Science experiment - Cut Ice Cubes in Half Like Magic

Speed up the melting process of ice with the help of a little pressure. Cut a piece of ice in half like magic while learning how the process relates to ice skating.

What you'll need:

• One ice cube
• A piece of fishing line with a weight (the heavier the better) tied to each end
• A container
• Some kind of tray to keep things from getting wet

Instructions:

1. Turn the container upside down and put it on the tray.
2. Place the ice cube on top of the upside down container.
3. Rest the fishing line over the ice cube so that the weights are left dangling over the side of the container.
4. Watch it for around 5 minutes.

What's happening?

The pressure from the two weights pulls the string through the ice cube by melting the ice directly under the fishing line. This is similar to ice skating where the blades of a skater melt the ice directly underneath, allowing the skater to move smoothly on a thin layer of water.

Science experiment - Relax with Beautiful Bath Salts

Whether you're making a special present for someone else, experimenting at home or just want to relax in a hot bath, give this experiment a go. Create your own bath salts with a variety of refreshing fragrances, experiment with different essential oils to see which you like best.

What you'll need:

• 1 cup of washing soda
• A plastic bag
• A rolling pin (or something similar that can crush lumps)
• A bowl
• A spoon for stirring
• Essential oil
• Food coloring

Instructions:

1. Take the cup of washing soda and put it into a plastic bag. Crush the lumps with a rolling pin or similar object.
2. Empty the bag into a bowl and stir in 5 or 6 drops of your favorite essential oil such as rosemary, lavender or mint.
3. Stir in a few drops of food coloring until the mixture is evenly colored.
4. Put the mixture into clean dry containers and enjoy as you please.

What's happening?

Bath Salts are typically made from Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), table salt (sodium chloride) or washing soda (sodium carbonate). The chemical make up of the mixture makes it easy to form a lather. Bath salts are said to improve cleaning and deliver an appealing fragrance when bathing.

Science experiment - Make a Tornado in a Bottle

Learn how to make a tornado in a bottle with this fun science experiment for kids. Using easy to find items such as dish washing liquid, water, glitter and a bottle you can make your own mini tornado that’s a lot safer than one you might see on the weather channel. Follow the instructions and enjoy the cool water vortex you create!

What you'll need:

• Water
• A clear plastic bottle with a cap (that won't leak)
• Glitter
• Dish washing liquid

Instructions:

1. Fill the plastic bottle with water until it reaches around three quarters full.
2. Add a few drops of dish washing liquid.
3. Sprinkle in a few pinches of glitter (this will make your tornado easier to see).
4. Put the cap on tightly.
5. Turn the bottle upside down and hold it by the neck. Quickly spin the bottle in a circular motion for a few seconds, stop and look inside to see if you can see a mini tornado forming in the water. You might need to try it a few times before you get it working properly.

What's happening?

Spinning the bottle in a circular motion creates a water vortex that looks like a mini tornado. The water is rapidly spinning around the center of the vortex due to centripetal force (an inward force directing an object or fluid such as water towards the center of its circular path). Vortexes found in nature include tornadoes, hurricanes and waterspouts (a tornado that forms over water).

Science experiment - Make Glowing Water

Make glowing water with the help of a black light in this fun science experiment for kids.

Tonic water doesn't look very strange under normal light but what happens when you look at it under a black light? Does the dye from a highlighter pen do the same thing? Find out what happens and why it happens with this cool experiment that you can do at home.

What you'll need:

• A black light (you can find them at places like Walmart and hardware stores, as well as online stores like Amazon).
• Tonic water or a highlighter pen.
• A dark room to do the experiment.

Instructions:

1. If you are using a highlighter pen carefully break it open, remove the felt and soak it in a small amount of water for a few minutes.
2. Find a dark room.
3. Turn on the black light near your water, how does it look?

What's happening?

Simple explanation:

The ultra violet (UV) light coming from your black light lamp excites things called phosphors. Tonic water and the dye from highlighter pens contain phosphors that turn UV light (light we can’t see) into visible light (light we can see). That’s why your water glows in the dark when you shine a black light on it.

Black lights are used in forensic science, artistic performances, photography, authentication of banknotes and antiques, and in many other areas.

Detailed explanation:

Black light (also known as UV or ultra violet light) is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum also includes infrared, X-rays, visible light (what the human eye can see) and other types of electromagnetic radiation. A black light lamp such as the one you used emits a UV light that can illuminate objects and materials that contain phosphors. Phosphors are special substances that emit light (luminescence) when excited by radiation. Your water glowed under the black light because it contained phosphors. If you used a highlighter pen then the UV light reacted with phosphors in the dye. If you used tonic water then the UV light reacted with phosphors in a chemical used in tonic water called quinine.

There are different types of luminescence, they include fluorescence (used in this experiment, it glows only when the black light is on), phosphorescence (similar to fluorescence but with a glow that can last even after the black light is turned off), chemiluminescence (used to create glow sticks), bioluminescence (from living organisms) and many others.

Science experiment - Make Your Own Fake Snot

As disgusting as it might sound to some people, let's make some fake snot! Snot actually serves an important purpose in our body so this experiment is not all about grossing out our friends, although that's certainly part of the fun.

What you'll need:

• Boiling water (be careful with this)
• A cup
• Gelatin
• Corn syrup
• A teaspoon
• A fork

Instructions:

1. Fill half a cup with boiling water.
2. Add three teaspoons of gelatin to the boiling water.
3. Let it soften before stirring with a fork.
4. Add a quarter of a cup of corn syrup.
5. Stir the mixture again with your fork and look at the long strands of gunk that have formed.
6. As the mixture cools slowly add more water, small amounts at a time.

What's happening?

Mucus is made mostly of sugars and protein. Although different than the ones found in the real thing, this is exactly what you used to make your fake snot. The long, fine strings you could see inside your fake snot when you moved it around are protein strands. These protein strands make snot sticky and capable of stretching.

 

Science experiment - Raw or Boiled Egg?

Surprise your friends and family with an easy science experiment that answers an otherwise tricky question. Two eggs look and feel the same but there is a big difference, one is raw and the other hard boiled, find out which is which with this fun experiment.

What you'll need:

• Two eggs, one hard boiled and one raw. Make sure the hard boiled egg has been in the fridge long enough to be the same temperature as the raw egg.

Instructions:

1. Spin the eggs and watch what happens, one egg should spin while the other wobbles.
2. You can also lightly touch each of the eggs while they are spinning, one should stop quickly while the other keeps moving after you have touched it.

What's happening?

The raw egg's centre of gravity changes as the white and yolk move around inside the shell, causing the wobbling motion. Even after you touch the shell it continues moving. This is because of inertia, the same type of force you feel when you change direction or stop suddenly in a car, your body wants to move one way while the car wants to do something different. Inertia causes the raw egg to spin even after you have stopped it, this contrasts with the solid white and yolk of the hard boiled egg, it responds much quicker if you touch it.

This is a good experiment to test a friend or someone in your family with, see if they can figure out how to tell the difference between the eggs (without smashing them of course) before showing them your nifty trick.

Science experiment - Blowing Up Balloons With CO2

Chemical reactions make for some great experiments. Make use of the carbon dioxide given off by a baking soda and lemon juice reaction by funnelling the gas through a soft drink bottle and in to your awaiting balloon!

What you'll need:

• Balloon
• About 40 ml of water (a cup is about 250 ml so you don't need much)
• Soft drink bottle
• Drinking straw
• Juice from a lemon
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda

Instructions:

1. Before you begin, make sure that you stretch out the balloon to make it as easy as possible to inflate.
2. Pour the 40 ml of water into the soft drink bottle.
3. Add the teaspoon of baking soda and stir it around with the straw until it has dissolved.
4. Pour the lemon juice in and quickly put the stretched balloon over the mouth of the bottle.

What's happening?

If all goes well then your balloon should inflate! Adding the lemon juice to the baking soda creates a chemical reaction. The baking soda is a base, while the lemon juice is an acid, when the two combine they create carbon dioxide (CO2). The gas rises up and escapes through the soft drink bottle, it doesn't however escape the balloon, pushing it outwards and blowing it up. If you don't have any lemons then you can substitute the lemon juice for vinegar.

Science experiment - Baking Soda & Vinegar Volcano

Use baking soda and vinegar to create an awesome chemical reaction! Watch as it rapidly fizzes over the container and make sure you've got some towels ready to clean up.

What you'll need:

• Baking Soda (make sure it's not baking powder)
• Vinegar
• A container to hold everything and avoid a big mess!
• Paper towels or a cloth (just in case)

Instructions:

1. Place some of the baking soda into your container.
2. Pour in some of the vinegar
3. Watch as the reaction takes place!

What's happening?

The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is a base while the vinegar (acetic acid) is an acid. When they react together they form carbonic acid which is very unstable, it instantly breaks apart into water and carbon dioxide, which creates all the fizzing as it escapes the solution.

For extra effect you can make a realistic looking volcano. It takes some craft skills but it will make your vinegar and baking soda eruptions will look even more impressive!

Science experiment - Diet Coke & Mentos Eruption

One of the most popular experiments of modern times is the Diet Coke and Mentos Geyser. Made popular by Steve Spangler, this experiment is a lot of fun and sure to amaze your friends and family (assuming you do it outside rather than in the living room).

What you'll need:

• Large bottle of Diet Coke
• About half a pack of Mentos
• Geyser tube (optional but makes things much easier)

Instructions:

1. Make sure you are doing this experiment in a place where you won't get in trouble for getting Diet Coke everywhere. Outside on some grass is perfect, please don't try this one in your family lounge!!
2. Stand the Diet Coke upright and unscrew the lid. Put some sort of funnel or tube on top of it so you can drop the Mentos in at the same time (about half the pack is a good amount). Doing this part can be tricky if you don't have a specially designed geyser tube, I recommend buying one from a local store such as Natures Discoveries (NZ) or online.
3. Time for the fun part, drop the Mentos into the Diet Coke and run like mad! If you've done it properly a huge geyser of Diet Coke should come flying out of the bottle, it's a very impressive sight. The record is about 9 metres (29 feet) high!

What's happening?

Although there are a few different theories around about how this experiment works, the most favoured reason is because of the combination of carbon dioxide in the Diet Coke and the little dimples found on Mentos candy pieces.

The thing that makes soda drinks bubbly is the carbon dioxide that is pumped in when they bottle the drink at the factory. It doesn't get released from the liquid until you pour it into a glass and drink it, some also gets released when you open the lid (more if you shake it up beforehand). This means that there is a whole lot of carbon dioxide gas just waiting to escape the liquid in the form of bubbles.

Dropping something into the Diet Coke speeds up this process by both breaking the surface tension of the liquid and also allowing bubbles to form on the surface area of the Mentos. Mentos candy pieces are covered in tiny dimples (a bit like a golf ball), which dramatically increases the surface area and allows a huge amount of bubbles to form.

The experiment works better with Diet Coke than other sodas due to its slightly different ingredients and the fact that it isn't so sticky. I also found that Diet Coke that had been bottled more recently worked better than older bottles that might have lost some of their fizz sitting on shop shelves for too long, just check the bottle for the date.

Science experiment - Make Lemonade Fizzy Drink

There's a lot of people out there that like drinking fizzy drinks, so why not do a fun science experiment that leaves you with your own lemon soda to drink afterwards!

A bit of lemon here and a bit of baking soda there and before you know it you'll be an expert at making your own fizzy drinks. Make your own lemonade softdrink with this fun experiment for kids.

What you'll need:

• Lemon
• Drinking glass
• Water
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• Some sugar to make it sweet

Instructions:

1. Squeeze as much of the juice from the lemon as you can into the glass.
2. Pour in an equal amount of water as lemon juice.
3. Stir in the teaspoon of baking soda.
4. Give the mixture a taste and add in some sugar if you think it needs to be sweeter.

What's happening?

The mixture you created should go bubbly and taste like a lemonade, soda, fizzy or soft drink, if you added some sugar it might even taste like a lemon flavoured soft drink you've bought at a store. The bubbles that form when you add the baking soda to the lemon mixture are carbon dioxide (CO2), these are the same bubbles you'll find in proper fizzy drinks. Of course they add a few other flavored sweeteners but it's not much different to what you made. If you are wondering how the carbon dioxide bubbles formed, it was because you created a chemical reaction when you added the lemon (an acid) to the baking soda (a base).

Science experiment - Mixing Oil and Water

Some things just don't get along well with each other. Take oil and water as an example, you can mix them together and shake as hard as you like but they'll never become friends.....or will they? Take this fun experiment a step further and find out how bringing oil and water together can help you do your dishes.

What you'll need:

• Small soft drink bottle
• Water
• Food colouring
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
• Dish washing liquid or detergent

Instructions:

1. Add a few drops of food colouring to the water.
2. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the coloured water along with the 2 tablespoons of cooking oil into the small soft drink bottle.
3. Screw the lid on tight and shake the bottle as hard as you can.
4. Put the bottle back down and have a look, it may have seemed as though the liquids were mixing together but the oil will float back to the top.

What's happening?

While water often mixes with other liquids to form solutions, oil and water does not. Water molecules are strongly attracted to each other, this is the same for oil, because they are more attracted to their own molecules they just don't mix together. They separate and the oil floats above the water because it has a lower density.

If you really think oil and water belong together then try adding some dish washing liquid or detergent. Detergent is attracted to both water and oil helping them all join together and form something called an emulsion. This is extra handy when washing those greasy dishes, the detergent takes the oil and grime off the plates and into the water, yay!

Science experiment - Make a Big Dry Ice Bubble

Have fun making a dry ice bubble that will grow and grow as it fills with fog. This experiment is a great one for adults to do with kids. Add water to the dry ice, cover it with a layer of soapy water and watch your bubble grow, how big will it get before it bursts? Give it a try and find out!

What you'll need:

• Water
• A large bowl with a lip around the top (a smaller bowl or cup will work too)
• A strip of material or cloth
• Soapy mixture for making bubbles (water and some dishwashing liquid should do the trick)
• Dry ice - one piece for a cup, more for a bowl. Places where adults can buy dry ice include large grocery stores and Walmart. Butchers and ice cream stores might have some too.

Safety first! Be careful with dry ice as it can cause skin damage if not used safely. Adults should handle dry ice with gloves and avoid directly breathing in the vapor.

Instructions:

1. Place your dry ice in the bowl and add some water (it should start looking like a spooky cauldron).
2. Soak the material in your soapy mixture and run it around the lip of the bowl before dragging it across the top of the bowl to form a bubble layer over the dry ice.
3. Stand back and watch your bubble grow!

What's happening?

Dry ice is carbon dioxide (CO₂) in its solid form. At temperatures above -56.4 °C (-69.5 °F), dry ice changes directly from a solid to a gas, without ever being a liquid. This process is called sublimation. When dry ice is put in water it accelerates the sublimation process, creating clouds of fog that fill up your dry ice bubble until the pressure becomes too much and the bubble explodes, spilling fog over the edge of the bowl. Dry ice is sometimes used as part of theater productions and performances to create a dense foggy effect. It is also used to preserve food, freeze lab samples and even to make ice cream!

Science experiment - Melting Chocolate

Enjoy this simple melting chocolate experiment for kids. You've no doubt experienced chocolate melting on a hot day, so let's do some experiments to recreate these conditions as well as a few others before comparing results and coming to some conclusions.

At what temperature does chocolate go from a solid to a liquid? Is it different for white and dark chocolate? Give this fun science experiment a try and find out!

What you'll need:

• Small chocolate pieces of the same size (chocolate bar squares or chocolate chips are a good idea)
• Paper plates
• Pen and paper to record your results

Instructions:

1. Put one piece of chocolate on a paper plate and put it outside in the shade.
2. Record how long it took for the chocolate to melt or if it wasn't hot enough to melt then record how soft it was after 10 minutes.
3. Repeat the process with a piece of chocolate on a plate that you put outside in the sun. Record your results in the same way.
4. Find more interesting locations to test how long it takes for the chocolate pieces to melt. You could try your school bag, hot water or even your own mouth.
5. Compare your results, in what conditions did the chocolate melt? You might also like to record the temperatures of the locations you used using a thermometer so you can think about what temperature chocolate melts at.

What's happening?

At a certain temperature your chocolate pieces undergo a physical change, from a solid to a liquid (or somewhere in between). On a hot day, sunlight is usually enough to melt chocolate, something you might have unfortunately already experienced. You can also reverse the process by putting the melted chocolate into a fridge or freezer where it will go from a liquid back to a solid. The chocolate probably melted quite fast if you tried putting a piece in your mouth, what does this tell you about the temperature of your body? For further testing and experiments you could compare white choclate and dark chocolate, do they melt at the same temperature? How about putting a sheet of aluminium foil between a paper plate and a piece of chocolate in the sun, what happens then?

Science experiment - Design and Test a Parachute

Learn about air resistance while making an awesome parachute! Design one that can fall slowly to the ground before putting it to the test, making modifications as you go.

What you'll need:

• A plastic bag or light material
• Scissors
• String
• A small object to act as the weight, a little action figure would be perfect

Instructions:

1. Cut out a large square from your plastic bag or material.
2. Trim the edges so it looks like an octagon (an eight sided shape).
3. Cut a small whole near the edge of each side.
4. Attach 8 pieces of string of the same length to each of the holes.
5. Tie the pieces of string to the object you are using as a weight.
6. Use a chair or find a high spot to drop your parachute and test how well it worked, remember that you want it to drop as slow as possible.

What's happening?

Hopefully your parachute will descend slowly to the ground, giving your weight a comfortable landing. When you release the parachute the weight pulls down on the strings and opens up a large surface area of material that uses air resistance to slow it down. The larger the surface area the more air resistance and the slower the parachute will drop.

Cutting a small hole in the middle of the parachute will allow air to slowly pass through it rather than spilling out over one side, this should help the parachute fall straighter.

Science experiment - Make an Egg Float in Salt Water

An egg sinks to the bottom if you drop it into a glass of ordinary drinking water but what happens if you add salt? The results are very interesting and can teach you some fun facts about density.

What you'll need:

• One egg
• Water
• Salt
• A tall drinking glass

Instructions:

1. Pour water into the glass until it is about half full.
2. Stir in lots of salt (about 6 tablespoons).
3. Carefully pour in plain water until the glass is nearly full (be careful to not disturb or mix the salty water with the plain water).
4. Gently lower the egg into the water and watch what happens.

What's happening?

Salt water is denser than ordinary tap water, the denser the liquid the easier it is for an object to float in it. When you lower the egg into the liquid it drops through the normal tap water until it reaches the salty water, at this point the water is dense enough for the egg to float. If you were careful when you added the tap water to the salt water, they will not have mixed, enabling the egg to amazingly float in the middle of the glass.