Snake Spirals

Thursday, November 5th, 2009
We painted snakes on Monday, cut them out and hung them up yesterday, and today we noticed that the snakes hung in the middle of the room didn't move at all, but the ones near the window were dancing. We chatted about this for a while, some of us thought that the snakes by the window were just more excited, being able to look out. After a bit of discussion, we decided that the snakes by the window were moving because they were also over the radiator. We know that hot air is coming from the radiator. This air rises because hot air (and steam and smoke) always travels up as high as it can go. The snakes by the window are in the path of the hot air and so they look as if they are dancing. The ones in the middle of the room have no radiator under them, and so they don't move.