Convection Currents in gases- Smoke Chimney experiment!

Smoke chimney experiment

Download the above picture. When you open the picture you will find a picture of a rectangle with two openings. The openings represent “chimneys”. Inside you can see a candle with a flame. At the opening of the chimney on the right side, you can see an incense stick. That is why this experiment is called the smoke chimney experiment.

When the incense stick is lit up, smoke enters the box from the right-hand chimney. Your job is to draw arrows representing the path that you think the smoke will follow. You can do this by copying the downloaded picture in a Paint program installed on your computer and drawing arrows where you think is correct. When you are ready, save the picture and upload it here on the blog and share your ideas on how you arrived at this conclusion.

Here are some questions that can help you conclude the arrow direction of the smoke:

1.     How is the air inside the box warmed?

2.    What will happen to the smoke when it enters the box? Why did this occur?

3.    What happens to the air just above the lit candle?

I will be demonstrating this experiment in class in the following days. In the meantime post your predictions and we will deal with them in class. Good luck!