The living force is all around us. Just kidding. Forces are all around us. In modern days people measure weight (mass) by pounds of kilograms, but here is some simple intructions on how to make some simple scales:
Get a large yogurt pot and tie four pieces of string evenly around the edge. Tie the ends of the strings together. Get a slightly longer piece and tie that to the knot you made. ATTACH the end of THAT string to a bent wire coat hangar (shape it so it has a hook on both ends and a kinds of pointer pointing outwards). Hook a rubber band onto the other end of the coat hanger and attach the other end of that onto a paper clip. *DEEP BREATH* hang it from a hook. It SHOULD look like this:
Gosh, are you still with me? Put a piece of paper behind it and start measuring wieght. Write them on the paper.
WHAT THE HECK'S GOIN' ON?
Well, remember Sir Isaac Newton? You know, the guy who had the apple fall on his head? He discovered gravity. These scales would not work without gravity. If gravity was not pulling everything back to Earth, they would just float around and not do much at all. Newton made up his own wieght measurment. 100g = 1N (Newton) and 1 kg (kilogram) = 10N. Simple.
I saw this on Bang Goes the Theory program, and it is REALLY STICKY! This is how to make it: Pour a cupful of milk into a saucepan and heat it up on the hob. Take it off when it starts to boil. Add a tablespoon of vinegar and stir the mixture. It will break up into curds. Strain the mixture over a jar, use a spoon to push it through if needed. Remove the curds from the strainer and place back into the saucepan on the hob. Add 100 ml (1/2 cup) of water and a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda. When it starts to bubble remove and use the mixture as the glue. (NOTE!! Please leave the glue (when applied) for 24 hours for it to dry). WHAT THE HECK'S GOIN' ON? By adding the vinegar to the milk, you have change the composition of the liquid, and by leaving it to set, it turns into a solid, holding two objects together.
YAY I'm gunna be RICH! Just kidding. They are only salt crystals. What do you do? Fill two jars with HOT water. Then put about 6 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda in each. They will fizz. Now cut a long piece of wool (ANY colour. I mean, it doesn't matter, does it?) about the length of your arm. Tie a paper clip to each end and put each end in each jar. (sheesh.) The paper clips will keep each end in the jars. Put a small plate between the jars and leave for 1 week. That is what the book says, I say leave it for more.
HA HA HA! Crystals! They are forming on the wool, see?
A few weeks later, this is what it looked like:
Cool, huh? The water had drained from one jar into the other one. We don't know why.
Hi again! Recently I did an awesome science experiment with pressure. I filled a 2 litre drink bottle with water, then cut out a person shape out of plastic and attached a pen lid to his head with a paper clip. Put the person in the bottle, put the lid on, and...DAH-DUM-DAAAAH...I squeezed the bottle and he SANK! I let go and he FLOATED! Here is a picture...
Can you see him? You can draw a background too, and sticky it to the back of the bottle.
WHAT THE HECK IS GOIN' ON?
Well, an air bubble get trapped in the pen lid when the diver dives into the bottle. Squeeze the bottle, and water gets shoved into the pen lid and squishifies the air bubble, letting water in, so he sinks. (Ahh!) When you release the bottle, the air bubble goes back to normal size again, pushed the water out of the pen lid, making the diver float! Amazing.
A few days ago I did this really interesting experiment, where I tested to see how flouride (F) in toothpaste can protect your teeth from ACID ATTACK (dum-dum-daaaarrr).
First I filled a small bowl with toothpaste (make sure the toothpaste has flouride in it). Then put the egg in it so only half the egg is covered. Leave it there for four days.
AFTER four days take the egg out and gently wash it. Put the egg in a cup of white whine vinegar. Recommended to leave it in the cup for seven hours, but we did it over night.
This is the egg in the vinegar.
AFTER seven hours OR over night, take it out. The egg should have one side (the one with no toothpaste on) all squashy and squishy, and the other side (the one WITH toothpaste) should be very hard. It was squashy squishy because it had no protection from the flouride, and the acid melted the shell which is made up of calcium, like a tooth.
SO brushing your teeth with toothpaste that has flouride in it does help to protect your teeth from ACID ATTACK (dum-dum-daaaarrr). Since the 1960s, flouride is also sometimes added to drinking water, to help people to protect their teeth.
This is the egg after being taken out of the vinegar.
Today I made a boat made of only four things: Acetate, cardboard, leaves, and masking tape. What I did:
I first cut out the shape of the boat on acetate. Then I put on the cardboard sides and covered the whole thing in masking tape. Then, if you want, cover it (again) all over with silver foil. Note: if you cover it in foil, it will make it water-proof but you will not be able to have the sails.
To make the sails, find three dock leaves. Make sure one of them are smaller than the other two. Then tape them into the boat.
Fill 1/2 big bowl with water and put the boat in. Does it float? Yes? If it does, try to modify it so it can hold 25 pennies and still float for ten seconds.
FOR MORE COOL THINGS THAT YOU CAN BUILD, GO TO DESIGN SQUAD!
The plans (I didn't do the figurehead.)
Today I built a rubber band powered car. I followed the instructions and after a few tries it didn't work very well. THEN I had a GREAT idea. It was this: TIGHTEN the wheels to the axel with masking tape instead of blue tack or poster putty. Then we had a couple more tries and IT WORKED!
For more AWESOME things that you can build, go to DESIGN SQUAD!
Here's a picture:
How this car is powered:
When you turn the rubber band, you are creating potential energy, which is stored in the rubber band. When you let go of the rubber band, the potential energy turns into kinetic energy, which is movement. The more potential energy you have, the farther your car will go.
Try taping a tennis ball to it and try to make it carry it!
Here is a picture of the same car, but modified to have a tennis ball on it:
When we tried it with the ball on, it hardly went anywhere. See if you can make your's do better! (Personally I think a baloon would be better than a rubber band.)