Tag - Arizona Science Center

March 9, 2009

Spangler Demonstrates Bed of Nails on Ellen DeGeneres

Huge thanks to the Arizona Science Center for allowing us to use their bed of nails demonstration on-air yesterday. The Arizona Republic ran this article.

Learn how to make your own bed of nails.

bed-of-nails-spangler-ellen-show-article

March 8, 2009

Props to the Arizona Science Center – Thanks for the Bed of Nails


You don’t just go to someone and say, “Hey, can I borrow your $45,000 Bed of Nail exhibit. No, seriously, I promise to bring it back.” But that’s exactly what happened…

The closing stunt on my last appearance on the Ellen Show was the Bed of Nails. Up to this point, I’ve never really been that excited about the traditional Bed of Nails demo because of the way you have to get the person on the nails. Normally, the volunteer gently sits down on the end and the lays their head on the pillow. As soon as the audience sees that the nails didn’t impale the volunteer’s bottom, the rest is boring.

azsciencecenterWe thought about various ways of making the Bed of Nails more exciting, but nothing hit home… until we found the ultimate Bed of Nails at the Arizona Science Center. The manufacturer is a company called Hands-On! out of Florida and these guys produce some of the best science exhibits you’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever visited a science center, you’ve probably experienced their work. In preparation for this

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March 7, 2009

Back to the Ellen Show – Fire Ball, Toilet Paper and a Bed of Nails

We’re back from another taping at the Ellen DeGeneres Show and we had a blast. I use the pronoun “we” because this taping required a team of people to orchestrate the final stunt… the Bed of Nails. This segment featured the Methane Bubble Fire Ball (always a crowd pleaser), a demonstration of Bernoulli’s Principle with floating ping-pong balls, beach balls and a new way to “TP” your friend’s house using a leaf blower (and who doesn’t like to decorate their friend’s home with toilet paper?). Learn more about all of the science demos.

The final science experiment was a demonstration of pressure… 4,538 points of pressure to be exact. The great people at the Arizona Science Center allowed us to borrow their Bed of Nails from their “Get Charged Up!” exhibit for the show. This was no easy task as the Bed of Nails (created by Hands-On exhibits in Flordia) weighs a mere 1,000 pounds. It’s by far the best Bed of Nails I’ve ever seen because the nails come up from the table. Just push the red button

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