There's a group in Wisconsin who have been using the Simple Air Sensor to demo how particulate matter sensors work. I recently heard they've hit a couple learning moments with the tool. Professor Crispin Pierce told me:
"We had been testing with a couple of different types of coffee creamer dust, but when I brought in one sample, it did not change the colored light. It turns out that different brands have different consistencies and thus different PM2.5 emissions. I’ll do this demo on Friday to show that monitoring – not just assumptions about equal emissions from two similar-looking sources of dust (e.g., two different sand samples) – is necessary to determine PM2.5 levels."
I thought this was pretty interesting as a demo activity and did a little testing myself with one of the 2.5 Simple Air Sensors. I used a container to shake up different substances and opened it by the sensor. Check out the video below testing out sugar, flour, coffee, cocoa powder, and splenda.
Not all powders and granules are created equal!
Turns out if you really want a reaction, go for the cocoa powder!
Another time I tried the flour and it turned the light yellow, but this didn't happen each time.
Thanks for sharing this neat activity Professor Pierce and team (@OrionAllgaier and others) !