Melty Chocolate Nina and the Neurons

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help Cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses While helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes.

-Eyes!

-Ears.

-Ears!

-Nose.

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke, he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells And Belle, she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother He helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little neurons And they're coming to your place!

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes.

-Eyes!

-Ears.

-Ears!

-Nose.

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh yeah! #

Oh, hello.

I'm using my thermometer to measure how hot these beakers are

to find out which of these materials will keep my tea hot

because every time I try and have a cup of tea...

BLEEP! BLEEP!

..that happens.

I hear a beep, I see a flash. I wonder what they're going to ask.

ALL: Hi, Nina!

Hello.

We've got a question for you.

Why does chocolate melt in our hands?

What a fantastic question!

Why does chocolate melt in our hands?

Come to the lab and do some experiments to investigate.

-ALL: See you soon, Nina!

-Bye!

I'll need some help to answer this one and I know just who to ask.

OK, neurons. Time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK, today's question is why does chocolate melt in our hands?

Which neuron do you think will help us find the answer?

-Me! Me!

-Oh, me!

-Me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much if you need the sense of touch.

Will it be beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear. If there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

Will it be lovely Luke?

For looking and seeing, day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's whiffy, but you can't tell,

my messages help your sense of smell.

-Or will it be baby Bud?

-Sour, salty, bitter or sweet,

I'm your taste buddy when you eat.

It's Bud and Ollie!

CHEERING

Go, Ollie! Go, Bud! Go, Ollie! Go, Bud!

Go, Ollie! Go, Bud!

Yippee! It's you and me, sis.

Stand by for a taste and smellathon.

Today's question is why does chocolate melt in our hands?

Chocolate is something we taste and smell,

so I chose Bud and Ollie to help us.

I'd better get the lab ready before the experimenters arrive.

Bronte likes history,

Ruby collects shells,

and Sakshi loves dressing up,

but they all want to know about melting chocolate,

so today, Bronte, Ruby and Sakshi become the experimenters!

ALL: Hi, Nina!

Come on in! Welcome to my science lab.

It's lovely to see you all.

Your question is why does chocolate melt in our hands?

Why do you want to know?

When I touch chocolate, it melts in my hands.

-Sometimes it comes on my clothes.

-And mine.

Oh, no! That happens to me too!

I think we have some messy investigating ahead of us.

For our first experiment, we'll use our senses.

ALL: Whoop-woo! A senses experiment! We're ready, Nina!

OK, guys. We're going to pick up

a piece of chocolate and hold it in our hands

to see if we can melt it, OK?

But no eating!

And hold it in your hand.

Mm-mm! Chocolate!

-What does the chocolate feel like?

-Gooey.

The chocolate is changing from being hard to being runny,

almost like a liquid.

When something changes from a hard solid to a runny liquid,

we say it's melting.

Does it still smell like chocolate?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Yes.

So melted chocolate still smells and tastes like chocolate.

Hey! How do we know it still tastes like chocolate?

Oh, well, that's a good point, Bud.

I suppose, for scientific research, maybe we should taste the chocolate.

Yay!

Mm! Oh, it definitely tastes like chocolate. What do you think?

I'll take that as a yes. Ha-ha!

We've learned that melted chocolate

is the same as hard chocolate, just runnier.

Oh! I think we'd better get washed before the next experiment.

We know chocolate melts in our hands.

What else can you think of that melts?

Snow and ice lollies.

-Ice cubes.

-Ice cream.

Yes. Oh, now, here's the wrapper from the chocolate earlier.

What do you think that's made of?

-Tin?

-Silver?

Yeah, it's a type of metal - really, really thin metal.

-You couldn't melt this in your hand, could you?

-ALL: No!

-And why not?

-Cos metal doesn't melt in your hands.

I was hoping you might say that.

I have something that might surprise you,

so goggles on and follow me.

What's Nina talking about? We can't melt metal in our hands.

Oh, maybe Nina's got superpowers!

No, Bud, I don't have superpowers, but I do have a very special metal

that you guys won't ever have seen before.

This metal in here is called mercury.

We've got to be very careful with mercury because it's bad for us.

I don't want the glass to break.

I've been keeping it really cold.

Let's see what happens when it warms up again.

What does the mercury look like now?

-Hard.

-Yes, it's quite hard, isn't it?

-Silver.

-Yeah, it's a lovely silvery colour.

Look!

It's starting to melt. Can you see that?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

It's like silvery water.

-LUKE:

-That is way cool!

-Mercury's different from most metals.

It melts easily, even at room temperature.

What is temperature, Nina?

Temperature means how hot or cold something is,

so room temperature means as warm as a room.

This experiment shows a room is warm enough to melt mercury.

We need to take a trip to somewhere really hot,

-so let's go, experimenters, and find out more about melting!

-Yay!

Here we go!

I can't wait to see where we'll end up today.

-Nina said we're going somewhere hot. Maybe we're going...

-To the seaside!

-Pack your swimming trunks, Felix!

-It doesn't smell like the seaside.

Let me just check where we're meant to be.

Excuse me.

Em, excuse me.

-She's not saying very much, is she?

-She's a statue, Nina!

Oh! Oh, so she is. Silly me! What do you think she's made of?

Some kind of metal?

That's right! This statue is made of a type of metal called bronze.

To make the statue, the bronze is melted.

Follow me, experimenters.

Although they're both metals,

bronze is not like the mercury we saw in my lab.

Bronze needs to be very, very, very hot to melt,

so these bronze bars need to be put into

a special sort of oven called a furnace. It's incredibly hot!

To be safe, we're standing well back.

The solid bronze bars have melted in the red-hot furnace

and turned into runny liquid bronze.

One, two, three - up!

Why are the men carrying it like that, Nina?

The melted bronze is really, really hot

so they're carrying it on those long rods so they won't get burnt.

They're pouring the hot, melted bronze into a mould,

a bit like when we make jelly.

The mould is the shape the statue will be.

When the bronze cools down, it will become hard again

and they'll have a hard bronze statue like our silent friend.

We've discovered some things, like bronze,

need to be very, very hot to melt,

but we still don't know why chocolate melts in our hands.

We need to do one final experiment.

Come on, guys, let's go back to the lab.

We know chocolate melts in our hands.

Let's get experimenting to find out why.

-ALL: Yeah!

-OK.

Bronte, you have three candles in front of you.

Ruby has three pieces of butter. Sakshi, you have the chocolate.

Take one of your experiment items

and sit it in the middle of this mat.

Next, we'll place our second item onto this metal plate.

The metal plate is hotter than room temperature

because it's sitting on hot water, so I'll be very careful.

Hot water can burn, you know.

Thank you and a piece of chocolate

and a candle.

Great.

And finally, can you please pick up your last item,

hold it in your hand and I'm going to see if we can melt it.

Let's have a look and see what's happening on the metal plate.

I'll use Nina-cam.

Oh! It's all runny now!

So the metal plate was hot enough to melt everything.

How are your hands doing?

Oh! Ooh!

It's getting a bit messy.

-How's your candle, Bronte?

-Hard.

Hmm. So the heat from your hands

was warm enough to melt butter and chocolate,

but not a candle.

What's happening on the mat?

-My butter's melting.

-It's getting all gooey round the bottom,

but the chocolate and candle are still hard.

So room temperature is only warm enough to melt the butter.

Your hands are warm enough to melt butter and chocolate,

but the plate over the hot water is hot enough to melt all three.

# Nina and the Neurons. #

Your question was why does chocolate melt in our hands

and I think we've answered it.

We discovered that when things melt,

they change from a hard solid to a runny liquid

and most things melt - even hard metals like bronze.

Different things melt at different temperatures.

Some things melt at room temperature, like butter,

but other things, like chocolate, need more heat to melt.

Our hands are warmer than the room, warm enough to melt chocolate.

-I hope that's answered your question.

-ALL: Thanks, Nina. Bye!

Bye!

If you want to know more about the science all around us,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website. Have fun!

Lab coat on, Nina?

Lab coat on, Ollie.

Safety gloves on, Nina?

Safety gloves on, Felix.

And don't forget your goggles, Nina.

Goggles are on, Luke. I think we're ready!

# We do experiments in the lab

-# In the lab

-Shooby-dooby in the lab

# Bubbling experiments in the lab

-# In the lab!

-Go, Nina, in the lab

# Fizzing and popping Steam and smoke

# We need protection Don't we, folks?

# We always put our safety first

# Shooby-dooby-dooby-dooby

# We do experiments in the lab

# In the lab!

# Go, Nina! #

It's been a marvellous day.

The melted chocolate felt all gooey and sticky.

I've had a fabby day!

The chocolate tasted just as yummy melted.

I've had a brilliant day,

hearing all about how statues are made by melting metal.

I really enjoyed myself today.

The butter melted really quickly and smelled delicious.

Our day's been bursting with sensational experiments.

I hope you enjoyed it. Bye!

ALL: Bye!

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