Incredible Expanding Marshmallows Caught on Video

We interrupt our regular programming for a science experiment.

What happens when you subject a poor innocent marshmallow to vacuum pressure? Will it expand? Or will it shrink? Curious minds want to know.

Before you watch the video, decide whether you think a marshmallow will expand or shrink when subjected to vacuum pressure. Now, watch the video.

Science Experiment Videos in Windows Media Format

• Balloons under vacuum pressure
• Marshmallows under vacuum presure

*disclaimer – no marshmallow chicks or bunnies were harmed during this experiment. while it would be appropriate for me to caption these videos and convert them from .wmv files to .mov files for more universal accessibility, please remember this is all for a 5th grade science experiment and i really do have a life offline!

Materials Required:

• Marshmallows
• Black & Decker Food Saver (to create vacuum)
• Digital camera (to record findings)

I’ve been recruited to edit the video for this science experiment. The goal is for the video to be played on a handheld computer (Dell Axim X5). Now it is time for me to learn how to edit and encode video for the pocket pc platform. My starting point is the .mov file that my digital camera produced. After a little research, I determine that my best solution is to convert the .mov to a .avi for editing. Then after editing, I’ll need to encode a .wmv specifically for the pocket pc platform.

Tools used:

• RAD Video Tools(to convert .mov to .avi)
• Windows Movie Maker (to edit .avi files and save as .wmv )
• Windows Media Encoder 9 (to encode files for playback on a pocket pc)

On my first try thru the Windows Media Encoder, I left all the settings at default. When I moved the video to the PPC (an old Dell Axim X5 running PPC 2002), the video played fine, but no audio. Then I discovered that setting the audio to “Voice quality audio” in the Windows Media Encoder did the trick. Mission accomplished.