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 21:47:04 EDT
Subject: Experiment of the Week -#179 Got Wrinkles?
Hello and welcome to Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week!
This document may be distributed in any form, as long as there is no charge
and my name and e-mail address are included. Please forward it to a friend.
This Week's Experiment - #179 Got Wrinkles
Wow! I have just finished an incredible week of digging dinosaurs. I
thought I knew a lot about dinosaurs, but I learned more about dinosaurs this
week than I have in the 38 years I have been a dino nut. (I started when I
was 5.) Dr. Robert Bakker is an incredible teacher.
Another reason that I had a good time was that I found some neat fossils. Of
all the specimens that I found, the one that I am most excited about is a
tooth. It is from a Megalosaur called Brontoraptor, and it was a BIG meat
eating dinosaur. The tooth that I found was in a site where no Megalosaurs
had been found and was higher in the Como Morrison formation than any
Megalosaurs have been found. Because it was a special specimen, I got to
give it a name. You may have heard about the T. rex named Sue at the Field
Museum. I named this Brontoraptor Alicia, after my wife. She was wonderful
enough to let me go off for a week of digging and I wanted her to know that I
was thinking of her.
This week's experiment comes from a conversation we had while driving to the
site one morning. My friend Scott asked why your fingers get wrinkled when
you are in water for a while. You have probably noticed that when you wash
dishes, your hands get very wrinkled. (You do help with the dishes, don't
you?) As I explained what was happening, he asked an even better question.
This experiment will give the answer. You will need:
two glasses
warm water
salt
Fill each glass 2/3 full of warm water. Mark one "water" and mark the other
"salt water." Leave the "water" glass as it is. Pour salt into the "salt
water" glass and stir. If all of the salt dissolves, add more. Keep adding
until no more will dissolve.
Place the glasses on a table, beside each other. Place one finger into the
"water" and another finger into the "salt water." Your fingers should be in
the water at least up to the first joint. Now sit there and wait.........
Keep waiting........... Not yet............Almost done...........After 5
minutes, take your fingers out of the water and compare them. You should
find that the plain water finger is more wrinkled than the salt water finger.
Why? What makes your finger wrinkle? Each of the cells in your body is like
a tiny water balloon. There is a membrane surrounding the cell, much like a
rubber balloon. This membrane will let water move through it, but the
direction the water moves (in or out) depends on salt and other dissolved
chemicals in the water. The water will move towards the highest
concentration of salt. If the salt is more concentrated on the inside of the
cell, as with the plain water, then water moves into the cell. This makes
the cell bigger. If all of the skin cells on your finger get bigger, you
wind up with a skin that is too big for your finger. This extra skin makes
the wrinkles. Don't worry. After your finger has been out of the water for
a while, then the skin will shrink back into place.
At this point, Scott asked his wonderful question. He asked if that meant
that you would not get as wrinkled if you swam in the ocean. He was exactly
right, as you can see from the finger that was in the salt water. With more
salt in the water, less of it moves into the cells. Your finger skin does
not get much bigger and you get far fewer wrinkles. Before all of you adults
get excited, no, soaking in salt water will not cure the wrinkles you get as
you get older.
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