Hurricane Experiment

[herpguy]

After hurricane Rita made landfall, i knew global warming had to be making hurricanes stronger, so i did an experiment. I had two identical containers with the tops of shoe boxes in the water on the "west" side of the containder, i call these continents. There were two fans blowing air towards these continents. I had a reptile heating lamp on each cage warming the water temperature up to approx. 105 degrees F. Syran wrap was placed over each container with a thick layer syran wrap in a square about 9 sq. in. In one of the containers i had a candle lit under the thick layer of syran wrap, in the other i didn't. This put more CO2 in one cage than the other. The results were astonishing...

 

Before i tell u what happened, i'll give u a little more detail about what my "storms" are and how they work. The storms are basically condensation. The water evaporates and because of certain laws of physics the come together. The following is the key to my key to the level of intensities in the "storms"

 

Depression: Many tiny raindrops in a small area

Storm: Small drops of water close to eachother.

1: Small raindrops close to eachother in circular formation.

2: Larger but still small drops of water close together in a circular formation.

3: Normal sized drops of water close together in a circular formation.

4: Large raindrops close together in a circular formation.

5: One large drop of water, over 3 in. radius.

 

In each cage there were also cities with chess pieces as towers and small crumpled pieces of paper acted as homes.

 

Now for the results:

Overall in the container with the candle in it there were 28 storms. The following shows the storm and there top category.

Alyssa: 1

Bob: 4

Cynthia: Depression

Daniel: Storm

Elizabeth: 1

Fred: 4

Georgia: 1

Harold: 4

Isabel: Storm

Jonathon: 1

Katherine: Depression

Lonny: Depression

Mary: Storm

Nick: Storm

Ophelia: Depression

Phillip: 3

Quincy: 1

Robert: Storm

Samantha: Depression

Trevor: Depression

Udaya: Depression

Victor: Depression

Wendy: Storm

Xavier: 2

Yolanda: 4

Zach: 5

Alpha: 1

Beta: 1

 

Number of storms by category:

Depressions: 8

Storms: 6

1: 7

2: 1

3: 1

4: 4

5: 1

5+: 0

 

In the cage without the candle there were four storms. The following shows the storms and their top category.

Adrian: Depression

Billy: Depression

Cinderella: Depression

Donald: Depression

 

Number of storms by category:

Depressions: 4

Storms: 0

1: 0

2: 0

3: 0

4: 0

5: 0

 

 

In conclusion adding CO2 in the air will strengthen and produce more storms. OUCH!

 

-Herpguy

The 11 year old Einstein (hopefully)

[Mokele]

Well, the real atmosphere is substantially more complex (to the level that even supercomputers don't have the power to run truly accurate simulations), however, you did well with the general principle (the candle was a good idea of adding CO2 on a budget) considering the scale. One thing to watch for, though, is that the candle would also put out particulate matter (smoke), which can contribute to droplet formation. If your herps (I'm inferring from the username) eat mice, and you get them mail order, the dry ice that comes with them is pure CO2, and might be an appropriate alternative source.

 

It's hardly conclusive, since the complexities of the actual atmosphere and ocean can have a major impact, but certainly not half bad considering your age.

 

Of course, I'm also biased by your username, since herps are what I study (specifically biomechanics and functional morphology, currently focused on snake locomotion).

 

Mokele

[Bluenoise]

Interesting idea. But I don't see how your getting a connection between an increase in CO2 and water droplet formation.

 

More than likely the increased droplets you're getting is a combined effect from the heat and particulate matter given off from the candle. Since the container with the candle in it would be substantially warmer the air in it would absorb more moisture from the water below. Plus you need to take into consideration that a burning candle does not only produce CO2 as a waste product but it also produces water as a waist production. The carbon in the candle reacts with oxygen to make CO2 and the hydrogen in the candle reacts with oxygen to make H2O. Once this more moist air hit the suran wrap more water would condense on it.

Also an increase in particulate matter would create a small "matrix" like effect that would assist in defusing your water droplets and linking them.

 

It's an interesting idea you have but you to setup controls so you know that the results that you're seeing are a result of your hypothesis and not other factors.

What I mean is if you want to use a candle as a source of CO2 you need a controll that is setup in such a way that you have a point source that creates smoke and heat without CO2. Or you need to find a way to only modify the level of CO2 in your container, without the smoke and heat and whatever else the candles presence could be causing.