In this photo, a very fine grade piece of steel wool was taken, stuffed inside of a whisk, dowsed in kerosene and lit on fire. Once lit on fire, the trained professional would spin the steel wool attached to the rope, as the steel wool burns, pieces begin to flake off. Creating the shower of burning flakes.
To take this photo, simply turn the shutter speed on a DSLR to a long shutter speed. In this situation, it was found that 4 seconds was best, but this may vary depending on the lighting situation. Secondly, the camera would have to have its aperture turned down to compensate for all the extra light coming in to the sensor from the long shutter speed. It is imperative to have this long shutter speed because it allows for 4 seconds of light to occur. If the shutter speed was at a standard shutter speed, only a fraction of a rotation of the steel wool would be seen, however with 4 seconds, we can see multiple rotations.
These pictures are included in the Art of Physics travelling exposition. To get more information on how your institution can host the travelling exposition, please contact Francine Ford, CAP's Executive Director at cap@uottawa.ca.
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