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Amazing Science Tricks with Common Household Items

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Using common objects around the house, you can demonstrate cool scientific laws. Here’s how:


Keeping Water Separate

keepingwatersep1.jpgFill two identical glasses with water. Add two tablespoons of salt to the water in one glass and stir well. Add a few drops of food coloring to the water in the other glass.

Cover the glass containing the colored water with a sheet of paper, turn it upside down and place it on top of the glass containing salt water. (Be sure to do this trick over a saucer or bowl.)

Gently pull the paper out from between the glasses. The colored water and the salt water will remain separate.

 

keepingwatersep2.jpgHow Does It Work?

Salt water is heavier than colored water, so the two stay separate as long as the boundary between them isn’t disturbed. Try turning the two glasses over, though. The heavier salt water will now be on top, so it will flow down and mix with the colored water.


A Can That Can “Walk”

walkingcanjb2.jpgPlace an empty aluminum can on its side on the floor. Blow up a balloon and tie a knot in the end. Rub a tissue back and forth on the balloon.

When you put the balloon near the can, the can will start rolling toward the balloon.

How Does It Work?

When you rub the balloon with a tissue, the balloon gets a negative electric charge of several thousand volts. When you put the balloon near the can, electrostatic induction affects the molecules in the metal. The outside of the can gets a positive charge, so it is drawn toward the balloon and starts rolling in that direction.


A Candle That Sucks Water

candlethatsuckswater1.jpgPlace a candle upright in the middle of a saucer. Fill the saucer with water. Light the candle. Place a glass over the candle. When the flame goes out, the water in the saucer will get sucked into the glass.

 

candlethatsuckswater2.jpgHow Does It Work?

When the candle is burning inside the glass, the heat makes the air expand, so some of the air escapes outside the glass. The candle goes out after it uses up all the oxygen, so the air inside the glass cools. As it cools, the pressure inside the glass drops. Some of the carbon dioxide formed by the flame dissolves in the water as well, decreasing the pressure even more. The water outside the glass on the saucer is forced into the glass by the higher aire pressure outside.


A Flying Trash Bag

flyingtrashbag1jb2.jpgHold the mouth of a black trash bag in one hand. Use a hair dryer to blow hot air into the bag.

Seal the mouth of the bag with tape. Tie a long piece of string around the tape so you can hold it. Take the bag out into the sun. The bag will rise slowly into the air. (It’s best to do this trick in an open area on a windless day.)

 

flyingtrashbagjb2.jpgHow Does It Work?

Since the bag is black, it absorbs heat from the sun. That heat makes the air inside the bag expand and become lighter. When the bag and the air inside are lighter than the surrounding air, the bag starts to rise.


Bending Light Through Water

bendinglight1jb2.jpgPunch a hole in a clear plastic bottle two inches from the bottom. Put your finger over the hole, fill the bottle with water and cap it to keep it from draining out.

Darken the room and cover part of a flashlight with your fingers to make the beam narrower. When you take the cap off the bottle, the water will flow out in an arc. Shine the flashlight at the stream from the side of the bottle opposite the hole. The light will bend with the arc and create a bright glow where the water hits the sink.

 

bendinglight2jb2.jpgHow Does It Work?

When the light in the stream strikes the boundary between the water and air, much of the light is reflected back into the stream. The light continues this internal reflection all along the arc formed by the falling water. The same principle is used to transmit light signals through flexible optical fibers.


Reading Through an Envelope

readingthruenv1jb2.jpgWith a black felt-tip pen, write a three-letter word in large letters on a white piece of paper. Place the paper in a brown envelope, and insert that envelope into a white envelope. The writing on the paper should now be impossible to read.

Get a piece of dark construction paper or tear out a page from a magazine that is printed on both sides. Roll up the paper into a four-inch-long tube. When you hold the tube against the envelope, you’ll be able to read the writing inside.

 

readingthruenv2jb2.jpgHow Does It Work?

Usually you can’t read the writing inside an envelope because of the light reflected off the envelope’s white surface. But the tube blocks that reflected light, so you see only the light coming through the envelope.


Egg Into Bottle

eggthrubottle1jb2.jpgFind a glass bottle that has a mouth slightly smaller in diameter than an egg. Pour some hot water into the bottle (be careful!), shake it vigorously and empty the water.

Peel a soft-boiled egg and place it on the mouth of the bottle. Leave it there for a while and it will get sucked inside.

 

eggthrubottle2jb2.jpgHow Does It Work?

The vapor from the hot water drives the air out of the bottle. Once the egg seals the top of the bottle, the air can’t get back in. As the water vapor cools, it turns back into water, causing the pressure inside the bottle to drop. The higher pressure of the outside air pushes the egg into the bottle.


Toothpick Torpedo

toothpicktorpedo1jb2.jpgDab a little shampoo on the blunt end of a wooden toothpick.

Drop the toothpick in a pan of water. The toothpick will start moving in the direction of the sharp end.

 

toothpicktorpedo2jb2.jpgHow Does It Work?

Shampoo contains agents that reduce the surface tension of liquids. As the shampoo on the end of the toothpick dissolves, it reduces the water’s surface tension around it, thus releasing the water’s hold on that end of the toothpick. The water around the other end of the toothpick still has surface tension, so it pulls the toothpick in that direction.


To learn more amazing science tricks, check out the book “Amazing Science Tricks” by Michio Goto

50 Comments on Amazing Science Tricks with Common Household Items

  1. some tricks are inpossible but also some are cool and great!!1

  2. xoxo*EnEn*xoxo // October 8, 2009 at 6:16 am // Reply

    Wow really cool !!!!!Thanks now i have a science tricks i can present to my classmates!!!!

  3. lyn love of my lyf // October 3, 2009 at 9:50 pm // Reply

    …wow itz so fantastico…

  4. THANKS FOR THE TRIKS CUZ IT REALLY HELP ME WHEN IM NEEDING A SIMPLE TRICKS, THANKS

  5. i like it:)

  6. cool

  7. nicee tricks. 🙂

  8. wow this is cool

  9. cool! i use that in my project lol!

  10. Wow!now i have something for
    my science trick in our science subject. tnx

  11. Wey this is so cool I’m using this for my projects

  12. Thnx now i can have my project hope i will pass

  13. wow!♥♥♥♥♥

  14. Amazing!

  15. thank for giving us an amazing science tricks!

  16. i did not understand

  17. wow!thats amazing science tricks

  18. wow this tricks r so awesome 😀 :] :[

  19. Ill use this as my Science trick its very nice and also has an explination and it really works i love it very much!>>> 😀

  20. handsome levi // September 15, 2009 at 5:16 am // Reply

    it’s really amazing. now i have something for
    my science trick in our science subject. tnx
    d(x_x)b

  21. well its good…amazing..

  22. wow.thats cool..u have other tricks???…….thank you..:)

  23. nice;cool…
    thnx alot…

  24. ..thank you very much..
    it was so cool..
    now i have something new to present to our science fair
    it is very helpful to us;)

  25. it helps me a lot in my project
    …super…

  26. nice, now a i have something to present to our science fair

  27. tnx for the cool trixx!! now i have something to present in our presentation^^ !!

  28. it was nice…tnxxxx

  29. “That is very amazing”

  30. hahaha
    so easy to do
    possible to do!!!

  31. thankz 4 amazing trickz @ we njoy to do thz

  32. hmmmmm its really cool…. really awesome… i learn new tricks… its really great… tnx for ur tricks michio goto

  33. …so nice tricks
    ….

  34. nice tricks

  35. awesome trick they’re so simple to do

  36. Really good tricks. One of my favorites is the first one with separating the 2 waters. Thanks for the tricks!

  37. it so difficult 2 do……amf!

  38. that was sooooo cool

  39. ,..reaLLy niCcEE!!!!!!!!!,..

  40. its really amazing yet so simple….
    nice ha,,,,

  41. very nice and amazing..it’s so easy to do..thanks a lot..promise i will try it at home…..

  42. thanks for sharing this tricks.it helps my project.thank you so much.:D

  43. bitterain'tsweet // August 15, 2009 at 7:30 pm // Reply

    its cool…hope no one’s gonna use them

  44. this tricks are amazing !!!! I’m sure that I’ll get the highest grade in the class !!! thanks

  45. i hope that my presentation in our school will not be disame with my classmates tricks but thank u!!!!! i will practice this

  46. wow it help me with my project thank u for giving this easy tricks

  47. Thanks! u gave me nd lil bro something to do 2day! Im so glad tht i thought to look on here! this stuff is amazing!

  48. thanks have a projest now

  49. the science tricks are all really amazing, interesting , and easy to do! im gonna try it later.

  50. it was so cool

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