Contributed by David Jiang Introduction We’ve all seen fire extinguishers before and its powerful stream of nitrogen which can smother a dangerous fire. However, imagine a fire extinguisher that can take out fires “invisibly”. Here is a fun experiment to design your very own, invisible fire extinguisher. Materials 2 regular-sized cups Matches/Lighter 1 candle Vinegar…
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Contributed by Jikai Xu Introduction When you drop a ball from the air to the ground, you may naturally suppose the ball will bounce back to a lower height than the releasing position. But, can you imagine a ball to bounce back to an even higher position? Materials A small ball that can bounce back…
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Contributed by Sabrina Brickner Introduction How does charge work? Can we really see how electrons work without fancy science tools? Materials Balloons Someone with hair on their head A working faucet An empty metal can Procedure Blow up a balloon. Rub it on your head. Watch what happens to the balloon and your hair. Turn…
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Join Jared as he introduces Magnetism, and explains why it’s closely related to electricity! Whereas electrons are simply negative charges, magnets have two poles; a North and South end. The Earth is actually a giant magnet, and the magnetic poles are where the north and the south pole are, so we call the magnets’ ends…
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Electricity comes from moving electrons, or negative electric charges. Join Jared as he introduces the van de Graaf generator! When the machine is turned on, the belt will move and rub against a piece of carpet at the bottom, picking up electrons. It brings the electrons up to the metal dome. Since electrons are negatively…
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What is sound? Here is Molly Kaplan, gravity theorist and musician extraordinaire, introducing sound waves: Using a Slinky, Molly demonstrates that waves can move in two different ways; up and down or back and forth. Waves that move up and down, such as waves in the ocean, are known as transverse waves. By contrast, waves…
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The air we breathe is actually a gas made up of tiny particles constantly flying around and bumping into one another! Here is Jared Goldberg, who studies the physics of stars, discussing air in static and dynamic situations. Did you know that the air is always pushing on you? We call this air pressure. It…
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In this demo, Jared explores the properties of Liquid Nitrogen, which is air cooled to −196°C (−320°F). Air is composed of 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen, and is usually a gas. When air is cooled to −196°C, the Nitrogen in air condenses, or becomes liquid. This is an example of a phase transition, where a…
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You may have heard of Isaac Netwon’s First Law: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest. In this demo Jared uses carts on an air track to explore this concept of momentum. When Jared pushes a single cart, the cart moves with speed in the…
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Just as objects in motion tend to stay in motion, objects that are spinning tend to keep spinning! This concept is known as angular momentum. When Jared spins the bike wheel, it rotates around the center axis. Once the bike wheel is spinning, it becomes more difficult to rotate the bike wheel, because it already…
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