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The Physics Teacher -- January 2012 -- Volume 50, Issue 1, pp. 32

An Unexpected Heat Engine

K. P. Trout and Charles A. Gaston

Pennsylvania State University-York Campus

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It's common knowledge that light can produce chemical and electronic changes (photography is based on those effects); however, many people consider light to have no mechanical effect. Some are familiar with the novelty of a radiometer that spins when placed in the light. Fewer are aware that a cymbal will vibrate audibly if hit by the light from a camera flash.1 It came to our attention that the bubble in an ultra-sensitive level would move toward a flashlight beamed at the level from one end. Our investigations of this phenomenon show that it is thermal in nature and the effect large enough to be demonstrated in a classroom. With the addition of a small heating wire, the bubble level can be converted into a small heat engine.

© 2012 American Association of Physics Teachers

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Penn State York students Jennifer Diver and Zachary Miller for their contributions to this project. We also acknowledge the assistance of Todd Hoy, lab technician at Penn State York, for providing assorted lab equipment and chemicals as needed.

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

heat engines, photography, physics education, student experiments

PACS

  • 01.50.My

    Demonstration experiments and apparatus

  • 07.20.Pe

    Heat engines; heat pumps; heat pipes

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0031-921X (print)  

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Association of Physics Teachers

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.3670081

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