The Homely Scientist

I love flying toy planes.  Heck my 12th Grade physics science project was all about that.  This was the post I mentioned in my last last post:

Let’s face it: GeekDad projects are sometimes more fun for the older kids than for the younger ones. So when it comes to flying planes at the park, we’re always looking for something that everyone can do.

We’ve found that with the Hobbico line of free-fly electric planes. They’re amazing. Ranging from $12-$15, they’re beautifully-made with built-up foam bodies and electric motors, rechargeable batteries and chargers. They range from a toy-like 14″ wingspan to a small R/C plane size of 27″ wingspan.
Source: Geekdad - Wired News

I will be looking for these in town (Victoria).  Come on pick up a little plane that if it gets trashed isn’t a huge loss…sounds like a winner to me.

Interesting to note that the plane that did the best was the smallest and cheapest.  Less risk of smashing it on the ground I guess.

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 I’ve been following Geekdad for a while now.  There is a post he wrote a bit ago that I still want to comment on, but for the moment, let’s look at this heat conduction experiment.

The premise is simple, what materials conduct heat (through water) best.  While this is an awesome experiment for the kids, the best part was that on the first try the set up didn’t work.  The modeling clay used to keep the objects to test conduction got wet and so the objects fell into the water.

Undaunted, they tried again and had a successful experiment.

Lesson here…some times finding the right way to test you hypothesis is the hardest part.

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 Steve Jurvetson is the Geek Dad over at Wired and he’s onto something here:

When an appliance dies, I remove the power cord, and I help guide the disassembly.  For consumer electronics, a small assortment of screwdrivers will do the trick, as well as a set of small Torx wrenches for Apple products and cell phones.  Remember to look under the stickers for hidden screws. Old laptops are especially fun, and don’t forget to check out all the LCD light distribution layers (but be careful with the small fluorescent bulb)
Source: Geekdad - Wired News Photo from Flickr

Haven’t you always wanted to do this?  I used to have a few hard drive platters on my desk.  They are really cool looking.  So how about showing the kids what makes a gadget tick before you send it to gizmo heaven?

Yes, do me careful.  There are lead-based solders in there as well as other heavy metals.  So hand washing after looking and touching is important.

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Ah science fair projects.  Oddly enough I never participated in any, my school didn’t have them.  But we did have the yearly science project for class.  Let’s see for chem I tested various water proofing agents on leather.  Bio was a bacteria experiment.  Physics, I played with wing design on gliders.  I never considered making a fusion reactor.  Well a 17 year old in Michigan thought about it, and did it:

Now I don’t know what’s most surprising, the fact that it was a 17 year old that made a device that can fuse two hydrogen atoms together, or the fact that you can get the pieces for it from eBay.
Source: 17 year old teenager builds homemade fusion reactor

Yep he made it work.  Yep including the “star in a jar” (that would be the 200 million degree ball of plasma).  Can you imagine the conversation with his mom?  “Hey mom, I’d like to build a fusion reactor in the basement.”  “Okay, honey, just shield us from the x-rays and keep that plasma ball under control this time…”

His mother, oddly, is rather calm and almost unsurprised about the wonder of physics sitting in her suburban basement. She’s done the usual “He’s so bright” routine, but also joked about Thiago’s other “lofty ideas,” such as building a hyberbolic chamber (she flatly denied that one). Of course, when he asked about the fusion reactor, she finally said yes. Fortunately, the machine poses little danger aside from the extremely high voltage, small amount of X-rays, and the 200 million degree ball of plasma. That’s all… From Bit-tech

Some kids get to have all the fun.

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 I haven’t had time to start the downloading process, but Kids Domain offers a slew of free software for kids on just about every topic you can imagine.  Nice science and math section.  Some of these look just great.  Boy are the kids going to love this stuff!

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Hsien sent me a link to Science With Me a little while ago, I didn’t have a chance to blog it until now, but she did!  Anyway, it’s a cool site with a free membership so you and your kids can learn about static electricity (which I had my own run it with today) and fingerprints.  Everything seems to be written in nice, kid-friendly language and the experiments are short and easy (maybe messy too!).

Looks like I know what I’ll be doing this weekend with the kids!  Oh, what to choose, what to choose…

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Quick, name Newton’s laws … eh, don’t bother I have them summarized below.  Regardless sometimes the concepts of inertia, equal and opposite reactions, and force can be hard to wrap your head around.  Over on ScienceBase I found this little YouTube video on these very principles. Oh and here’s the list:

Newton’s laws underpin so-called classical mechanics, as opposed to quantum mechanics or relativity theory. I’ve summarised them below, but you’ll get a much clearer understanding of bodies in motion if you watch the video.

1. Objects stay still or move with constant velocity unless a force pulls on them or gives them a shove
2. Pulling or shoving an object changes its velocity (accelerates it) at a rate proportional to the force of the pull or shove
3. If you shove or pull an object it will pull or shove back with an equal and opposite force

Source: The secret of Newton’s laws explained with Lego

Personally I’ve been wanting to do something similar but using a pool table for the example.  It all works.  The cool thing is that as you make your first break in pool you show all three Newtonian laws!  The kid doing the video (and an awesome job too!) used the pool table example to illustrate Newton’s 3rd law.  But, if you consider hitting the cue ball with a cue you can illustrate the harder you hit, the faster it goes idea (2nd Law, sorta) and the 1st Law, good old inertia, well once the balls are in motion, they would keep moving around the table if they didn’t have friction (the felt) the bumpers (absorbing energy) and gravity to content with.

Whew, good thing we have Newton’s Laws, a game of pool would be prett dangerous with out them!

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You have to love bringing the good old chemistry set into the 21st century.  Come on, foaming test tubes is sooo last century.  DNA is hot man (sorry for you DNA folks, yes I caught the pun … old DNA sequencing techniques used radioactive materials, so they are "hot").  Hsien (our faithful leader) highlights a fun DNA kit for kids.

Can you imagine?  Dad, I need a DNA swab from you, we suspect you ate half of the last cookie ….

Tags: science for kids  DNA

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Thanks again to Laura for this really cool link (she fessed up she got a calendar for Xmas with a cool link a day).  Ever want to know more about snow and snowflakes than you ever thought possible?  This is the place.  I haven’t scratched the surface of the site, but I’m sure there will be cool (ha ha) projects and stuff to do.

Speaking of snowflakes, on CSY:NY last night one of the CSIs fix a snowflake to a slide with superglue to look at its structure and then be able to set a time.  Okay, I know CSI is often out there on the science, but this I can’t believe.  If all my snow wasn’t melting I might try it.  Of course I have slides, coverslips, and glue around!  Who do you think you’re reading! ;)

Tags: snow, snowflakes

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Hey did you know if you put grapes in the microwave they will do this:

I know!  Cool eh?  How do you do it?  Read here.

Tags: glowing grapes

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