Science Experiments

How To: The Best Investigatory Projects in Science: 16 Fun & Easy Ideas to Kickstart Your Project

Most of us have conducted an investigatory science project without even knowing it, or at least without knowing that's what it was called. Most science experiments performed, from elementary to high school students and all the way up to professional scientists, are investigatory projects.

How To: Name ketones in organic chemistry

In this free video organic chemistry lesson from Salman Khan, we learn how to name ketones. Whether you need help studying for that next big test or could just use a hand finishing your homework, you're sure to be well served by this video lesson. For all of the details, take a look.

How To: Make chlorine gas with pool chlorine and hydrochloric acid

Chlorine gas is a very useful oxidant, which was first introduced as a toxic weapon by the German Army. Even today, it's still used as a weapon, most recently in the Iraq War by insurgents. But chlorine gas has more useful (and less lethal) applications, and if you want to learn how to make some at home, NurdRage has the answers.

How To: Make fireballs you can hold in your hand

This flame you CAN hold, without burning your skin off. Learn to make fireballs you can hold in your hand. This amazing video tutorial shows you how to do it. All you'll need for this little science experiment or fiery weapon is 100% cotton cloth, scissors, lighter fuel, cotton string, and a needle. Be careful to follow the directions in this how-to video carefully otherwise you'll really be playing with fire.

How To: Create napalm

This video illustrates how to make napalm. You will need a petri dish, gasoline, and styrofoam to create napalm. Combining the styrofoam and gasoline in a petri dish you allow the styrofoam to dissolve and become a semi-solid substance. It will have the consistency of chewing gum and it will be highly flammable. This substance will be sticky and if lit it should be lit outside and at a distance from anyone as it will produce a gas that is toxic.

How To: Create a small explosion with calcium carbide

In order to create an explosion, using Calcium Carbide, you'll need the following: calcium carbide, water, a dropper, and a lighter.

How To: Make a plastic bottle fly into the air

Greg Swanson and Joe Kelley demonstrate their superb skills at creating bottle rockets on rooftops.

How To: Make potassium nitrate at home

Believe it or not, there are cheap ways to make potassium nitrate for your chemistry experiments. And the key ingredient… "sodium-free" salt.

How To: Make Soap Out of Guava Leaf Extract for a Science Investigatory Project

Unless you're a high-schooler building a nuclear fusion reactor, the hardest part of a science investigatory project often is coming up with a good idea. You want it to be cool yet feasible, novel but still useful.

Make Slime Without Borax: 5 Easy Recipes for Gooey Homemade Ooze

One of the only things I remember from watching Nickelodeon as a kid is the epic green slime. Looking back, I don't know what was so great about it, but every kid my age thought that being drenched in slime would be the coolest thing on earth.

How To: Make hydrochloric acid from salt

In this tutorial, we learn how to make hydrochloric acid from salt. First, you will pour some salt into a distil flask. After this, you will add in some concentrated sulfuric acid to the salt. Next, you will let these react with each other. You will start to see gasses bubble up and the excess hydrogen chloride gas come out through the top of the tube. To create a stronger reaction, you can add heat underneath the reaction. Then, test this by exposing it to ammonium chloride. If it's the righ...

How To: Make Your Own Homemade Glow Sticks

Glow sticks, a popular favor at parties and outdoor events, and a must-have on Halloween, can be traced back to the United States Navy in the mid-1960s. The military desired improved visibility during night operations, and glow sticks, with their small-size portability and lack of batteries, were a perfect tactical solution.

How To: Make a Monster Dry Ice Bubble

Sure it's been done before, but it never gets old. There's something magical about dry ice, bubbles, and especially the result you see when they're combined!

How to Be Your Own SpaceX: Design, Build & Test Liquid-Fueled Rocket Engines

Move over NASA— SpaceX is taking over. Well, not really. But today, the privately funded spacecraft company broke all expectations when their Dragon capsule fell to a soft landing in the Pacific Ocean, completing an undoubtedly successful demo flight of nearly two full trips around Earth. It was the first re-entry of a commercial spacecraft ever, bringing commercial space transportation closer to reality.

How To: Make a crazy foam explosion science experiment

Check out this video to see our Fantastic Foamy Fountain in action. The experiment uses Hydrogen peroxide and dry yeast. Hydrogen peroxide is similar to water but it has an extra oxygen atom. This makes it more dangerous and only adults should handle the hydrogen peroxide.

How To: Turn water into ice without a freezer

Here's a fun experiment you can do that will demonstrate the effects that pressure has on the freezing point of a liquid. You will amaze your friends as you do what seems to be impossible, turning water into ice without sticking it in the freezer.

How To: Dissolve the shell from a hard-boiled egg with Coca-Cola

If you're a coke fiend, then you may not want to watch this, because you may become faced with a perilous decision— "Should I stop drinking soda?"

How To: Make fake blood from iron, chloride, and potassium

In order to make fake blood, for special effects or for Halloween, you will need the following: Potassium Thiocyanate (KSCN), Iron (III) Chloride (FeCL3), which is also known as ferric chloride or may substitute Iron Nitrate (Ferric Nitrate). You will also need water or dihydrogen monoxide.

News: What Happens When Lightning Hits Sand

Is this what happens when lightning hits sand? It turns out that when lightning hits sand, it makes little holes in it. Sadly, this picture was part of an internet hoax that circulated in 2013.

How To: Use a volumetric flask in the chemistry lab

Find out how everything in a chemistry lab works, from pipettes to burners to recrystallization to storage. You'll get precise instructions on how to work and perform certain scientific duties in the chem lab, whether it's chemical or just ordinary high school science.

How To: Reveal latent fingerprints on paper & other surfaces

In this tutorial, we learn how to reveal latent fingerprints on paper & other surfaces. The item you will need to do this is crystal iodine and plastic sheeting to protect your work surface. Place your specimen into a plastic container with the iodine, then put the top on and let sit, placing your hand under to warm it up. Within a few minutes you will see a violet color vaporizing in the container. When finished, you will be able to take out your specimen and see the fingerprints that are al...

How To: Instant Ice! How to Waterbend in Real Life

In one of my previous articles, I showed off how to make water freeze into ice instantaneously. In this article, I'd like to elaborate on this, and show how a glass of water can turn to ice instantly on command. What exactly is this supernatural power? Discover the secrets to ice-bending—in real life.

How To: Build a potato battery

Like a lemon, a potato can produce electricity. This science experiment was prepared by Ebtisam Al Anzoor and demonstrated by Mustafa Daif. The electricity is proven using an analog micro ameter. The positive is copper from a penny or copper coin while the negative is a galavanized nail. The potato releases a charge and is further proven when it is connected to a calculator. You can daisy chain the potatoes for a greater charge.

How To: Extract DNA from a Strawberry with Basic Kitchen Items

We all know that DNA is pretty amazing, but it's not something that most of us get much hands-on experience with. Even though it's in every living thing around us, we never see it, so we rarely think about it either.

How To: Make a permanent, reusable glow stick

Make a reusable glow stick, glow-in-the-dark-style! Imagine, you'll never have to buy one of those ChemLite's again, because you can reuse this homemade glow stick over and over again. This video tutorial will show you how to make a permanent, reusable glow stick. The materials in this experiment are simple: epoxy resin, straw, and some phosphor powder.

How To: Find molar mass

It’s time for science. You are able to calculate the molar mass for a compound using the periodic table and the amount of compound involved. You might need to know this in your everyday life but you will definitely need this in a chemistry class.

How To: Make instant flying condoms

Learn how to make a self inflating, flying condom! We should you how to make an instant flying condom using a few household items. Fantastic and fun science experiment! You will need one condom, one bag of hydrogen peroxide and dishwasher limescale remover.

How To: Make blue phosphorescent glow-in-the-dark powder

Making a blue glowing substance is easy, as long as you already know the secret to making green luminescent phosphorescent glow powder. By watching the green glow-in-the-dark procedure, you know that you will need strontium nitrate, aluminum nitrate, europium and dysprosium nitrates, and nitric acid. That will make a green glow, but if you want to make a blue version, it's a relatively easy fix...

How To: Make an acetylene explosion

A demonstration of the explosive potential of even a small amount of acetylene mixed with the right amount of oxygen. Watch to learn how to do this yourself. Make sure to wear goggles and stand at a safe distance when making your own acetylene explosion.

How To: Calculate electrical power

This video introduces the formulae for watts in an electric circuit, P=IxE, P=I^R, and P=E^/R. It also explains how P=I^R and P=E^/R are algebraically derived from P=IxE and Ohm's Law.

How To: Make an awesome colored smoke bomb

The video describes an easy at home process for making smoke bombs. The items you will need are as follows:

How To: Make a ball of plasma in a microwave

There are about fifteen states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, plasma, et cetera. Plasma is commonly found in stars, and is a rare natural phenomenon here on Earth. In this video, I show you how to make artificial plasma in your microwave.

How To: Build parachutes with household materials

In this video, we learn how to build parachutes with household materials. You will need: a long string, Mylar, mesh, plastic, scissors, tape, and a weight. To get started, you will first cut your plastic or mesh into a circle or octagon shape. Then, take your string and cut it into several pieces. Then, tape the strings onto your material all around. After this, tie your weight to the strings so it's fully secured. Now, go to somewhere high and throw down your item! The parachute will help ke...

How To: Build a wind turbine with PVC windmill blades

In this Education video tutorial you will learn how to build a wind turbine with PVC windmill blades. This project when completed will charge a 12V battery. You can turn a motor in to a generator. When you spin the shaft on the generator, electricity is generated. So you get a motor with a flywheel and attach the turbine blades to it. When the blades turn with wind action, electricity will be generated. Take PVC pipes, 8" in diameter and 24" long. Cut the blades out of the pipe as per directi...

How To: Electrocute a pickle

If you connect either cable of an extension cord to two forks and insert those forks onto either end of a pickle, then plug that extension cord into an outlet, the pickle will glow like the 4th of July.

News: Make Edible Lasers (Jell-O or Gin & Tonic Flavored)

Remember the glowing pickle? Well, here's another sci-fi food-oddity. Sounds entirely fictitious, but apparently you can make edible lasers.

News: What Happens When You Mix Coca Cola and Milk

Interesting reaction coke and milk The reaction of phosphoric acid (V) to proteins in the milk - they are cut and causes a precipitate

How To: Turn Milk into Strong Natural Glue with Baking Soda and Vinegar

You can do all kinds of unexpected things with milk, like make your own pore strips and invisible ink, or even get rid of red wine stains with it. But did you know that you can also use it to make your own glue?

How To: Make nitric acid

Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make nitric acid. They show three ways to make nitric acid based on two different chemical approaches, both of which can be done using easily accessible materials.

How To: Build a Simple Paper Bridge as a Science Experiment

Every day we pass bridges, whether it's a foot bridge, a highway overpass, a span over water, or a viaduct over a valley. We pass on these structures without even thinking of the engineering genius that went into their design and construction, let alone the science behind their strength.