Tag Archives: thermal imaging camera

energie:labor at European Researchers’ Night 2017

Yesterday Alice and I spent the afternoon and evening in the cute coastal town of Eckernförde, enjoying the summer-y weather, the Baltic Sea, and — of course! — the science outreach. It was European Researchers’ Night!

We represented the energie:labor and our research group by entertaining many many people in our little blue tent:

The goal was to engage the public in thinking about physics, particularly about energy. What better tool to use than a thermal imaging camera?

I’ve talked about the many ways you can play with that sort of camera before (see here), but last night was special. To catch people’s eyes and engage children as well as grown-ups, we had prepared a couple of fun experiments, for example hitting gummi bears with a hammer and observing how that changes the temperature.

Despite the large media interest we didn’t make the local newspaper’s front page today ;-)

To get an impression of how much fun we had, watch the movie below. This was an hour before the official opening of the event, and the last seconds we had to actually do things ourselves before we got run over by curious crowds. Who knew that people are so keen on learning physics? ;-)

Thanks, Alice, we are a great team and I had so much fun! :-)

Playing with a thermal imaging camera

Today I’ve been playing with a thermal imaging camera. Below you see a snapshot of my experimental setup, but before I tell you more about that experiment, a little bit of playing around.

See my reflection in my porthole below? (Btw, how awesome is it that I found a porthole to decorate my living room with???)

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That reflection also shows up with the thermal imaging camera.

And since I was taking pictures of myself: Here I am with “ice-cube make-up” and glasses that I had taken off for a while and then picked up again just before taking that picture. Do you see the endless possibilities of playing with a thermal imaging camera?