A fine state

Another week with Live Demonstrations. The topic was States of Matter (cued by the intersection of one child's question [on clouds] with the standard Montessori elementary curriculum.

We had water present in its three states, and changing from one to the other.

I explained that water vapor (gas) is completely invisible, and clouds are made of liquid water (or sometimes ice). I'm still annoyed that my 3rd grade class did not make that clear, leaving me at the time mumbling that something was fishy in their story. (Annoyingly, some English usage allows the word "water vapor" as a synonym for steam, which is – like clouds –liquid water. I did not muddle up the works by mentioning this little gem of ambiguity).

I brought a little mist sprayer such as you would use to moisten your houseplant foliage, and we watched the atomized cloudlike droplets, which evaporated right before our wondering eyes: "And now there is a whole bunch of water vapor right here. Between you and me. Do you see it? No? That's right".

Then we extended it to Other Things Also Have States Of Matter. I liquefied some candle wax and then melted some lead-free solder. As it turns out a lot of people were surprised to learn that metal can turn to liquid.

My handy soldering torch cannot liquefy rock (we tried), but after a moment's hesitation everybody was able to say where on earth one might find liquid rock. It gives you pause: every drop of lava is significantly hotter than the blue flame coming out of this thing.
. Yowch.