Cyclone in a Bottle!

Cyclone in a Bottle!
On SCOPE's SIMULATIONS episode, Elizabeth creates a cyclone in a bottle and even
makes it glow in the dark!
What you need:
- 2x large plastic bottles
- Tape
- Glue
- Drill
- Water
- Glitter
- Tonic water
- A black light globe
What to do:
1. Start off by sticking two bottle caps back to back using strong glue; also, tape
them together once the glue has dried
2. Ask an adult to drill a hole in the middle of the caps using the drill
3. Fill up one of the bottles with water and glitter
4. Then screw the other empty bottle on top, flip them over and give the bottles a
twirl and watch a glittery cyclone form in front of your eyes
5. And if you want to take your cyclone bottle to the next level, you can even make it
glow in the dark using tonic water and a black light globe!
6. All you have to do is fill up one of the bottles with the tonic water and then get
your cyclone swirling in a dark room with the black light globe on.

What’s happening:
As the water and air twirl around in the bottle, a vortex is formed. This allows air to
move up into the top bottle through the centre of the cyclone, the water then swirls
around the outside of the vortex, into the bottom bottle.
The reason the tonic water cyclone glows in the dark is because of an ingredient in the
tonic water called quinine which fluoresces under the UV light emitted by the black
globe.
The vortex that forms in the bottles is kind of what happens in a real tropical cyclone,
except they form over oceans where warm, moist air rises into the atmosphere.
As warm air rises it cools, causing water in the air to condense and form storm
clouds; but as it condenses, it also releases heat! This heats up the surrounding air,
causing it to become lighter and rise even higher into the atmosphere, sucking even
more air and moisture into the storm system. These cyclonic storm systems become
so big they are affected by the earth spinning around on its axis, so they start to swirl
in a circle forming a cyclonic vortex.
Now our cyclones in a bottle might be a little more basic than a real cyclone, but they
are still pretty cool!