Mr. Wizard's World

CEILING SPRINKLER - Mr.Wizard shows Tanis a ceiling sprinkler set up on a stand. He points out the plug made of a special combination of metals that melt at a specific temperature. This one melts at 160º C. When the temperature reaches that point, the metal plug melts and water is released. WHAT MAKES A CANDLE BURN ? - Mr.Wizard lights a candle in a dish with water in it. See what happens. BACTERIOPHAGE - This looks like a space probe sent from Earth to explore the surface of a planet, but it’s not. STRIPPER DECK - Leila chooses a card and then puts it back into the deck. Mr. Wizard shuffles the deck. Holding the deck behind him, he produces the card she chose. ATARI COMPUTER - Mr. Wizard puts a special cartridge into a computer so that Tanis can use the screen as a palette to create artwork. ELK PROJECT - You wouldn’t think that animals that live in the forest would be helped by a forest fire, but they can be. HOW YOU SEE - With appropriate demonstrations Mr. Wizard has Stacey explore how her eyes see. RULER BALANCE - Jason finds that regardless of where his fingers are at the start, when he moves them toward the center of a meter stick, they always end up at the center.

STEEL WOOL FIREWORKS - Leila is surprised to see steel wool burning. Mr. Wizard has arranged things to show her that oxidation, the combining of a material with oxygen, can take place even with things that normally you think won't burn. BLOW CARD OFF SPOOL - Mr.Wizard puts a playing card with a pin through it on top of a wooden spool. He challenges Jason to blow through the bottom of the spool to blow the card off. FIREFLY TRICKERY - The larger insect is a female firefly and the smaller one a male. But they are not mating. In fact, they’re not even the same species of firefly. CHEWING STRING TOGETHER - Tanis cuts a double loop of string one end of which Mr. Wizard puts in his mouth and supposedly chews the ends together. Watch the trick! FINGERPRINT FIND - Mr.Wizard shows Stacey ten cards, each with a fingerprint and coded to identify each of his .Without Stacey being able to see it, he makes a new print on a blank card. MT.ST.HELENS ERUPTS - Mt. St. Helens erupting with a violent blast. After the eruption, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and Sandia National Laboratories flew in by helicopter. Here’s what they found. LOGO PROGRAM - Michael writes a program called Square so that all he needs to do is type the name and the computer repeats drawing the square. HYDRAULICS - Mr.Wizard promises Jason he will be able to lift a car with one hand !

LIGHT ON A STRING - Tanis is amazed to see the image of an elephant on a vibrating piece of string. Mr.Wizard explains that light is invisible. We see it only when it is reflected from an object. PIN PIANO - Mr.Wizard shows Jason how to construct a piano made of straight pins and a block of wood. MOLDY ORANGE - Be sure to take a close look at these fascinating plants before you throw away a moldy orange. WORD PROCESSING - Mr.Wizard shows Stacey, on an early model computer, the insert and delete keys of a computer set up for word processing. TREE MOWER - (Billy is cutting grass with a lawn mower) - You know how a lawn mower works: a blade cuts off the grass just above the ground. Imagine those blades of grass are trees, and you want to design a machine to cut them off in the same way. MOBIUS LOOP - Mr.Wizard shows Tanis what a mobius loop is using a continuous strip of paper. METEOR PORTRAIT - Astronomers took this photo of a meteor.The camera recorded the fiery path of what you call a falling star. WHAT MAKES THE WIND BLOW - In the kitchen, Jason brings Mr. Wizard a bowl of ice cubes from the refrigerator. On the table is an empty aquarium with a lamp above one end to represent the heating effect of the sun. The aquarium repre­sents a small section of the air. Mr. Wizard puts a top over the center section of the aquarium. Inside the other end he puts ice cubes to represent a cool area of the earth. DRAWING AN ELLIPSE - Stacey is shown a drawing of an ellipse: a circular figure with two foci, the plural of focus. She calls it egg‑shaped.

FIBER OPTICS - A pin is attached to the end of a pencil which is held under water in a glass. Michael looks up at the under surface of the water to see a mirror image. The surface underneath the top of the water acts like a mirror. UNFLIPPABLE PAPER - Mr.Wizard folds a piece of stiff paper to form a bridge. He challenges Jason to blow under the paper and flip it over. EGG AND SPERM - This is an egg from a female sea urchin covered with sperm from a male. Scientists use the sea urchin to study the process of fertilization. LYCOPODIUM - Mr. Wizard asks Tanis to reach into an aquarium without getting her hand wet. her to do it again without getting her hand wet. EARTH AND SUN - Jason looks at a diagram of the Sun and the Earth. At one point the Earth is 94 million miles from the Sun. At another, it's 91 million miles away. Jason assumes that the Earth is closer to the Sun when it's summer. Mr.Wizard tells him he's wrong and right at the same time. KITCHEN CHROMATOGRAPHY - Leila is shown samples of paper chromatography: a technique scientists use to take chemicals apart based on the fact that liquids pass through materials at various rates and have different attractions for certain chemicals. COLEUS LEAF - This is part of a plant and because it’s so colorful, you might think it’s a flower. But it’s not. It’s the edge of a leaf. While most leaves are green, some are highly colored. Exactly how the colors are produced and how they help the plant is unknown. A scientific mystery in the color of the leaves of the coleus. STEAM ENGINE - At a tea kettle of boiling water, Mr. Wizard points out that they are going to make it into a steam engine. SOLAR PROPELLER - Mr.Wizard demonstrates to Tanis how a solar propeller works.has her place her hand over the small circle in the center of the propeller. CARD AND BOTTLE - Mr.Wizard does an experiment with Arlette relating to water and air pressure.

SPEED OF SOUND - Mr. Wizard measures the differ­ence between hearing the sound of a starter pistol over the walkie talkie and hearing it through the air. SELECTIVE REFRACTION TRICK - Mr Wizard shows Stacey how light refraction plays tricks with inverting images. HOW MANY STARS - When you look up at the sky at night, how many stars can you see? On a moonless night with no clouds, you can count as many as 3,000 stars. But that’s not even half of it. GLASS DUET - Mr.Wizard and Tanis stand in front of a row of drinking glasses. Tanis taps the side of each glass to produce a differ­ent sound. They agree that the sound comes from the vibrating glass. SPELLING CHECKER - Mr. Wizard types into the computer a sentence with several spelling errors. He explains that the computer has a disk with perhaps 50,000 words on it. The computer will compare every word Mr. Wizard has typed to the 50,000 words on the disk. AFTER A FOREST FIRE - Specialists from the U.S. Forest Service exam­ine the area that has been devastated by a forest fire and in a matter of days, a forest rehabilitation plan is put into action. WINDOW OSCILLATION - Jason looks at a cut-out drawing of a window attached to a stand and made to rotate via an electric motor. He stands at a distance and looks at the window with one eye. The window appears to move half a turn to the right and then half a turn to the left. Mr.Wizard explains and demonstrates oscillation. ASPARAGUS - This is the top of a plant you no doubt have eaten. The bud has been opened up so you can see some of the parts inside. Eventually, the parts would have grown into many fine branches that give the mature plant the look of a fern. Long before that can happen, the young shoots are harvested and end up on your plate as asparagus. FINDING THE HEIGHT OF A TREE - Mr.Wizard suggests measuring the height of a tree outside with the help of a pan of water. He has it all drawn out for Leila on a piece of paper.

LIGHT BULBS vs IRON - Mr.Wizard and Stacey stand behind a row of 100‑watt light bulbs numbered 1 to 14. They are going to find out how much electricity is used around the house when various appliances are plugged in. UNUSUAL WATER - Mr.Wizard and Billy examine a bowl of ice cubes, a glass of water, and a tea kettle of boiling water. Billy tells him the tem­perature of ice is 0º the water is at room temperature; and steam is at 100º Celsius. Mr. Wizard points out that he will probably never find another substance that can be a solid like ice, a liquid like water, and a gas like steam within such a narrow temperature range. ELECTRON MICROSCOPE - Red blood cells carry food and oxygen to all parts of your body. They were photographed by a light microscope. They are very small. Three thousand of them side by side would only measure an inch. Yet in this picture of one cell, you can see amazing depth and detail. That’s because it was photographed not by light but with electrons. LOGO VARIABLES - into the computer Jason has typed various programs that pro­duce triangles of different sizes and finally that spiral to create an intricate design. GRASSHOPPER’S EYES - You can't miss the two large eyes on each side of a grasshopper’s head. They're called compound eyes because they’re made up of many small lenses. Entomolo­gists believe the compound eyes detect movement, but can focus sharply only on nearby objects. PLASTER CAST - Tanis looks at the track of a dog in the soft dirt at the park. Mr.Wizard explains they are going to make a plaster cast of the track so Tanis can take it home. POUR AIR - Eugene is given two glasses and challenged to pour one glassful of air into the other glass. Eugene is confused. As a clue, Mr. Wizard gives him a bottle full of water to invert. Eugene notes that as the water goes out, air goes in. RIVER OTTERS - This plane has very important passengers aboard brought here at the request of the state government. Here they come now: river otters! BLOW WEIGHT - Mr.Wizard shows Jason a heavy book suspended by a string attached to the frame of a swing. On the ground is a card­board paper tube positioned next to the book. By blowing through a soda straw at the book, Jason is to knock over the paper tube.

MODEL ROCKET - Jason, who has launched many rockets with his father, shows Mr.Wizard the various parts of the rocket and how to launch one safely. GLASS BENDING - Mr.Wizard and Tanis discuss the unusual properties of glass. She defines a solid as something that keeps its shape and can't flow. Mr. Wizard tells her that glass is really a liquid that is solid. PLASTIC GLASS PHONE - Mr.Wizard hits a spoon on a string with another spoon. He shows Eugene a plastic glass with a hole in it through which the string is knotted. The glass amplifies the sound of the vibrating spoon. Eugene holds the cup to his ear. They discuss the tin can telephone. Mr. Wizard has made an updated version using plastic glasses instead of tin cans. The plastic vibrates better than the tin cans. GIANT MODEL TRAIN - Southern Pacific's engine number 8799 isn't a train at all, but a giant model train, a simulator that works exactly like a real one to train engineers. TIE KNOT IN ROPE - Stacey holds each end of a rope and is supposed to tie it in a knot without letting go of the ends. Watch as Mr.Wizard shows her this neat trick. GELATIN AND BALLOON - Mr.Wizard is rubbing a balloon with a cloth. He puts it next to Tanis's face. The balloon remains there. They discuss static electricity: static means cannot move or stationary. DOT MATRIX PRINTER - Mr.Wizard shows Jason a dot matrix and daisy wheel printer. MARBLE ON PLATE - Stacey rolls a marble along the inside of a paper plate. Mr. Wizard shows her a plate that is cut in half. He asks her to predict where the marble will go if made to roll in the same manner as in the uncut plate.

ELECTROCUTED HOT DOG - Leila describes the various ways to cook a hot dog: boiling. fry, and baking in an oven. Mr. Wizard says they are going to electrocute one. HOUSEHOLD LEVERS - Mr.Wizard illustrates three kinds of simple levers. FLY’s FEET - How can a fly walk on a wall without falling off? MAGIC NUMBER - Mr Wizard shows Billy a book that contains thousands of names. He writes the name Efrem on a chalk board and asks Billy to choose three numbers from one to ten. Billy writes 6 - 4 - 5 on a drawing pad and then writes them in reverse order: 5 -4 - 6. He then subtracts one set from the other: 099. He reverses the 990 and adds the last two numbers to get 1089. Mr. Wizard tells him to look at the tenth word on page 89 of the book. He turns to the correct page and counts down ten names. It is Efrem. OIL LAMP - Mr.Wizard poses a problem: a storm causes the electricity to go out at your home. You have no candles, no kerosene lamps, no flashlights. How can you make light? CHOCOLATE JOURNEY - You’re going today on an unusual safari guess­ing game to far off places to gather the ingredients for a com­mon food you’ve eaten many times. See how soon you can guess what that common food is. QUARTZ WATCH - According to Mr.Wizard a balloon filled with water and a quartz watch have something in common. MASS vs WEIGHT - Michael examines a brick hanging from a swing frame. Above and below the brick are thin pieces of string. A stout cord supports the strings and brick so that if either string is broken, the brick will not fall to the ground. Mr.Wizard challenges Michael to break the bottom string with­out breaking the top one. Solving the problem involves the concepts of mass and weight.

POLARIZING LIGHT STRIPS - Mr.Wizard shows Leila how polarizing filters work with the passage of light. JET PROPELLED BOAT - Jason is kneeling behind a small children's wading pool. In Mr. Wizard's hand is a plastic bottle which will represent a jet‑powered boat. Attached to the bottle with waterproof tape are two nails which serve as a ballast. On the side of the bottle is an appendage made of the tape. At the back of the bottle is a tiny hole. See how Mr.Wizard propels the boat. FAT MICE - The mouse on the left is a lot heavier than the mouse on the right. That’s because it’s been bred that way. Forty generations of in-breeding have produced a strain of mice that are from 50 to 100 percent heavier than normal mice. UNDERWATER SAFARI - Mr.Wizard and Leila explore aquatic life in an aquarium. They find and watch a dragonfly nymph, leech, and freshwater shrimp. BEE STINGER: Is it true that a honey bee dies after it stings you? Mr.Wizard explains. ROCK TUMBLER - Billy inspects two rocks. One is jagged. The other was once jagged but after a few thousand years, water with tiny grains of sand slowly wore away the rough edges. SPIDER’S TRAP - A garden spider spins a web to catch its prey. When a grasshopper lands in the web, it gets stuck in the sticky strands and can’t escape. Immediately, the spider begins wrapping the grasshopper in a silken shroud. COMPUTER SHIELD - Stacey and Mr. Wizard are playing a computer game. They stop and he removes the top of the computer. She notes a piece of aluminum. Mr. Wizard says the computer acts as a small TV station. The aluminum is a shield that prevents the computer from interfering with other television sets. MYSTERY OF THE MOUNDS - You’re hiking in the woods and suddenly there up ahead you see a mound rising up from the flat country side. You recognize it immediately as one of the more than 100,000 Indian mounds found throughout the Mis¬sissippi Valley and the Great Lakes Area. No one knew for sure who the mound builders were until archeologists went inside and found rooms that were obviously burial chambers. For whom? BOIL WATER with ICE CUBE - Tanis examines a flask with water boiling in it. She tells Mr. Wizard that water boils at 100º Celsius. Mr.Wizard adds that this holds true at normal atmospheric pressure. Molecules of air are pressing down on the surface of the water. If the atmospheric pressure is greater, it will take more effort to push the water molecules up and away from the surface. See how they lower the pressure.

MAKE A RAINBOW - Heather comes upon Mr. Wizard sprinkling the lawn. He asks her to describe a rainbow. He notes that a rainbow is formed when there are tiny drops of moisture in the air and you look at them with the sun behind you. Each person sees an individual rainbow. HARD BOILED vs FRESH EGG - Which of two eggs is hard boiled and which one is fresh? Jason spins each egg on a plate. One spins easily and the other does not. Which is which? WHAT IS THIS? - : Transparent knobs along the edge of woven fibers indicate this is something man-made. A clue: another row of knobs is brought from above and pressed into this row. The knobs interlock. MOTHBALL FROST - Leila and Mr.Wizard examine mothballl crystals on a plate. They point out the shiny surfaces that indicate that the mothballs are made up of crystals. Mr.Wizard melted mothballs and made the crystals by con­densing the vapor. The mothballs were put in the bottom of a glass mixing bowl with a shallow bowl on top. The bowls were heated on a double boiler. After the vapors cooled, crystals formed on the underside of the bowl. RANDOM COMPUTER NUMBERS - Tanis tries to define the word random. She says it means numbers in any order or any place. Mr.Wizard asks for an example and has her write down the numbers from 0 to 9 in random order. Tanis writes 2,7,1,5,4,9,0,1,3. Mr. Wizard says they are not random because a person can never choose num­bers completely randomly because we usually develop some kind of pattern for choosing. WILDLIFE CENTER - If you want to become a biologist who specializes in working with animals, here’s the kind of project you might work on. You’d place nesting boxes in meadows to attract wild starlings. When the starlings move in, you’d capture some of them. You’d feed them carefully measured doses of chemicals used by farmers to control insects. NUTTY SURPRISE REACTION- Mr.Wizard offers Stacey peanut brittle in a can. She opens the can and spring snakes pop out and fly across the room. They discuss Newton's Law that states for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. WEIGHTLESS CLOTHESPINS - Mr.Wizard asks Eugene his weight. Eugene knows that when he steps on a scale, it's the force of gravity that is being measured. Mr.Wizard explains the difference between gravity AND free fall by using suspended clothespins as an example. PLASTIC WATER BOTTLE FOUNTAIN - Mr.Wizard inverts a bottle of water over a plastic cup with two holes, one above the other. Water pours out of the bottom hole. Tanis stops it by placing her finger over the spout. When she removes her finger, bubbles rise in the inverted bottle. Every time water comes out, air goes into the bottle in the form of bubbles. When she covers the upper hole, she explains no water can come out because no air can get in. ROTTEN APPLE MOUNTAINS - This illustrates one theory of how some of the Earth's mountains were formed. Once this was a smooth sur­face, but the material below shrank just as the molten inner part of the Earth did as it cooled. The outer skin buckled and folded forming the mountains on the surface of a decaying apple. BICYCLE’s 3 WHEELS - Mr.Wizard tells Leila that her bicycle has six wheels of three different kinds.

HYDROGEN, AIR AND HELIUM - Jason stands behind three balloons, two floating upward and one hanging downward from a bar. One balloon is filled with helium, the next, hydrogen and the third, a combina­tion of air and carbon dioxide. Mr. Wizard challenges Jason to determine which is which. WHAT IS THIS? - This may look like a ripe banana, but it's only five millimeters long. That's about one quarter-of-an-inch. People call it a seed, but it's really the fruit of a plant related to the carrot. USES FOR STATIC ELECTRICITY - Mr.Wizard rubs a balloon on his sweater and puts it under Leila's nose where it remains. She says it does so because of static electricity. He explains that when you rub wool or animal fur against a balloon, you are rubbing electrons off the fur and onto the balloon. There are many uses for Static Electricity. RULER AND TV SCREEN - Mr.Wizard waves a stick in front of a blank television set. Darren tries the same and they count five images seen in front of the screen. They discuss stroboscopic effect. The television set is presenting a new picture sixty times a second. BLAST ENGINEERING - Digging a tunnel like this is a big job. As you know, explosives are sometimes used to blast through the rock. But nearby are houses, offices, and shops with people going about their daily lives. What's the best way to blast through rock with the least possible disturbance? BONE STRENGTH - Mr.Wizard Explains why bones are strong. HOW MANY OCEANS ARE THERE ? - Long ago, sailors ventured out on the seven seas. Mr. Wizard answers.STRAW CHALLENGE – Mr.Wizard challenges AJ to sip grape juice through a drinking straw. Then he has AJ use 2 straws, see what happens.

LIQUID NITROGEN - Christian dips a carnation into a bowl of liquid nitrogen, pulls it out, and hits it against the table. The flower shatters into many tiny pieces as if it were made of glass. Mr.Wizard explains that the liquid is 290 degrees below zero Celsius. They both wear safety glasses. SWEATER REVERSING - Leila puts on a sweater and Mr. Wizard adds two pieces of tape to form an X on the front. Mr. Wizard ties a length of rope on her two wrists and challenges her to take the sweater off, turn it inside out and put it back on again. She doesn't think she can do it. The trick is based on the study of topology. WHAT IS THIS? - These are stiff spikes from the tips of a plant that looks like corn. By machine the spikes are processed, bundled together, trimmed, and a handle added. Can you tell what this is? ROBOT SENSOR - Mr Wizard starts a small three-wheel toy moving across the desk. He tells Darren to clap his hands. The toy turns in a different direction. It is a single‑sensor robot that senses sound waves. They examine the various parts of the robot. FIREFIGHTER’S SCHOOL - These are students in a very unusual school. They're waiting in the shade because this is Texas in mid‑summer where it can get very hot. But it will get even hotter for the students. SINGING GLASSES - Mr.Wizard shows Eugene how to create a sound by rubbing an index finger over the edge of a glass of water. POTATO FLOAT - Scott examines a pitcher that has half a potato floating near the center of a clear liquid. Mr. Wizard challenges him to duplicate it.

STATIC ELECTRICITY - Mr. Wizard shows Nicola some fun trix with the Van de Graaff generator. LIFTING CUPS - Mr.Wizard challenges Leila to pick up two plastic drinking glasses with a balloon. She thinks it's impossible. PARROTS OF PUERTO RICO - This newly‑born chick is one of the rarest birds in the world, a Puerto Rican parrot. Scientists believe there may be fewer than 20 adult birds left in the world, all in a protected forest in the mountains of Puerto Rico. A LESSON IN GRAVITY - Mr. Wizard puts a washer near the edge of the plywood and a washer on top of the end of the ruler. He tells Laurie that he will flick the ruler with his finger and the washer on top of the ruler will fall straight down, while the washer at the edge of the ply­wood will move a few feet away. Which washer will hit the desk first? PULLEYS - Karen tries to lift a metal pail full of stones. She can pick it up only a few inches. Mr. Wizard explains that she will be able to easily pick it up with the help of a rope and a pulley and something called mechanical advantage. HYPO CRYSTALS - Modern abstract art being created before your very eyes in much the same way a frost forms on a window. But these are crystals of sodium thiosulfate, the chemical pho­tographers use to fix negatives and prints and which they call hypo. GLUE FROM MILK - Michael tears apart two pieces of construction paper which are glued together only in the center. The glued part stayed intact. Mr.Wizard explains that he made the glue from skim milk. HOME MADE RECORD PLAYER - AJ is going to make a record player from cello­phane tape, a pencil, a pin, and a sheet of paper.

ROLLER COASTER POPCORN - At an amusement park, Mr. Wizard has made arrangements for Christian to ride on a roller coaster that loops upside down. Mr. Wizard has given Christian a container of popcorn. Christian says gravity keeps the popcorn in the container. Mr. Wizard asks him what will happen when he swings the popcorn in a vertical circle. Christian assumes the popcorn will not fall out because gravity will not have enough time to pull on it. SCHLIEREN PHOTO - You can see this girl’s normally invisible breath because of a special technique, called the Schlieren method. POND SAFARI - Mr.Wizard defines the word safari as a journey. He tells Stacey that their safari is in an aquarium filled with pond water. They search the pond through a magnifying glass. RANGE FIRES - You see flames leaping into the evening sky as you drive through the grassy range lands of eastern Oregon. As you get closer, you're relieved to see a crew at the scene of the fire. But they're not putting the fire out, they're helping it burn! COMPUTER VOICE - Jason is saying words into a microphone and watching a graphic display of the sounds. He and Mr. Wizard discuss the difficulty that deaf people have in learning to speak. A deaf engineer invented a computer program to enable the deaf to see what they are saying. DEADLIEST MUSHROOM - The time-lapse camera captures the rapid growth of the Amanita family of deadly mushrooms. It's a good idea never to eat any wild mushrooms. Eat only those you buy at the supermarket and you won't be in any danger from the deadliest or any other mushroom. ARMS IN DOORWAY - Eugene is standing with his arms to his side in a doorway and pushing as hard as he can against the door jamb. Mr. Wizard explains that Eugene's brain is sending a message to the arms to push. When Eugene steps out of the doorway, his muscles continue to push and his arms rise up automatically. TWO BOTTLE QUIZ - 2 bottles are suspended from a pulley. Both are filled to the same height with a liquid. The bottle on the left is filled with water. The one on the right is partly filled with water plus a red liquid. Both bottles are resting on a lab jack. Which is heavier? CONDUCTORS - Scott tests various materials to see whether or not they conduct electricity. Scott is to predict which materials will light up a bulb when he touches them with two wires to complete the circuit.

HERO’S ENGINES - Mr. Wizard describes the Greek philosopher, Hero, who invented an engine. A model of it is a flask with two glass tubes coming from opposite sides. It's hanging by a string from a lab stand. Before Mr. Wizard heats it with a blowtorch, Karen predicts that the water will turn to steam and come out the holes in the tube and make the flask turn. POTATO PRINTS - Mr.Wizard cuts a potato in half. Scott carves a pattern on the flat surface of one of the potato halves. He presses the carved half potato on an ink pad and stamps a piece of paper making a design pattern. LIONS - The lion has been called the king of the African jungle. He may be a king but not of the jungle. Lions much prefer the grassy plains where their chief supply of food lives. SCISSORS AND STRING PUZZLE - Tanis inspects a puzzle made of a pair of scissors, string and a washer. The string is looped through the handle of the scissors. A washer is tied to the end of the string. The washer is too big to slip through the scissors. Mr. Wizard challenges Tanis to get the string off the scissors. Mathematicians call this a closed loop. They use it in topography, the study of surfaces. GUM DROP JOINTS - Mr.Wizard shows Eugene bowls of gumdrops and toothpicks and challenges him to construct something with the gumdrops as joints. Eugene makes a pyramid. ORION - Dr. Robert Mitchell took this photograph to show you what you can see if you simply look up at the sky at night. The three stars in a row help identify the constellation Orion. COMPUTER ILLUSTRATION - With a mouse Leila is making a picture of a space shuttle on the computer monitor. She shows Mr. Wizard the features of the program and how to use them. HOT AND COLD HANDS - Jason puts one hand into a beaker of cold water and the other hand into a beaker of hot water. He knows what’s going to happen as a result of reading Mr. Wizard's Supermarket Science. After a short while, Jason says his hands are getting desensitized. Mr. Wizard explains that the nerves in his hand, in effect, get tired.