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Elliot and the Surfing Scientist: Shrinking and expanding metals

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Elliot and the Surfing Scientist: Shrinking and expanding metals

SUBJECTS:  Science

YEARS:  5–6, 7–8


Explore with the Surfing Scientist team what happens when metals are heated and cooled.

Find out what happens to a metal ring when it is immersed in extremely cold liquid nitrogen.

What do hinges on the Sydney Harbour Bridge have to do with all this? Find out.


Things to think about

  1. 1.What do you know about what causes metals to expand (get bigger) or contract (get smaller)? Can you think of some examples?
  2. 2.Ruben asks Elliot to predict what will happen to a metal ring when you make it freezing cold. What's your prediction? What is the temperature of the liquid nitrogen? Think of a reason why the metal ball slides through the ring after both have been placed in water.
  3. 3.Using the demonstration of the metal 'ball and ring', make a generalisation about what happens when metals are heated and cooled. Use the particle arrangement to help explain why this happens. Predict what would happen if both the metal ring and the ball were heated. Would the ball fit through the hole? Why or why not?
  4. 4.Do an internet search on 'Sydney Harbour Bridge hinge' and look closely at the images. Work out how the hinges allow the bridge to safely expand and contract horizontally. It might help to think about the coat-hanger shape of the bridge suspended between the two sets of towers.


Production Date: 2008


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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