When I was about 4 years old, I watched a kids television show called "Romper Room". We only got one station in Cheyenne, Wyoming, but this station carried this program, a pre-runner to Sesame Street. One day, the teacher showed how water would disappear from a glass if you left it alone. I thought this was a trick, and could not possible be true! I attempted to duplicate the experiment.

I got a glass from the kitchen, filled it with water, and placed it near a wall behind the sofa in the living room. A few days later, I went back to check on the glass, and it was gone! My mother was always a super-cleaner. She noticed the glass of water, picked it up, and washed it in the kitchen. My first experiment was ruined. I complained to my mom that I was doing an experiment to see if water would disappear, but she thought a clean house was more important. I must have lost interest, or thought that I could never get the glass to stay put, or maybe someone told me about evaporation. I put the experiment aside.

As I celebrate a stellar career as an experimental physicist, I fondly recall my first real experiment, and decided it was time to repeat it.

I got a real glass from the kitchen, filled it about 2/3 full of water, and placed it near a wall behind a sofa. This time, I was able to document the initial setup. It looks as close to the original experiment as I could remember.