Faraday Lecture

The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh is pretty neat! They have monthly meetings with scientific talks that the public can attend. We attended one in which we learned a lot about how fireworks are made! They also co-sponsor the annual Farraday Lecture, along with the Society of Analytical Chemists, and invite middle school and high school students to attend during the day. It's also presented in the evening and is open to the general public. We headed to the beautiful Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and buckled in for an astonishing show. High school chemistry teacher Bob Becker gave the presentation. He set things on fire, created mesmerizing soap bubbles, set soap bubbles on fire, sucked on both helium (less dense than air) and SF6 (more dense than air), and kept us completely riveted for two hours! Jasper got to help with a demonstration in which they tried different methods to empty a jug of water as fast as possible (swirling it made it empty instantly). We learned more physics and chemistry in those two hours than we could have imagined, so we will be sure to attend every year.