Marilyn D’Mello, a M.Sc (Chemistry) student of St. Aloysius College, wanted to show how paper can catch fire after being placed in a bowl.
She first cleaned the small bowl and her classmate, Sheethal Pai, put drops of chemicals in it.
As Ms. D’Mello put in few pieces of paper in the bowl, they caught fire.
“This is the secret behind some magicians burning combustible material without lighting it,” said Ms. D’Mello’s classmate Abel John.
Mr. John explained that the fire is due to the heat from the reaction when few drops of concentrated sulphuric acid are put on the mixture of potassium permanganate and acetone.
“There is always science behind many of tricks showed in magic shows and also in films,” Mr. John says and shows reaction between ammonium thiocyanate and ferric chloride solution that gives blood red colour, which, he is what shown in movies denoting blood.
This demonstration by the students is one among the several stalls that had come up as a part of the two-day science fair, which began at Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth Pilikula Nisargadhama near Mangaluru on Saturday.
Simple gadgets
With a concept of learning science with fun, Agasthya International Foundation has brought in simple gadgets to explain concepts of reflection and refraction of light.
One such gadget is a camera model to explain about the refraction of light.
Here students were made to see from one opening of the cube the inverted image on a plain sheet of paper placed inside the cube.
This image on the sheet is of objects one captured by the plano-convex placed on other opening of the cube.
Organ display
Among the other features of the fair included display of human organs, namely brain, stomach, heart, tongue and nerves, by the Anatomy Department of the K.S. Hegde Hospital.
Students here were seen curiously observing Anatomy Professor Martin Lewis’ demonstration of human organs.
Sahyadri Engineering College students demonstrated in open ground the operation of Octocopter – a device developed to spray fertilizers on arecanut plantation.
There were display of energy saving lights and also demonstration of Yoga, Ayurveda and Homeopathy concepts.
