chawks64 is offline chawks64 Post #1  September 14,2009, 8:23pm
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When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I truly believed I could see molecules with my nekkid eye. I would look into the air and see them floating by, especially when it was foggy. That memory is still so very vivid in my mind.

Obviously, it wasn't quite true. What I was seeing were the spots on my eyes which seemed to float when my eyes moved to follow them.

Anyone else have any strange science theories from childhood?
 
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shoelace is offline shoelace Post #2  September 15,2009, 5:50am
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chawks64 wrote :
When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I truly believed I could see molecules with my nekkid eye. I would look into the air and see them floating by, especially when it was foggy. That memory is still so very vivid in my mind.

Obviously, it wasn't quite true. What I was seeing were the spots on my eyes which seemed to float when my eyes moved to follow them.

Anyone else have any strange science theories from childhood?
Those were probably what we call floaters. But because you say they were especially visible when it was foggy, I wonder if you were seeing blood platelets in small capillaries in your eye.

When I was a teen I began noticing small white particles -- distinctly different from the comparatively gigantic floaters -- which would zip around, zig zag, and sometimes seem to burst out in a radiant shower from one spot. When I would exert myself the particles appeared like dark bees buzzing around.

I thought I was seeing particles that were being ionized and accelerated through my eye, like particles in a cloud chamber. Yes, I thought I was seeing atoms, or at least a trail of bubbles left behind from the moving particle. It took me 25 years of "observing" before I realized the particles were following the same well-defined paths. That's when it dawned on me that I had to be seeing blood platelets travelling through capillaries in the eye. I further assume the capillaries lie in front of the retina (part of the poor "design" of the eye).

I mentioned this to my optomotrist who confirmed my theory and told me the effect has been given a name -- she didn't remember it, though. It seems few people ever see them, and fewer still figure out what they are seeing.

I found they were most easily visible when looking at the bland light of the sky, at the deep blue opposite of the sun or at an overcast sky (like fog). The effect might be lost if looking at a scene with too many changes of value and contrast.
 
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DennisWisconsin is offline DennisWisconsin Post #3  September 15,2009, 2:55pm
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I've been intrigued by electricity since I recieved a 'How and Why Wonder book' when I was eight years old. I no longer have this book, but if I did it would be forty-three years old so I never imagined that I would actually find one. Here they are though, on sale on the internet.



When I was fourteen I bought an electric guitar from my brother-in-law and tried to adapt a reel-to-reel tape recorder microphone to work through my guitar amplifier. On my first try I blew a fuse, my dad shut me down, and that was my first experiment with electricity.

More like teenage science than kid science... I'll keep thinking...
Last edited by DennisWisconsin; September 15,2009 at 3:00pm.
 
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shoelace is offline shoelace Post #4  September 16,2009, 7:16am
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ELECTRICITY!!! That brings back a memory.

Early teens, I got the brilliant idea I would create an electro-magnet, so took apart an extension cord and wrapped the wire arouund a large metal loop, connected the wire ends and plugged it in to an outlet. Kaboom!!! Sizzle...black charred outlet.

That's when I figured out that the electricity needed some kind of resistance to slow down the flow of the electricity. I had created a wonderfully exotic short-circuit.
 
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DennisWisconsin is offline DennisWisconsin Post #5  September 23,2009, 9:24am
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shoelace wrote :
ELECTRICITY!!! That brings back a memory.

Early teens, I got the brilliant idea I would create an electro-magnet, so took apart an extension cord and wrapped the wire arouund a large metal loop, connected the wire ends and plugged it in to an outlet. Kaboom!!! Sizzle...black charred outlet.

That's when I figured out that the electricity needed some kind of resistance to slow down the flow of the electricity. I had created a wonderfully exotic short-circuit.
lol... I'm guessing that fuses and circuit breakers were invented with us in mind!
 
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DennisWisconsin is offline DennisWisconsin Post #6  September 23,2009, 9:30am
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Every spring when I was a kid I used the running water from melting snow to become a dam builder... Of course I've grown out of that now.... I'm not a dam builder anymore... now every spring I become a master dam builder!
 
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WeDesignOurLives is offline WeDesignOurLives Post #7  September 25,2009, 6:33pm
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I used to stare toward a light, shut my eyes to just about closed and see patterns in just the slight opening (not floaters but I thought they were patters of the light dissipating? in the eyelashes?
 
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w_elissa is offline w_elissa Post #8  September 26,2009, 2:35am
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Kid Science...

-I used to make lots of volcanos in bottles outside.

-I used to cut up worms in my sandbox to see how small they could get and still wiggle. (I never moved on to bigger animals, blame it on my dad...after taking me fishing I thought killing worms was okay...we were hooking them and feeding them to fish, whats the difference to a 5 year old...right?)

-Using firecrakers with my brother in the sandbox to construct mines and blow up the small GI-joe guys and see how far we could make the body parts go. How many firecrackers does it take to get the arm out of the sandbox.

*Hmmm....I was allowed to play with fire and my pocket knife before the age of 10. Was that wise, mom.. dad?


- Oh and I also used to try and make concoctions out of things in the kitchen or bathroom. Some were to be edible, some were meant to be a mess. (flour and sugar, or toothpaste and baking soda etc. I squishy or bubbling can I get it.)
 
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rix is offline rix Post #9  September 26,2009, 3:30am
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shoelace wrote :
ELECTRICITY!!! That brings back a memory.

Early teens, I got the brilliant idea I would create an electro-magnet, so took apart an extension cord and wrapped the wire arouund a large metal loop, connected the wire ends and plugged it in to an outlet. Kaboom!!! Sizzle...black charred outlet.

That's when I figured out that the electricity needed some kind of resistance to slow down the flow of the electricity. I had created a wonderfully exotic short-circuit.

Yes... a good friend of mine and I also made a similar discovery. I was in my late teens, and living in a mobile home on my parent's property at the time ( I guess you could call them my "trailer trash" days). Well, my coffeemaker was not working, and we decided that we wanted some coffee, so we rewired the coffeemaker with residential copper wiring. Well, the coffeemaker started brewing the coffee, so we stepped out and had a smoke (Yes. I know). However, we noticed that the mobile home started smoking as well. So, we rushed back in to discover that the coffeemaker was on fire, and my nearby collection of cassette tapes was partially melted as well ( I'm dating myself here. You remember cassette tapes? They were before CDs, and after eight tracks). Luckily, we put out the fire before the whole thing went up in flames. However, I discovered that coffeemakers should not be rewired with the same electrical wiring that runs through your walls!
 
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Spider is offline Spider Post #10  September 26,2009, 4:45am
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When I was about 10, I was so fascinated with a cousin's Visible Man (those plastic forms with all the organs, do they still make those?), that my folks bought me a Visible Woman kit. I loved it!

The really neat thing about the VW was that it came with a visible pregnancy option - you could swap out the uterus for a near-term fetus and snap on the "pregnant" outer shell.

I was so disappointed when my mom got pregnant the next year, and she (and my baby brother) weren't Visible. For some reason, I just assumed ...
 
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