September 27th is Crush A Can Day and it’s a day to serve as a reminder that we CAN recycle our aluminum CANS! We love recycling and we’ve got a hot way to do it, with the help of science. This is an experiment we recommend doing at home! All you need is a can,
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An Oudin coil can take the energy out of your outlet and create sparks you can see! It’s sometimes called a mini tesla coil. The sparks on them usually look violet. If you know the visible light spectrum, you might know that violet light is the most energetic color of light. The oudin coil looks
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At first glance, a Tippe Top looks like a normal spinning top. A few moments after you spin it however, the tippe top flips over and begins spinning on its thin stem, raising its center of mass upwards! This marvel of a toy stumped physicists and was popular among many well-known figures in the mid-1900s.
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CAUTION: This experiment uses dry ice (-109˚F) and liquid nitrogen (-321˚F). Proper safety equipment should always be used when handling these substances. Physics tells us that pressure, volume and temperature are all linked when talking about gases. So what does this have to do with solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) and liquid nitrogen? When dry
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Electricity is one of the most useful discoveries of our relatively recent history. It lights the rooms we hang out in, give power to some vehicles and allows for communication across vast distances. In 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta discovered that particular chemical reactions could produce electricity so he constructed the voltaic pile (an early
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You’ve already seen the way a no-flinch pendulum works, so now we are changing it up. This contraption is host to many pendulums next to each other but not touching. When you raise them up and let them go all at once, you can see something truly mesmerizing. They will all start to fall at
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Light, it’s properties, and the ways it can be manipulated are as fascinating as they are beautiful. It can be bent, slowed down, absorbed, and reflected. It turns out that the study of optics looks into all of these different interactions. But what happens when you want to mix the science of optics with a
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Geodes, seemingly ordinary rocks hiding pockets of crystals inside, have fascinated amateur geologists for centuries, but did you know you can make your own geodes with just what’s in your kitchen? Materials: Eggs Something to hold the eggs (a piece of the carton works well for this) Water-soluble solid (salt, sugar, baking soda, etc.) Food
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It is no surprise that we experience and use scientific phenomenons every day. But, did you know that our eyes do that too? At camp, we have a science experiment that demonstrates how our eyes take in light. This hole in the wall is a great model for an eye. Your eye has a few major
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The relationship between electricity and magnetism is as old as space and time, but is a complicated one. As light propagates, electricity and magnetism flow in and out of each other, forever connected. This connection can allow for some pretty interesting phenomenons in physics. Due to induction, we can get the “train” to propel forward.
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Oil and water won’t mix no matter how hard you try. They have different densities and different polarities. But what happens when you mix oil and milk? Milk is an emulsion. It is made of mostly water with lipids throughout. Lipids are organic compounds that are fatty acids or their derivatives and are insoluble in
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Most stone is made over millions of years, cooked in the core of our planet. That stone then erodes over time due to wind, acids found in rain and groundwater, and other natural weatherings. Chalk is a type of limestone formed by the shells of microscopic marine organisms. The process of erosion can produce beautiful
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