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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. Science tricks is amazing! 😛 love it.

  2. fully educative and interesting..! just awesome..!

  3. COOL i love science!!!

  4. nice!!!!!!!!!

  5. i really like the “Keep Water Separate” experiment!! I’m really impressed! i’m gonna use that experiment for my project, “actual experiment”. I hope my teacher would like it.

  6. the tricks are great that will encourage new invention

  7. i liked it tooo much!!!!!

  8. tooth pick trick is rocker……………

  9. all of the above worked and I showed this tricks in my class and all girls became just fan of me 🙂

  10. i like it awesome…………….

  11. toothpick torpedo only works in open water: }

  12. Ed (Edward) // June 20, 2013 at 10:23 am // Reply

    These tricks are sick, ace and mint

  13. these are so cool, i like love science ! 😮

  14. are there more ways to keep water seperate(with different liquids)? and…how is it usefull?

  15. well !! it works
    hope you have new tricks

  16. great…

  17. these are really great

  18. whoa… amizing tricks it’s working:)

  19. whoa… amizing tricks it’s working:)

  20. Fashion Queen // January 3, 2013 at 8:20 pm // Reply

    ♥Looooooooooove it!!!

  21. Wow

  22. i love this web, its fun learning and reading

  23. Slahclaw2000 // December 2, 2012 at 9:06 pm // Reply

    These tricks are sick!!!

  24. its cool!!!!!!!

  25. not workiiiiing!!

  26. An optimistic pessimist // November 1, 2012 at 6:04 pm // Reply

    it seems nice… gonna try it… hope it works… should have more…

  27. nice!!!!

  28. nc1 i caugh a lot of sci tricks

  29. I already tried some of the tricks here and they are great..can you put more new tricks? My students will love it! Thank you

  30. I love it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  31. Wow…awesum…learning is fun

  32. Cool magic tricks!

  33. keeping water separate is cool and bcoz of that, im the one who will represent it to our science fair

  34. It’s cool but old..

  35. the “Toothpick Torpedo” doesn’t work.. its fake..
    BTW, the “Egg into Bottle” is awesome.. gonna use it for
    the Sci-tricks..!! XD

  36. Well, for me, the ‘A Candle that Sucks Water’ is GREAT. And that is why I’m gonna use it in my presentation of a Sci-Trick. 🙂 Hope this will work. 🙂 Thanks anyway.

  37. I like it

  38. Cool but need new tricks.

  39. They’re cool but I need new tricks.

  40. awesome………………….

  41. its amazing you are great

  42. This is fantastic

  43. darksperms // July 31, 2012 at 6:35 am // Reply

    w0w amazing

  44. it so very amazingggggg!!!!!!!!!!

  45. Barbie Girl // July 26, 2012 at 5:54 pm // Reply

    This is terrific.

  46. ilove scince tricks=))

  47. whoa……!
    🙂

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