Hot Science Experiments How-Tos
How To: Do Hot Filtration & Recrystallization in the Chem 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: Make lightning using everyday household materials
Make lightning and generate tens of thousands of volts in your own kitchen at home using ordinary household objects! Mr. G demonstrates the amazing Triboelectric Effect and explains the electron exchange via adhesion and separation that makes it all possible.
How To: Make iodine easily
In this video, we learn how to make iodine easily. You will need potassium iodine and sulfuric acid to make this. First, add the acid into the potassium iodine slowly. After you add in each part, swirl the beaker slowly so it gets mixed together. After you have added in all of the potassium, you will place this into a beaker filled with ice water while you add in more, because the mixture gets really hot. When finished, you will end up with a mixture that is iodine and nothing else. Fill with...
How To: Explore Density, Viscosity & Miscibility with a Colorful Layered Liquid Science Experiment
Ever wonder why Jupiter has those colored bands across its surface? Jupiter's enormous mass is made from an array of different liquids, and those fluids do not play well together because of their different makeup. All of the hydrogen- and helium-based fluids are thought not to be miscible, which means that they aren't homogeneous in nature, resulting in strikingly beautiful bands across the planet's surface. But what about viscosity and how that correlates to the development of planets? What ...
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: Dry an organic solution in the chemistry lab
The Interactive Lab Primer (ILP) has been developed as part of the Royal Society of Chemistry Teacher Fellowship Scheme, one of the themes of the Chemistry for Our Future program, and initiative which aims to secure a strong and sustainable future for the chemical sciences in higher education. The aim of the ILP is to address the diverse range of experience and skills students bring with them to a university by offering a resource to support their transition from school to the university chem...
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: 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.
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: 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 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: 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 Black Snake Fireworks With & Without Fire
In this video, I'll be showing you how classic black snakes work and how to make them at home. There are actually two methods covered in the video — one that uses fire and one that does not. So just choose the one that fits best for your situation.
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 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 Powder Out of Household Chemicals
Glowing substances have always held a powerful appeal to people, and making new ones can be a lucrative business. If you need some glow powder for a project of yours, watch this video to learn how to make DIY glow-in-the-dark powder out of normal household chemicals.
How To: Make DIY Nitrogen Triiodide from ammonia & water purification iodine crystals
Nitrogen Triiodide is a very powerful contact explosive, but like most fun chemicals is not readily available to the general public cheaply. If you want some and have some chemistry skills, watch this video to learn how to make Nitrogen Triiodide at home out of household ammonia and water purification iodine crystals.
How To: Take an acid and base to make salt
In this tutorial we learn how to take an acid and base to make salt. To start, you will first need to take an acid of your choice, this can be something like vinegar. After this, you will combine the acid with a base and then wait for it to react. Once it starts to react, gases will release from them and you will end up with some salt! Be sure to put a cap on the container while the reaction is happening. This will allow the reactions to come together and the gases to react. Have fun and do t...
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: Make boric acid from borax
This is a video tutorial in the Education category where you are going to learn how to make boric acid from borax. For this experiment you will need borax (disodium tetra borate) and conc. hydrochloric acid. Take 25 ml of hydrochloric acid and dilute it with 75 ml of water. Next take 6 - 7 gms of borax and dissolve it in boiling water. Now add equal amount of hydrochloric acid. Crystals of boric acid will start forming. They are completely insoluble in cold water. After about half an hour, fi...
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.
How To: Draw the Lewis structure for ammonia
In this how-to video, you will learn how to make the Lewis structure for Ammonia. The formula for Ammonia is NH3. Now, write down H, N, and H in a horizontal line. Place an H under the N. Place two dots in between the spaces found in the H's and the N. Also place two dots above the N. Since the valance electrons are balanced, draw a line between the two dots connecting the H to the N. Leave the two dots above the N alone. This video shows just how easy it is to create a Lewis structure for Am...
How To: Make cobalt and manganese nitrates
In order to make manganese dioxide electrodes, you're going to need cobalt nitrate and manganese nitrate to do it. Making cobalt nitrate is fairly easy, but making the manganese nitrate is a little more complicated. But not impossible.
How To: Experiment with hydrostatic pressure
This how-to video explains the hydrostatic pressure.
How To: Purify hydrochloric acid
This video topic was changed. It is now converting muriatic acid to reagent grade hydrochloric acid, HCL).
How To: Use vinegar & hydrogen peroxide to reveal fingerprints
Learn how to find latent finger prints on brass surfaces, such as fired cartridge cases. Called the Acidified Peroxide method, using only white distilled vinegar and hydrogen peroxide that you can find at your local drugstore, you can uncover fingerprints that is usually impossible to see using other methods. After mixing the vinegar and hydrogen peroxide the solution should start turning a greenish color around the brass object after 5 to 10 minutes. After you see the green color throw away ...
How To: Make a simple dry ice bomb
When I was a kid, the 4th of July was my favorite holiday for one simple reason...the joy of making things go BOOM! Somewhere along the line that fun was taken away by politicians. It's time to put the fun back in celebrating freedom. From your friends at America's favorite podcast, Anarchy-X.
How To: Make iodine from sulfuric acid and alkali metal iodide
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make iodine from sulfuric acid and alkali metal iodide. This is the best way to make elemental iodine from sulfuric acid and sodium or potassium iodide.
How To: Suck a Hard-Boiled Egg into a Bottle with a Burning Match
Can you suck an egg into a bottle? Let's find out. For this quick science experiment, you will need an egg, a bottle, and matches. Simply drop a match in the bottle and place the hard-boiled egg on top and watch it get sucked in.
How To: Perform Vacuum Filtration 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: View the universe on a Meade DS-2000 Series Telescope
All you science and astronomy nuts out there, pay attention, this detailed video tutorial series will tell you everything you need to know about using the Meade DS-2000 Series Telescope to ogle the universe.
How To: Perform the Barus effect
Watch this instructional science video to observe the Barus effect in action. A dyed solution of POLYOX (polyethylene oxide - it is the stuff used as the lubricant on the strip found in all modern razors) is extruded from a 50 mL syringe. On exit, a marked swelling in the liquid stream several times the diameter of the orifice is observed. The effect is referred to as the Barus Effect, but it also goes by several other names including the Merrington Effect, Die Swell, and Extrudate Swell.
How To: Draw blood from rats with two techniques
This video tutorial will show you the process of drawing blood from rats through the saphenous vein and by cardiac puncture.
How To: Make mothballs jump
If you put mothballs in a solution of vinegar and baking powder, the balls will collect air bubbles; then after they cause the balls to rise, the bubbles pop, and the mothballs drop.
How To: Do a demonstration of the Doppler effect
This video is an excellent example of how to demonstrate the doppler effect in the classroom.
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: Karate Chop a Paint Stick with Help from Air Pressure and a Plastic Bag
How heavy is a plastic bag? Not very heavy at all, but in order to use a plastic bag to help me karate chop a thin wooden stick, I don't need weight—I need air pressure. Below, the "Quick Clip" demonstrates the power of air pressure via the vacuum created between a plastic bag and the countertop.
How To: Turn a Glass Bottle into an Electric Tornado Machine
We've all seen the classic tornado-in-a-bottle science experiment, which uses 2 two-liter bottles to create a whirlpool effect. This version requires you to get the tornado started yourself by spinning the bottles, but what if you want to make it fully automated?
How To: Make Trippy Triboluminescent Crystals That Glow Red or Blue When You Smash Them
If you're a Breaking Bad junkie who can't wait for the next episode, satisfy your craving with a little at-home chemistry and make some blue DIY smash-glow crystals! No, this is not Walter White's so-called "Big Sky" or even the subpar cringe-worthy product of his competitors. It's not even the same kind of crystals, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this. This is totally legal, even kid-friendly if you play it safe, though it actually requires more safety precautions than the potassium nitra...
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).