• Question: im not to keen on science, what practacle would you recomend for me that i would enjoy

    Asked by matthewalvarez to Adam, Joanna, Louise S, Louise W, Marcus on 13 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Louise Stanley

      Louise Stanley answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      Here is an idea to try at home:

      Mix a teaspoon of cornflower (not normal flower though, you need the stuff you use to make gravy) with a teaspoon of cold water. Slowly mix them together and add more water until the mixture is a little bit thicker than single cream. Now, using the back of the teaspoon gently mix the liquid, it should move and pour around the plate like a liquid. If you move the teaspoon fast you will find that it suddenly becomes thicker and it is harder to move the teaspoon (if it doesn’t add a little bit more cornflower). When you stop pushing it should go back to liquid. So, is this a liquid or a solid? What is happening?

      Basically what is happening is that the grains of cornflower are made slippy by the water when you stir gently and they can move out of each others way. When you stir fast the water is pushed out of the way so the grains stick together and make a solid. Some companies are thinking about making body armour using this effect as it would bend and be comfy to wear but when something hits it it would go solid and protect you.

    • Photo: Joanna Giles

      Joanna Giles answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      Here is another one:

      You need:
      A clean 1 litre clear pop bottle
      3/4 cup of water
      Vegetable Oil
      Fizzy tablets (such as Alka Seltzer)
      Food colouring

      What to do:
      1- Pour the water into the bottle.

      2. Use a measuring cup or funnel to slowly pour the vegetable oil into the bottle until it’s almost full. You may have to wait a few minutes for the oil and water separate.

      3. Add 10 drops of food colouring to the bottle. The drops will pass through the oil and then mix with the water below.

      4. Break a tablet in half and drop the half tablet into the bottle. Watch it sink to the bottom and let the blobby greatness begin!

      5. To keep the effect going, just add another tablet piece.

      You should get a lava lamp effect, and you can shine a torch through the bottom of the bottle to make it even cooler!!

    • Photo: Adam Paige

      Adam Paige answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      this is not quite as impressive as the other suggestions, but when I was a teenager I read about triboluminescence. This is a small flash of light given out when chemical bonds get broken, and you can see it yourself if you crush sugar cubes in a dark room (I tried this with one of my brothers in our garden shed at night. It was faint, but definitely saw the light and it felt like such a cool experiment to be doing by myself as opposed to with my teachers at school). You can get the same effect from pulling scotch tape off the roll apparently.

      If you would like to try, there is an instruction video on http://www.bbc.co.uk/bang/handson/sugar_glow.shtml

    • Photo: Marcus Wilson

      Marcus Wilson answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      A really simple and fun( bacause you get to eat it afterwards) experiment to measure the speed of light.

      butter a piece of bread then put it in the microwave (take out the plate so it doesnt spin around). after about 20 seconds the butter will melt in spots. measure the distance between the spots in cm x200 and you’ve worked out the wavelegnth your microwave.

      Then multiply this by the frequency of the microwave, this is usually on a sticker on the inside, usually around 2500 Mhz. That means 2500 000 000 Hz.

      The really large number you get at the end is the speed of a light wave, it moves this distance in just one second, or 670 616 629 mph!

    • Photo: Louise Walkin

      Louise Walkin answered on 18 Nov 2012:

      Making slime is a favourite of mine!

      You need :

      a bottle of PVA glue
      food colouring (any colour you want – green works particularly well!)
      water
      Borax solution (a thickening reagent)

      Add some of the PVA glue to a plastic cup, then add a small amount (literally a couple of drops!) of water, then add some food colouring to make it exciting. The add some of your borax solution and watch the glue thicken to become very thick like mucus or slime. Leave it for about half a minute and then play away!

      It’s so simple but everyone I’ve shown it to loves it! 🙂

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