A Funny Mistake

At noon that day, we found a strange phenomenon. She Fei’s bottle, which was half filled with boiled water, had many bubbles going up from the bottom to the top, with the sound of ‘zizizizi’. It’s so interesting that Zhang Cheng , Wang Wenkai and I came to explain it. I observed the bottom of the bottle, and found that there was a scratch on the bottom. I remembered a TV show, which said a scratch may cause water boil if the water has a high enough temperature and a too smooth pot cannot boil the water. So I guessed that phenomenon might be cause by the scratch, the scratch made the water boil. Wang said the scratch might cause the pressure decrease, so the lower decrease cause the water reach its boil temperature. Then he thought of a method to prove his assume. He asked Zhang to open the cap of the bottle to see whether he was correct. Zhang opened it carefully, and he was surprised that his left hand beneath the bottle felt very hot at the moment the cap was opened and the bubble stopped to travel! He was puzzled. I observed the bottle again, and I found that there was some water on my hand beneath the bottle! Ahhhh, I made the final correct conclusion: the bottle leaked!!!

According to this funny mistake, I know that we shouldn’t make a conclusion too quickly without thinking deeply, and we shouldn’t believe an assumption without experiment. We should observe a phenomenon carefully, think about it deeply, and have a small experiment to prove the assumption. Maybe a reason of a strange thing is very easy, and we should remember it forever!