Science demo ideas
Diet coke and Mentos
- Materials:
- 2L bottles of diet soft drinks
- Mentos
- "Depth charge" dispenser?
- Nozzle?
Liquid nitrogen tricks
- Liquid nitrogen ice cream
- Superconductivity
- Materials:
- Liquid nitrogen
- Dewar
- Small transport bottle
- Superconductor (have)
- Small magnet(s) (have)
- Tweezers (have)
- Shallow, heavy walled styrofoam dish, eg cooler top (probably time
to replace)
Blue bottle reaction
- Clear solution turns blue when shaken, fades out, can repeat
- Materials:
- NaOH (soap grade should be OK, lab grade better)
- Methylene Blue (have)
- Glucose (corn syrup)
- Distilled water
- Flask(s) (have)
Microscopy
- Should we whip out the compound this time?
Instant snow
Pyrolytic graphite
diamagnetism
- Materials
- Graphite (should have *somewhere*)
- 6x cube magnets (ditto)
Optical illusions?
Mechanics of levers and
pulleys
Vibrating strings
Chromatography
- Materials:
- Some real chromatography paper
- Markers, water and non-water based (have)
- Alchohol (have)
Vinegar/baking soda
- Maybe pop corks or something? Should be kid-doable.
Fire: CO2 quench / O2 enhance
Solar "furnace"
- Materials:
- Fresnel lens (have 8.5x11, or get old rear projection TV)
Singing pipe
- Iron pipe makes noise when held over a burner
- Sound can be "poured" out of and back into the pipe
- Materials:
- 24" iron drain pipe, 1.5" to 2" dia.
- Wire gauze
- Propane burner (have)
Van de Graaff generator
- Materials:
- Stainless sphere (have)
- 4" ABS drain pipe (have)
- Rollers (PVC and teflon). One driven, one free.
- Belt (from vinyl)?
- Combs
- Small motor (1/3 hp or less, 1200 RPM or so)
- Base (plywood or summat)
- Misc hardware
3D printer and/or eggbot
Singing rod
- Aluminum rod makes a really annoying sound
- Materials:
- 24" x 5/8" aluminum rod
- Rosin
Sulfur Hexafluoride boat
- Boat or other small object floats on invisible gas; appears to float
on air
- Materials:
- Sulfur hexafluoride
- Regulator (may have... probably not)
- Hose
- Fish tank (have unless in use)
- Toy boat
- If we can get some O2 into it, do a voice demo (see helium...)
- Problem: SF6 is 24000 times (!) as strong a greenhouse gas as C02.
One half-pound lecture bottle has greenhouse potential on the order of
burning 100 tanks of gas (eep!)
Sugar/H2SO4 "snake"
Flaming sound wave demo (Rubens'
tube)
- Standing sound waves in a propane-filled pipe cause varying flame
heights.
- Materials:
- Iron pipe
- Diameter approx. 8cm to 10cm
- Length approx 2m to 3m
- Holes approx 1.4mm to maybe 2mm max (1.4 seems most common)
- Hole spacing 3cm to 4 cm
- Pipe cap
- Nitrile or similar membrane (from a glove)
- Small speaker
- Something to drive the speaker
- 1/4" NPT pipe nipple, brass
- Nuts and gaskets to secure nipple in pipe cap
- Propane regulator (have)
- Propane (have)
Heliox/Helium voice
- Materials:
- Helium
- Oxygen
- Regulators for both
- 2x flowmeter
- Bubbler/humidifier
- Possibly oil trap etc.
- Mask
- Random hoses and fittings
General PPE
- Safety glasses
- Child safety glasses
- Face shields
- Earplugs
- Heavy nitrile gloves
- Welding gloves
