All sounds are caused by _____? While many of you may be scratching your heads trying to recall your middle school science class or even hitting up Google to find the answer, the children who were at Justin Potter Library Thursday know the answer to the question.
“All sounds are made by vibrations,” announced Professor Gray Beard as he presented fun experiments to show the science behind his statement.
Part of the Summer Reading Program, free to all children at the downtown library every Thursday afternoon through the month of June, the educational installment featured Professor Gray Beard from Mr. Bond, the Science Guy to entertain and educate.
The fun experiments included a voice changing machine that all the children got to try, shifting their voice from Darth Vader to My Little Pony with the switch of a knob. The Professor also used dry ice, the substance at a chilling minus 109 to show how it could make sound by allowing it to come in contact with a metal bowl. However, the highlight for the children was when he put it in water, the bubbling caldron producing suds which he blew over the young audience.
One lucky adult in attendance was selected for the helium test, a swallow of the lighter than air substance immediately changing his voice much to the delight of the children.
Along with sounds, the Professor demonstrated how light wave lengths work. In his experiment he had a child hold a balloon while he shot different colored laser light on it, asking first what the children thought would happen.
“Will the balloon pop, will it not pop or will it open up a door to a parallel universe?” he joked before popping the red balloon with a green laser.
“It’s all about the science,” he concluded as he finished his interactive show.
The next Summer Reading Program event at Justin Potter will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. with Libraries Rock Storytime.