Thunderstorms: A "Shocking" Exposé: Demonstration
Thunderstorms
A "Shocking" Exposé
I have thought of a way to demonstrate a flash flood, which as you know from by my website, is a by-product of a thunderstorm. In order for you to complete this demonstration, all you need to do is follow the steps in numerical order:
- Buy or locate all of the necessary:
- 3 small terrariums (size doesn't matter)
- 5 pound bag of clay
- 10 pound bag of dirt (gardening soil works well)
- measuring cup
- 3 cups of water (possibly more, depending on the size of the terrarium)
- 1 small spray bottle, and
- a few toothpicks.
- Pour enough water into the spray bottle until it is filled.
- Put about a two-inch layer of clay on the bottom of the terrarium, tightly packed (so that water shouldn't be able to penetrate it), and sloping downhill to the other end which should slope down to one inch.
[2 ----» 1]
- Repeat step 3 using dirt in the remaining terrariums.
- Dig a half-inch trench along the middle of each terrarium, sloping from one end to the other (this is to simulate a wash).
- Poke the toothpicks into the downhill side of the trench in each terrarium so that they are barely standing up.
- Using the spray bottle, spray the water on the uphill side of one of the dirt terrariums to simulate normal rain.
- In the other dirt terrarium, simulate a flash flood by pouring a cup of water on the uphill side of the terrarium. The ground should become saturated with water and begin to rush downhill, wiping out the toothpicks. (You may need more water depending on the amount of dirt and the size of the terrariums.
- In the clay terrarium, simulate another flash flood; this time, simulating one in the desert where the ground is extremely hard and water runs right off of it. The water should run right over the clay, not even seeping into the ground. It should also easily wipe out the toothpicks, which explains why flash floods are extremely dangerous, especially in dry regions.
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