Joey Green's Mad Scientist

Homemade UFO

What You Need

Eight sheets of thin tissue paper
Paper clips
Pencil
Scissors
Elmer's Glue-All
Strip of poster board 1/4-inch wide by 28-inches long
Thin iron wire
Tin snips
Clean, empty coffee can
Metal file
Wad of absorbent cotton, about the size of a baseball
Rubbing alcohol
Long kindling match

What to Do
Fold the sheets of tissue paper in half lengthwise. Secure the sheets together along the fold with several paper clips. With the pencil, reproduce the pictured pattern on the top sheet of tissue paper, and use the scissors to cut it out through all sixteen sheets.
With the first panel lying vertically on the table, apply glue only along the right edge from top to bottom. Lay the second panel on top of the first and press the glued edge. Apply glue along the left edge of the second panel, lay the third panel on top of it, and press the glued edges together. Finish gluing the remaining panels in this accordion style, then unfold the balloon and glue the edge of the last panel to the edge of the first panel, sealing the balloon. Trim the excess tissue at the top and glue a small piece of tissue on to seal the top.
Glue the ends of the poster board strip together to form a loop. Let dry.
Apply glue to the loop's outside edge, insert the loop inside the bottom lip of the tissue paper balloon, and seal in place, crimping or trimming any excess tissue, if necessary.
Cut two pieces of thin iron wire eleven inches in length. Tie the two pieces of wire from side to side so the wires intersect to form a cross in the center of the loop. (You can use an unfolded paper clip or a sewing needle to puncture holes in the loop to tie the wires in place).
With adult supervision, use the tin snips to carefully cut a 3-by-5-inch window in the coffee can, starting at the lip of the can. Use the metal file to file the sharp edges.
Place the coffee can on the ground, open the balloon, and have an assistant hold the balloon on the can so it rests level.
Wrap a small amount of wire around the cotton wad, leaving enough wire to protrude to form a small hook. Moisten (not saturate) the cotton wad with rubbing alcohol, then seal the bottle of alcohol and move it to a safe place far from the balloon. Insert the cotton wad through the window of the coffee can and attach its wire hook to the criss-crossed wires in the center of the frame, so it hangs from the balloon into the coffee can.
With adult supervision and using the kindling match, carefully light the cotton, without igniting the tissue paper or posterboard loop. (Instead of using cotton, alcohol, and matches to heat up the air inside the balloon, you can use a blow dryer.)

What Happens
As hot air rises inside the tissue-paper balloon, the balloon fully inflates and rises from its coffee can launch pad. The balloon drifts upward until the flame goes out and air inside the balloon cools. If launched at night, the flame also illuminates the balloon, making it look like a UFO.

Why It Works
Heat rises. The hot air inside the balloon, lighter than the surrounding cool air, causes the balloon to rise.

Bizarre Facts

Weather balloons are commonly mistaken for UFOs.
The Bible includes the prophet Ezekiel's eyewitness account of an aerial chariot containing four-winged monsters and traveling on wheels within wheels in a stormy wind with flashes of fire. UFO enthusiasts believe Ezekiel was describing an alien space craft. Biblical scholars point out that Ezekiel describes each monster as having four faces unique to this planet: the face of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle.
When viewed from the sky, the Nazca lines—the gigantic markings made centuries ago on the plains of Nazca, Peru—can be clearly seen as enormous drawings of animals. While UFO enthusiasts suggest that these fantastic drawings were meant as signals for extraterrestrial visitors, archaeologists have shown that these drawings were ancient astronomers' method of tracking the constellations for agricultural purposes.
Seven percent of all Americans claim to have seen a UFO.
In the liner notes to his album Walls and Bridges, John Lennon claimed: "On the 23rd Aug. 1974 at 9 o'clock, I saw a U.F.O."
The "live long and prosper" hand gesture made by Mr. Spock on Star Trek is the hand gesture used by Jewish priests (kohanim) while saying certain prayers.
If NASA sent birds into space, they would die. Birds need gravity to swallow.
David Prowse, the actor dressed as Darth Vader in Star Wars, spoke all of Vader's lines as the movie was filmed. He did not know until he saw a screening of the movie that his voice had been dubbed over by James Earl Jones.
In the movie The Wizard of Oz, the Wizard claims "I'm an old Kansas man myself," yet he takes off from the Emerald City in a hot-air balloon painted with the words "Omaha State Fair," which could only take place in Nebraska—proving that he too is filled with hot air.

Unidentified Flying Button
UFO hoaxes are often perpetrated by trick photography. A photo of an alleged UFO taken by an airline pilot over Venezuela in 1965 fooled experts for six years—until an engineer in Caracas admitted that he had taken a photograph of a button, placed it over an aerial shot, rephotographed it, and burned in a shadow of the UFO during processing.

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