Science experiments book free download pdf

Uploaded by Dale Nestle on February 26, Internet Archive's 25th Anniversary Logo. Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. When showing other people how it works, stir slowly and drip the quick sand to show it is a liquid. Stirring it quickly will make it hard and allow you to punch or poke it quickly this works better if you do it fast rather than hard.

Always stir instant quicksand just before you use it! If you add just the right amount of water to cornflour it becomes very thick when you stir it quickly. Stirring slowly allows more water between the cornflour grains, letting them slide over each other much easier. Poking it quickly has the same effect, making the substance very hard. It works in much the same way as real quick sand.

Banteer National School 35 Mr. Watch as it rapidly fizzes over the container and make sure you've got some towels ready to clean up. Place some of the baking soda into your container.

Pour in some of the vinegar 3. Watch as the reaction takes place! 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!

Banteer National School 36 Mr. 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.

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. 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. 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.

Banteer National School 37 Mr. 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. 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.

Find a dark room. Turn on the black light near your water, how does it look? Simple explanation: The ultra violet UV light coming from your black light lamp excites things called phosphors. 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.

Banteer National School 38 Mr. Banteer National School 39 Mr. Create your own bath salts with a variety of refreshing fragrances, experiment with different essential oils to see which you like best. Take the cup of washing soda and put it into a plastic bag. Crush the lumps with a rolling pin or similar object. Empty the bag into a bowl and stir in 5 or 6 drops of your favourite essential oil such as rosemary, lavender or mint.

Stir in a few drops of food colouring until the mixture is evenly coloured. Put the mixture into clean dry containers and enjoy as you please. 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. Banteer National School 40 Mr.

Try growing your own sample of bacteria while monitoring how it reproduces in a short space of time. Compare your original sample with others and get proof that bacteria truly are everywhere! Prepare your petrie dish of agar. Using your cotton bud, swab a certain area of your house i. Rub the swab over the agar with a few gentle strokes before putting the lid back on and sealing the petrie dish.

Allow the dish to sit in a warm area for 2 or 3 days. Check the growth of the bacteria each day by making an observational drawing and describing the changes. Try repeating the process with a new petrie dish and swab from under your finger nails or between your toes.

Dispose of the bacteria by wrapping up the petrie dish in old newspaper and placing in the rubbish don't open the lid. The agar plate and warm conditions provide the ideal place for bacteria to grow. The microorganisms on the plate will grow into individual colonies, each a clone of the original. The bacteria you obtained with the cotton bud grows steadily, becoming visible with the naked eye in a relatively short time. Different samples produce different results, what happened when you took a swab sample from your own body?

You will find bacteria throughout the Earth, it grows in soil, radioactive waste, water, on plants and even animals too humans included. Thankfully for us, our immune system usually does a great job of making bacteria harmless. Banteer National School 41 Mr. This easy experiment shows that you can only dissolve a certain amount and that this changes as the water gets hotter.

Make sure the glasses have an equal amount of water. Put a sugar cube into the cold water and stir with the spoon until the sugar disappears. Repeat this process remembering to count the amount of sugar cubes you put into the water until the sugar stops dissolving, you are at this point when sugar starts to gather on the bottom of the glass rather than dissolving.

Write down how many sugar cubes you could dissolve in the cold water. Repeat the same process for the hot water, compare the number of sugar cubes dissolved in each liquid, which dissolved more? The cold water isn't able to dissolve as much sugar as the hot water, but why?

Another name for the liquids inside the cups is a 'solution', when this solution can no longer dissolve sugar it becomes a 'saturated solution', this means that sugar starts forming on the bottom of the cup. The reason the hot water dissolves more is because it has faster moving molecules which are spread further apart than the molecules in the cold water.

With bigger gaps between the molecules in the hot water, more sugar molecules can fit in between. Banteer National School 42 Mr. I bet you favourite band hasn't. Experiment with your own special sounds by turning glasses of water into instruments, make some cool music and find out how it works.

Line the glasses up next to each other and fill them with different amounts of water. The first should have just a little water while the last should almost full, the ones in between should have slightly more than the last. Hit the glass with the least amount of water and observe the sound, then hit the glass with the most water, which makes the higher sound? Hit the other glasses and see what noise they make, see if you can get a tune going by hitting the glasses in a certain order.

Each of the glasses will have a different tone when hit with the pencil, the glass with the most water will have the lowest tone while the glass with the least water will have the highest. Small vibrations are made when you hit the glass, this creates sound waves which travel through the water. More water means slower vibrations and a deeper tone. Banteer National School 43 Mr. Experiment with a balloon, compressed air and your own ears to find out how it works and the science behind it.

Blow up the balloon. Hold the balloon close to your ear while you tap lightly on the other side. Despite you only tapping lightly on the balloon your ears can hear the noise loudly. When you blew up the balloon you forced the air molecules inside the balloon closer to each other. Because the air molecules inside the balloon are closer together, they become a better conductor of sound waves than the ordinary air around you.

Banteer National School 44 Mr. Put your hand-eye coordination skills to the test while learning the important role that forces such as gravity and air pressure play in this simple experiment for kids.

Plug in the hair dryer and turn it on. Put it on the highest setting and point it straight up. Place your ping pong ball above the hair dryer and watch what happens. Your ping pong ball floats gently above the hair dryer without shifting sideways or flying across the other side of the room. The airflow from the hair dryer pushes the ping pong ball upwards until its upward force equals the force of gravity pushing down on it.

When it reaches this point it gently bounces around, floating where the upward and downward forces are equal. The reason the ping pong ball stays nicely inside the column of air produced by the hair dryer without shifting sideways is due to air pressure.

The fast moving air from the hair dryer creates a column of lower air pressure, the surrounding higher air pressure forces the ping pong ball to stay inside this column, making it easy to move the hair dryer around without losing control of the ping pong ball.

See if you can float 2 or even 3 ping pong balls as an extra challenge. Banteer National School 45 Mr. Fill the bottom of the larger container with PVA glue.

Add a few squirts of water and stir. Add 2 or 3 drops of food colouring and stir. Add a squirt of borax possibly a bit more depending on how much PVA glue you used. Stir the mixture up and put it into the smaller container. By now the mixture should be joining together, acting like putty, crazy putty!

The PVA glue you use is a type of polymer called polyvinyl acetate PVA for short , while the borax is made of a chemical called sodium borate. When you combine the two in a water solution, the borax reacts with the glue molecules, joining them together into one giant molecule. This new compound is able to absorb large amounts of water, producing a putty like substance which you can squish in your hands or even bounce.

Banteer National School 46 Mr. Well try bending the rules a little with a cup of water that stays inside the glass when held upside down. You'll need the help of some cardboard and a little bit of air pressure. Put the cardboard over the mouth of the glass, making sure that no air bubbles enter the glass as you hold onto the cardboard.

Turn the glass upside down over a sink or outside until you get good. Take away your hand holding the cardboard. If all goes to plan then the cardboard and water should stay put. Even though the cup of water is upside down the water stays in place, defying gravity! So why is this happening? With no air inside the glass, the air pressure from outside the glass is greater than the pressure of the water inside the glass. The extra air pressure manages to hold the cardboard in place, keeping you dry and your water where it should be, inside the glass.

Banteer National School 47 Mr. Do you think you're fit and healthy? Let's test your lung volume to find out. Just how much air can your lungs can hold? With the help of a few simple household objects, some scientific know how and a dash of curiosity you can make this experiment look easy. Make sure the plastic tubing is clean 2. Put about 10cm of water into your kitchen sink.

Fill the plastic bottle right to the top with water. Put your hand over the top of the bottle to stop water escaping when you turn it upside down. Turn the bottle upside down. Place the top of the bottle under the water in the sink before removing your hand. Push one end of the plastic tube into the bottle. Take a big breath in. Breathe out as much air as you can through the tube. Measure the volume of air your lungs had in them. Make sure you clean up the area to finish.

As you breathe out through the tube, the air from your lungs takes the place of the water in the bottle. If you made sure you took a big breath in and breathed out fully then the resulting volume of water you pushed out is equivalent to how much air your lungs can hold.

Having a big air capacity in your lungs means you can distribute oxygen around your body at a faster rate. The air capacity of lungs or VO2 max increases naturally as children grow up but can also be increased with regular exercise.

Banteer National School 48 Mr. Learn how to make a snowflake using borax and a few other easy to find household items. Find out how crystals are formed in this fun crystal activity, experiment with food colouring to enhance the look and keep your finished crystal snowflake as a great looking decoration!

Grab a white pipe cleaner and cut it into three sections of the same size. Twist these sections together in the centre so that you now have a shape that looks something like a six-sided star. Make sure the points of your shape are even by trimming them to the same length. Take the top of one of the pipe cleaners and attach another piece of string to it. Tie the opposite end to your small wooden rod or pencil.

You will use this to hang your completed snowflake. Carefully fill the jar with boiling water you might want to get an adult to help with this part. For each cup of water add three tablespoons of borax, adding one tablespoon at a time. Add some of the optional blue food colouring if you'd like to give your snowflake a nice bluish tinge.

Put the pipe cleaner snowflake into the jar so that the small wooden rod or pencil is resting on the edge of the jar and the snowflake is sitting freely in the borax solution. Leave the snowflake overnight and when you return in the morning you will find the snowflake covered in crystals!

It makes a great decoration that you can show your friends or hang somewhere in your house. Crystals are made up of molecules arranged in a repeating pattern that extends in all three dimensions. Borax is also known as sodium borate, it is usually found in the form of a white powder made up of colourless crystals that are easily dissolved in water.

Banteer National School 49 Mr. When the solution cools, the water molecules move closer together and it can't hold as much of the borax solution. Crystals begin to form on top of each other and before you know it you have your completed crystal snow flake!

Banteer National School 50 Mr. All you need is some basic household objects and the hidden power of lemon juice. Squeeze some lemon juice into the bowl and add a few drops of water. Mix the water and lemon juice with the spoon.

Dip the cotton bud into the mixture and write a message onto the white paper. Wait for the juice to dry so it becomes completely invisible. When you are ready to read your secret message or show it to someone else, heat the paper by holding it close to a light bulb.

Lemon juice is an organic substance that oxidizes and turns brown when heated. Diluting the lemon juice in water makes it very hard to notice when you apply it the paper, no one will be aware of its presence until it is heated and the secret message is revealed. Other substances which work in the same way include orange juice, honey, milk, onion juice, vinegar and wine. Invisible ink can also be made using chemical reactions or by viewing certain liquids under ultraviolet UV light.

Banteer National School 51 Mr. Use simple household items such as vegetable oil, food colouring, Alka-Seltzer and a bottle to create chemical reactions and funky balls of colour that move around like a real lava lamp. Pour water into the plastic bottle until it is around one quarter full you might want to use a funnel when filling the bottle so you don't spill anything.

Pour in vegetable oil until the bottle is nearly full. Wait until the oil and water have separated. Add around a dozen drops of food colouring to the bottle choose any colour you like. Watch as the food colouring falls through the oil and mixes with the water. Cut an Alka-Seltzer tablet into smaller pieces around 5 or 6 and drop one of them into the bottle, things should start getting a little crazy, just like a real lava lamp! When the bubbling stops, add another piece of Alka-Seltzer and enjoy the show!

Oil and water don't mix very well. The oil and water you added to the bottle separate from each other, with oil on top because it has a lower density than water. The food colouring falls through the oil and mixes with the water at the bottom. The piece of Alka-Seltzer tablet you drop in after releases small bubbles of carbon dioxide gas that rise to the top and take some of the coloured water along for the ride.

The gas escapes when it reaches the top and the coloured water falls back down. The reason Alka-Seltzer fizzes in such a way is because it contains citric acid and baking soda sodium bicarbonate , the two react with water to form sodium citrate and carbon dioxide gas those are the bubbles that carry the coloured water to the top of the bottle. Adding more Alka-Seltzer to the bottle keeps the reaction going so you can enjoy your funky lava lamp for longer. If you want to show someone later you can simply screw on a bottle cap and add more Alka-Seltzer when you need to.

When you've finished all your Alka- Seltzer, you can take the experiment a step further by tightly screwing on a bottle cap and tipping the bottle back and forth, what happens then? Banteer National School 52 Mr. At first thought you might think that an ice cube sitting at the very top of a glass would eventually melt and spill over the sides but is this what really happens?

Experiment and find out! Fill the glass to the top with warm water. Watch the water level carefully as the ice cube melts, what happens? The water from the ice takes up less space than the ice itself. When the ice cube melts, the level of the water stays about the same. Banteer National School 53 Mr. Test your dominant side by completing a series of challenges.

Which hand do you write with? Which foot do you kick with? Do you have a dominant eye? Do you throw with one side of your body but kick with the other? Are you ambidextrous? Answer these questions and much more with this fun science experiment for kids. Eye tests: 1. Which eye do you use to wink? Which eye do you use to look through the empty tube?

Extend your arms in front of your body. Make a triangle shape using your fore fingers and thumbs. Bring your hands together, making the triangle smaller about the size of a coin is good. Find a small object in the room and focus on it through the hole in your hands using both eyes.

Which hand do you use to write? Pick up the cup of water, which hand did you use? Throw the ball, which arm did you use? Banteer National School 54 Mr. Run forward and jump off one leg, which did you jump off? Drop the ball on the ground and kick it, which foot did you use? So what side do you favour? Are you left handed or right handed? Left footed or right footed? Is your right eye dominant or is it your left?

Why most people favor the right side is not completely understood by scientists. Some think that the reason is related to which side of your brain you use for language.

Others think the reason might have more to do with culture. Favoring the right hand may have become a social development as more children were taught important skills by right handed people and various tools were designed to be used with the right hand.

These percentages are lower than those who are right handed and this could be because your body has more freedom of choice in choosing its favoured foot and eye than that of its favoured hand. In other words you are more likely to be trained to use your right hand than your right foot and even more so than your right eye.

Try testing others and coming to your own conclusions about what side the human body favours and why. Extra: Are you more likely to be left handed if one of your parents is left handed? What are some of the possible disadvantages for left handed people?

Tools, writing materials etc Do left handed people have an advantage in sports? Is it better to be left handed in some sports than others? What do you think? Banteer National School 55 Mr. Cut out a large square from your plastic bag or material.

Trim the edges so it looks like an octagon an eight sided shape. Cut a small whole near the edge of each side. Attach 8 pieces of string of the same length to each of the holes. Tie the pieces of string to the object you are using as a weight. Illustrated by Frances Zweifel. The fundamentals of science are brought to life in a year's worth of fun and educational hands-on experiments that can be performed easily and inexpensively at home. You will be amazed at how much you learn while having so much fun!

Do you know how to make your own explosive volcano? Or how rainbows are made? Explore the world of Science and learn about Earth and the solar system. This fact- and fun-filled book includes tons of simple, kid-tested science experiments, many of which can be done with items from around the house, and require little-to-no supervision! That means no grownups doing all the fun stuff while you watch. You can do lots of messy, cool, mind-blowing experiments all by yourself!

All the supplies you need are probably already in your home. No fancy gadgets or doohickeys needed! As a chemistry teacher, I want real science, explained at the appropriate level, and.

This book sets up even the most scientifically-challenged person to. Delaware 'This brilliant book is perfect for both my classroom and my own children at home. I can. These are fun, colorful, and attentiongrabbing. Since that time, she has made it. The instructions are clear and the observed phenomena are well explained. Curious minds will learn and enjoy! As a chemistry teacher, I want real science, explained at the appropriate level, and experiments that always work.