What is the purpose of this toy?
Who made it?
Dr. Miles V Sullivan was given credit for this in 1946 because it was patented. It was originally found in china by Albert Einstein, no sources were found trying to find its creator.
Whos the target audience?
This is debatable but it’s supposedly for adults
Where was it discovered?
Albert Einstein discovered this in 1922, when he was on a trip to shanghai.
Why did they make it?
What is this used for?
What does this have to do with physics?
The goop in his butt is methylene chloride, which has a very low boiling point, and therefore evaporates quickly. At room temperature, one or two degrees temperature difference causes the bright red chemical to climb to his head. Suddenly topheavy, he falls over. The felt head, soaked in the water from the cup, cools the methylene chloride, and it drains back to the bottom. The bird rights itself, and it starts all over again.
The drinking bird is a heat engine that works on various laws of thermodynamics. It works due to evaporation, the expansion of gases and equilibrium
What law does this prove?
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states (paraphrased) that energy can neither be created nor destroyed in a closed system
Would you buy one of these?
Why is the “body” of the bird red or blue?
How does it make a back and forth motion on after one dip?
The difference between ambient temperature and wet bulb temperature is what drives its movement.
Is the top hat just for show? Or does it have a purpose?
Just for show since it is actually a toy
Is it safe for kids?
This is debatable because the body of the bird is made of glass and could be dangerous to children. The fluid inside can also stain everything very easily if broken.
Early models were often filled with highly flammable substances. The fluid in later versions is nonflammable. Dichloromethane can irritate the skin on contact and the lungs if inhaled.
What other toys have the same purpose of the drinking bird?
Slinkie
Whats the liquid inside the drinking bird?
The fluid is typically dichloromethane, also known as methylene chloride. Earlier versions contained trichloromonofluoromethane.
Sources
http://pediaview.com/openpedia/Drinking_bird
http://shelf3d.com/nyczz9NsFgs#Evaporative%20Cooling%20-%20Science%20behind%20the%20dippy%20bird
http://wn.com/the_drinking_duck
http://article.wn.com/view/2011/02/28/Analysing_the_Drinking_Bird/
http://www.theguardian.com/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/feb/28/1
http://www.lockergnome.com/homestead/collectibles/2014/02/03/famous-drinking-bird/
http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/birds.html
http://www2.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobookener1.html
This is a challenging image, but I’m hoping you can make it work. You need to focus on 5 r 6 questions that are broad enough to require paragraphs as answers. Combining some of these smaller questions may help. Also consider a more general question or two about history of novelty toys, maybe something about sales figures, etc.
Remember that you need to include in-text citations (ask if you don’t understand what I mean by that) and to give MLA format for Works cited, not URLs.