Hot Science Experiments Posts
How To: DIY Ninja Turtle Ooze! Make Your Own Radioactive Canister of Glowing Green Slime at Home
There's a broken canister of mutant ooze leaking down into the sewers! But don't worry because this sticky slime is non-toxic, and it's so easy to make, a three-year-old can do it!
How To: Sugar & Sulfuric Acid — A Cool Chemical Reaction
Sulfuric acid is mixed with sugar, which is attacked by the acid. The final products are carbon, water vapor, and sulfur dioxide gas.
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: How Do You Balance 14 Nails on a Single Nailhead? Find Out with This DIY Gravity Puzzle
This little brain game is all about engineering a lower center of gravity. The idea has been around forever, but most people still don't know how to do it. Trying to stack nails above the balance point will raise the CG and make the structure unstable. Here's how you can lower the CG to make a very stable structure and impress your friends.
How To: Observe the Full Moons in 2011 (Lunar Calendar)
When's the next full moon? Every time I've looked at the moon, I've wondered if it was full. Sometimes it looked like it was, but it's really hard to tell for sure unless you know the exact date of the full moon. Seriously, there's at a couple days before and after the full moon that could easily pass as full. At least, to someone like me who isn't naturally in tune with the moon's cycle (and doesn't have perfect vision).
How To: Isolate the sugar in a can of soda
In this video from ScienceOnTheBrain we learn how to isolate the sugar in a can of soda. To find out how much sugar is in soda, pour a can into a pot and boil it until all the water is gone. You will be left with the sugar, and then you can weigh it. First weigh your pot before pouring the soda in. Now boil the soda on the stovetop. When the water evaporates, you'll be left with a syrupy sugar. A can of soda has 39 grams of sugar in it. That equates to about 7 1/2 teaspoons. Fruit juice conta...
How To: Make "Hot Ice" with Sodium Acetate Crystals
If you've ever used a heating pad or hand warmer, you essentially know what "hot ice" is. It's supersaturated sodium acetate, and it's actually fairly easy to make at home out of sodium acetate crystals. You can also make it out of vinegar and baking soda (directions at the bottom of this article).
How To: Make nitrogen triiodide
Learn how to make nitrogen triiodide (NI3), the main ingredient of the small, paper-covered parcels that you throw at the ground to make a snapping noise, with household chemicals and items. This chemical is very unstable, so please exercise caution.
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: There's Metal Hiding in Your Pepto-Bismol and Here's How You Extract It
Got an upset stomach or a little heartburn? America's favorite pink pill will cure it right up. But did you know that there's actually metal hiding in those chewable Pepto-Bismol tablets? Yes, metal. Technically, it's a poor metal, but metal's metal, right? Well, we do tend to eat a lot of iron in our diets, because it carries oxygen throughout our bodies, so consuming metallic minerals isn't anything abnormal. But you'd never think that Pepto-Bismol is actually made up of metal.
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 glow sticks with DEP, TCPO, sodium acetate & dye
If you prefer glow sticks over candles during a power outage, then this how-to is for you! Although glow sticks are used as temporary light sources, there are other applications for them. Divers use them for night diving, fisherman use them to catch swordfish, and the military uses them for light markers, along with infrared versions used in conjunction with night vision devices. But with all these handy uses for glow sticks, the most popular is — recreational use, like dancing at raves, some...
How To: Draw the Lewis dot structures for 2 types of alcohol
In this video, you will learn how to draw the Lewis Dot structure for CH3CH2OH, or drinking alcohol. To draw the first type of alcohol, draw H, C, C, O, and H horizontally. Now draw, an H above and below both C. Draw the dot structures in between each letter. Hydrogen has one valance electrons, Carbon has four, and Oxygen has six. Now, connect the Lewis Dot Structures. If you are given C2H6O, write down C, O, and C horizontally. Draw a line between the O and the C's. The Carbons will have thr...
How To: Use baby powder to reveal latent fingerprints
This short video shows us how to reveal latent fingerprints on a glass surface by dusting. Anyone interested in forensic science would enjoy trying it as it shows simple steps in dusting and lifting fingerprints. It does not require any chemicals and we can do it with baby powder. The steps involved are so simple and easy to follow that even kids can try it out for fun. This gives a clear idea about fingerprints on different objects like porous, non porous and metals. Enjoy viewing and detect...
How To: Make silver chloride for a photochemistry test
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make silver chloride for a photochemistry test. They show the chemistry of photography using silver chloride that they make themselves from table salt and silver nitrate.
How To: Turn spinach from green to glowing red
Chlorophyll glows blood red under a black light. Here is an easy and cheap experiment you can do at home to see the results. Just check out this video tutorial to learn how to take a handful of green spinach, some rubbing alcohol, and a blender to prep the amazing red glowing liquid. Then, just filter it out with a coffee filter and bottle it up. Then, get the black light out and get ready to party.
How To: Determine volume measurement
In this how to video you will learn how to measure the volume of solids and liquids. The formula for determining volume is width x length x height.
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: Boil water at room temperature in a vacuum
This is a super cool way to learn some science while combating spring break or summer break boredom. This science video teaches you how to boil water at room temperature. Obviously this won't work in the normal conditions in which you boil water. But if you place the water in a vacuum, where the atmospheric vapor pressure is lowered, water can boil at a much lower temperature.
How To: Make Quicksand at Home Using Cornstarch & Water
Creating awesomely messy slops of DIY slime and curdled fake blood isn't something new—we even have guides on making Dr. Seuss-friendly Oobleck and the radioactive green ooze that created my childhood favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (minus the radioactive part, of course).
How To: Make a Paperclip Float on Water
This quick video demonstrates the classic experiment of making a paperclip, or multiple paperclips, float on water.
How To: Make a Crazy Zigzagging Stream of Water Using a Speaker
Sound waves are a lot more versatile than you'd think. For starters, you can use them to project images onto a bubble and liquefy gummy bears. And now, YouTube scientist and optical illusionist extraordinaire Brusspup shows how sound waves can also be used to manipulate a stream of water into a zigzag shape.
How To: Make Your Own Glowing Green Fluorescein (Fluorescent Dye)
Fluorescent dye can be a great addition for decorating around the house for Halloween, especially for a haunted one. Creating your own fluorescent dye is a simple experiment, as long as you've got the proper chemicals and safety gear. Nurd Rage details the chemical process of creating your own fluorescein below.
News: This DIY Passion Fruit Battery Can Power Lasers!
It's been proven over and over that you can make batteries out of fruits and vegetables such as lemons, potatoes, and even apples. Turns out, passion fruit is also acidic enough to power a battery, but Maui Makers member Ryan K decided to take it a step further by adding a laser. Passion fruit, or Lilikoi as it's called in Hawaii, is usually over-abundant in Maui, so Ryan decided to put it to good use. Using anodized bolts, copper pipe, wire, switches, and some LEDs, he built a battery that c...
How To: Make a Soda Can Stirling Engine
Ever wonder how to make an engine out of soda cans? Not even sure if it's possible? These videos will show you how to build a working Stirling engine out of cans and other general materials. Here it is in action:
News: Dissecting a Human Head Through Anatomical Illustrations
Human anatomy is something every physician must undergo as a medical student. Some move on to become great doctors, some move on to become great artists, helping to better educate students and improve upon many illustrated representations of the human body since the days of medieval medicine. But thankfully, you don't have to be in the medical profession to enjoy the beautiful art of the human body created for teaching purposes.
How To: The Trick to Stabbing a Balloon Without Popping It
A balloon's worst fear is a sharp object, so usually when you puncture a balloon, it pops in your face. Not with this science trick! To puncture a fully blown up latex balloon without popping it, you'll need a pointed metal or wooden skewer and some plain old dish soap. That's it.
How To: Make a Film Canister Rocket
This is a fun little how-to showing what happens when you put some baking soda and vinegar in a film canistar. Shake it up and see it blast off. Keep back though, or you'll stink like your homemade rocket fuel.
News: DIY Toys Made From Trash + 100's More Easy Tricks & Experiments
Arvind Gupta is an Indian educator and inventor who makes whimsical, elegant toys from simple and inexpensive materials. His site has hundreds of free project tutorials, with simply outlined instructions in the categories of science, math, astronomy and more. Below, peruse the video gallery and images for a selection of Gupta's inspiring work.
How To: Make Bullets? Make it Rain Molten Lead
In 1782, an English plumber named William Watts came up with a clever method for making shotgun ammo. Watts constructed a six story "shot tower", consisting of a series of perfectly lined up holes, drilled into all six floors of the structure. Watts then poured molten lead through a sieve from the top story, through the holes of each floor, finally landing on the bottom floor in a pool of water. The cushioned impact resulted in a perfectly formed bullet.
How To: Test for boron with curcumin
Want to test whether the soil sample or a water sample contains boron, watch this video. As shown in the video, the first step is to create test specimens of various concentrations using a simple turmeric and ethanol solution as a base for comparison. The basis of this experiment is the fact that curumin present in turmeric reacts with boron to form a reddish compound and so the result of this reaction can easily be verified visually.
How To: Create a plankton science model
In this tutorial, we learn how to create a plankton science model. You will first need a clear bucket with water, modeling clay, toothpicks, sponge, beads, buttons, pipe cleaners, Styrofoam peanuts, and more. To make the plankton, you will first take the peanut and stick a toothpick into it. Then, add a paperclip on top of that to give it some weight. Drop it into the water and see if it floats or sinks. Add some more weight to it to see how much weight it takes to sink it to the bottom. Have...
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 ammonium chloride from hydrochloric acid and ammonia
This free video science lesson from the Home Scientist demonstrates a simple technique for creating ammonium chloride from hydrochloric acid and ammonia. For all of the relevant details and detailed, step-by-step instructions, as well as to get started trying this experiment yourself, watch this home-science how-to.
How To: Balance chemical equations the right way
In this tutorial, we learn how to balance chemical equations. The first thing you want to do is to draw a graph and label one side reactants and the other side products. Go through each of the atoms that are in your equation on both sides. Write out how many atoms are in each chemical. Then, find a common multiple that will give you and equal amount on each side of the equation. Continue to do this same for all the chemicals in your equation, then when you are finished write it out. Now you w...
How To: Make a wheel spin with angular momentum & inertia
In this video, we learn how to make a wheel spin with angular momentum & inertia. You will need: a bicycle wheel, a lighter, and a couple of strings attached to the top of a deck. Now, take the bicycle wheel and hang it on the strings on both sides of the wheel. When you turn the wheel it will fall off of the strings. Start the wheel spinning again, then light one of the strings on fire. When you do this, the string will fall off but the wheel will keep on spinning while rotating. Do this exp...
How To: Make graphene sheets from graphite flakes and cellophane tape
Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, from the University of Manchester, have just won the Nobel Prize in physics from their work with graphene. They've found a way to isolate graphene from graphite (carbon in pencil lead) and distinguish its behavior, which holds extreme potential for future technology.
How To: Synthesize copper(II) carbonate & sodium bicarbonate
This actions is a video tutorial in the Education category where you are going to learn how to synthesize copper(II) carbonate & sodium bicarbonate. For this you will need copper sulphate which is available in root kill and sodium bicarb which is baking soda. Take 100g of copper sulphate and dissolve in about 400ml of water. Now take 69.27g of baking soda. Add baking soda very slowly and keep stirring the solution. You got to be very careful as the chemical reaction will produce lot of carbon...
How To: Make your own nylon
In this tutorial, we learn how to make your own nylon. You will need: pipettes, pipette filler, forceps, beaker, stir rod, sebacoyl chloride and hexanediame solution. Now, pour some of the hexanediame solution into the small beaker. Add in a food coloring if you want to make this a specific color. After this, add in 4 cc's of sebacoyl chloride and carefully drip into the side of the beaker. You should see a layer of where the two liquids are after this. Now, take your tweezers and reach into ...
How To: Use the Entgegen-Zusammen naming scheme for alkenes in organic chemistry
What's in a name? Well, your chemistry grade, for one. In this free video science lesson from Internet pedagogical superstar Salman Khan, you'll learn how to .... 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 more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.