The homemade pen cap sinker
Make a pen cap sinker to demonstrate Pascal’s law Fill the plastic bottle with water. Attach a piece of clay to the arm of a plastic pen cap. Put the cap in the bottle so that it floats. Put the lid on the bottle and tighten so that it does not leak any air. Squeeze the sides of the bottle. What do you think causes the pen cap to sink when you squeeze the sides of the bottle? By squeezing the bottle, you increase the pressure inside, thus forcing more water up into the pen cap. The added water in the cap increases its weight and causes the cap to sink. A submarine works along these same principles. If the average density of the submarine…
Principles of Flotation science experiment
What makes a heavy ship float? How does a boat or ship carrying hundreds of pounds worth of stuff float while that same stuff would sink to the bottom of the ocean if dumped overboard? How come when you're in a pool and you stretch your body out flat you float. But, if you wrap your arms around your legs and curl up into a ball you sink? Well, it all has to do with how much water is pushing against you and a little scientific principle called buoyancy or floatation. When you stretch out flat more water pushes against you since your body is laid out flatter. When you curl up into a ball, less water is pushing against you. Want to test this…
Make a homemade Lava Lamp experiment
Make a homemade Lava Lamp Lava lamps were very popular in the 1970’s. For some reason, your parents thought it was very fun to sit there and watch colorful liquid in a bottle swirl aimlessly around. They probably even chanted “Oh wow, the colors, the colors.” They became popular again a few years ago but as we know, kids today are much smarter, and thought that lava lamps were cool because they knew they demonstrated the scientific principles of immiscible liquids (liquids that just won’t mix). In this science experiment, we’ll create a real working lava lamp and explain to your parents why they really should be thought of as cool. Fill a glass jar with 3 inches of water or until it is 2/3…
Floating eggs in salt water experiment
Floating eggs in salt water Density is a measure of how much matter takes up a certain amount of space or volume. The more matter you can pack into a certain space, the denser it is. Although we often confused the two, density and weight are actually two different measurements. Weight is defined as the mass of an object times the force of gravity. In our world where we have gravity forcing things downward, a denser object will be heavier too. Clear as mud? Well, let’s do this experiment and at least make it as clear as, err… salt water. Since density is defined as how much matter takes up a certain amount of volume, we can take ordinary water, add salt to it, and…
