Sneezes and Wet Balloons
Chelsea Nielsen and Cayla Noble
The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
November 1, 2005 - November 10, 2005
Introduction:
Our first goal was to produce a series of photos that would capture the stages of a sneeze and the effect of the sneeze on the surrounding air. To do this, we had an extremely sensitive sound trigger that was connected to our flash. When a person sneezed, the flash would discharge, but there was another problem that we hadn’t anticipated. Since digital cameras have lag time, and our subjects didn’t know that they were going to sneeze until the instant before they sneezed, our camera wasn’t quick enough to produce a suitable image. Next, we tried to capture “pseudo-sneezes” (simulated sneezes), but this wasn’t very effective for two reasons, the first being that the noises (AH-CHOO) we made in our fake sneeze caused a double (or triple) exposure, and the second being that they didn’t make for very interesting photos.
We then decided to formulate a new goal, which was to observe the effect that water has upon a balloon burst. We blew up a balloon, wet the outside with water, and popped the balloon. We used the same sound trigger that we had been using for the sneeze photos; however, we turned down the sensitivity. The results of this project were definitely a welcome change from the black screen that we had been seeing for two days. When the balloon popped, the water shot out at every angle and produced very interesting images.
Copyright Chelsea Nielsen and Cayla Noble. All Rights Reserved.