Weather day at the Royal Institution

Is that the The Royal Institute of Michael Fariday fame? that's the one! Not exactly child's play then. well... they do the famous children's lectures every Christmas so they at least know a bit about child's play and if you surround any self respecting child with things to play with you will get child's play.

So what was it? dotted around the institute were various experiments hosted by everyone in science from student to professor and from water to fire all around a theme of what makes the weather everywhere you go-o-o you always enough of that.

What worked? probably my favourite was the fire tornado (see picture) one could also make a whirlpool or a cloud in pop bottles, others that stood out were experiments with infra red cameras and pulling apart a vacuum sealed ball. What didn't? it was too humid for the Van de Graaff and we never did find the top of the barometer! What else was there? The buggies liked making snowflakes and a sundial and finally they had a weather balloon. All experiments were wonderfully set amongst the grand setting of tomes such as "The electrician 1891"

Does the sundial work? To demonstrate how it would work we shone a torch at it to show what the sun would do; "it won't really work in here though because there isn't any sun" I pointed out. "Yes it does," came the response "look its 11 o'clock"!

Where does bad light go? To a prism!

What: Family fun day
Where: Royal institution of Great Britain
Getting there: Walk from Oxford Circus or Green Park
Cost: £5 adults; £3 children
Again: Yes; they do several such events although none are currently on their events list.