Science Experiments How-Tos

How To: Measure the volume of a balloon

Here we will demonstrate how to measure the volume of a balloon. A balloon is not a straight edged polygon shape, usually, so the mathematical equations get that much harder, on the flip side, it may be a spherical or ovalish shape, but measurements with math alone are detrimental due to the uneven sizes of the balloon. Here is how to do it properly. You will need a bucket, preferably, to hold water, a larger container than your original bucket, and a measuring container. Place the bucket ins...

How To: Experiment with two-dimensional motion

Motion can be studied in different dimensions. Study of motion of a body in a straight line is called motion in one dimension. A falling body can be called as motion in one dimension. Things can also move sideways when they fall at the same time. This is also called as projectile motion and it is a study of motion in two dimensions. When studying projectile motion we can neglect one dimension of the motion and study the other dimension obtaining the results of motion in that dimension. If a b...

How To: Experiment with circular motion

This video shows various experiments with circular motion. In Dr. Carlson's Science theater he uses water, a lit candle, and a piece of paper to show the ways that circular motion causes gravitational pull. The water in a glass doesn't spill as it is spun around 360 degrees in a circle, even upside down. The flame on the candle was pulled toward the center when spun around. The piece of paper becomes a paper saw and was able to cut wood when spun. He not only demonstrates centrifugal force wi...

How To: Find light photons with LEDs & photosensitive paper

In this video Dr. Carlson demonstrates the properties of light. Light is like a wave and it is also like a particle, which means that it comes in small packets. To demonstrate how we know that light behaves like packets of energy, he uses LED’s in different colors and a sheet of phosphorescent paper. When light with a high enough energy shines on the paper it will cause the paper to glow.

How To: Find the North Star from the Northern Hemisphere

In this how to video, you will learn how to find the North Star in the northern hemisphere. To do this, you must know how to locate the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. The Big Dipper is one of the brightest constellations in the sky. You can use this constellation to find the location of the north star. The two stars at the cup of the Big Dipper will point towards Polaris, also known as the North Star. The North Star is the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. This will be helpful if you...

How To: Experiment with magnets and eddy currents

Eddy Currents are little circles of electricity created when metals are moved by magnets or even when magnets are moved by metals. To understand this practically take a regular piece of cardboard and drop it in between a horse shoe magnet. It drops normally with out being effected by the magnet. This is because the cardboard does not conduct electricity. Therefore it does not cause any eddy currents. But instead if you use an aluminum piece in the same way, it falls very slowly, because alumi...

How To: Make ice cream and explore the ingredient salt

In this Education video tutorial you will learn how to make ice cream and explore the ingredient salt. Ingredients are a cup of milk, sugar, vanilla, some salt, ice and two plastic bags. Add two tablespoons of sugar to one cup of milk, a quarter teaspoon of vanilla, stir it up and pour it in to a plastic bag. Put this bag in another bigger plastic bag, add some ice and about half a cup of salt. Seal the bag and start mashing it. After about 10 minutes, it will turn into ice cream. When salt i...

How To: Create an acid-base indicator using purple cabbage

Purple cabbage is a natural indicator and this video teaches you how to easily prepare purple cabbage in the comfort of your own home to be used as an acid and base indicator. Take one leaf of your purple cabbage, tear it into smaller pieces and place all the pieces into a beaker or bowl of boiling water for an hour. Collect the liquid from your mixture into a bottle. You’ll notice that the liquid is now dark blue or purple at which point is neutral. It is ready to be used as an indicator. ...

How To: Stack liquids experiment at home

In this how-to video, you will learn how to stack liquids at home. This will make for a great experiment. You will need a tall, transparent container, molasses or honey, liquid soap, water, vegetable oil, and rubbing alcohol. You might want food coloring and items to float in the container. First, add the molasses to the container. Next, add the dish soap and water. You can add food coloring to this. Make sure to pour it on the side of the container. Add the vegetable oil on top of the water....

How To: Make an erupting volcano with soap

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to make an erupting volcano with soap. Begin by adding some vinegar into a flask/baker. Then add some soap into the vinegar and stir it by shaking the flask/baker. Users may choose to add some food coloring to make the mix look more like lava. In a separate, add some water and baking soda. Then stir it to mix. Pour the baking soda solution into the soap and vinegar mixture. This video will benefit those viewers who are interested in science and experi...

How To: Determine the air amount in packing peanuts w/ acetone

How much air is actually inside a packing peanut? There is a simple experiment to conduct to see what is leftover. To begin, pour 200 ml of acetone into a glass container and add approximately 1800 ml of packing peanuts. Stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve. The video's author starts with the 1800 ml and realizes that that isn't enough. He then keeps adding until he has added an entire large bucket to the original 200 ml of acetone. After all are dissolved, all that is left in the glass conta...

How To: Do a sodium and water experiment

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to do a sodium and water experiment. Sodium is a silver metal that is very reactive. When exposed oxygen in the air, an outer coding of sodium oxide will form. Simply drop a piece of sodium into a cup of water. When dropped in water, sodium reacts to form sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. The sodium will constant move around in the water. Sometimes the heated reaction will cause the nitrogen gas to ignite. Under the right condition, it may even cause...

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: Freeze a beaker to wood

Chemistry can be very fun when you create different kinds of reactions between elements. Note that caution should be employed to not harm yourself while performing these reactions. Ammonium Tricynate reacts with barium hydroxide octahydrate in endothermic form. Endothermic reactions are those which absorb heat from the surroundings during the reactions as opposed to exothermic reactions which produce a lot of heat during the reaction. When endothermic reaction occurs, depending up on the inte...

How To: Freeze water by boiling acetone

You can freeze water by boiling it. To do this you will need a Vacuum pump. Vacuum pump can be used to suck out air from a container and create vacuum in it. Take a bell jar. Now connect the vacuum pipe into it and suck out the air from it. Take a flash and add little bit of water to it. Now we want to freeze this water. Add some acetone to it. Acetone boils and evaporates very quickly. Add a few chips of marble to it. These will enable in boiling of the water. Now set this flask in the bell ...

How To: Experiment with temperature using glow sticks

In this video from Dr. Carlson, users are shown how to witness the effects of the relationship between temperature and matter firsthand, using light-sticks. For the experiment, users need 3 beakers (or vessels of the sort,) and 3 light-sticks of the same color, shape, and light. To test the range, each beaker must correspond to one of the following states: room temperature, ice-water, or boiling water. Deposit a stick in each of them and observe for two minutes. Thus, one will see how the ato...

How To: Mix liquid "glow stick" colors to make white light

This a video tutorial that is showing its audience how to mix liquid glow stick colors in order to make a white light. The first step is to gather your supplies. To complete this scientific experiment you will need to get a few different glow sticks, preferably red, blue, and green. The next step is to turn all of your glow sticks on. The third step is to cut open the glow sticks and add them to separate cups. Next you can mix the green and the blue light together. Then finally add the red li...

How To: Chemiluminescence, oxidation of luminol

In this how to video, you will learn about Chemiluminescence and the oxidation of Luminol. The first solution is Luminol and NaOH. The second is K3 and H202. Luminol is used to detect blood in crime scenes. It reacts with Iron in Hemoglobin. As you can see in the example, it illuminates the chemicals in the dark. This is why it is very useful for crime scenes. It can be used even if the blood is not visible with day light. Thus, it is an invaluable chemical in the name of science and justice....

How To: Cunduct a viscous remanent magnetization experiment

In this Education video tutorial you will learn how to conduct a viscous remanent magnetization (VRM) experiment. The purpose of this experiment is to measure the VRM decay vs time. You have to take two Orbo rotor magnets and mount them on a base. Mount two samples of the ferromagnetic tore used in the Orbo motor for the stator coils on a rotating disk. The disk can be rotated by a simple brushless motor. When the ferromagnetic core moves in front of the static magnet, an optical sensor detec...

How To: Experiment the law of inertia

Newtons proposed the concept of inertia. According to him an object at rest tends to stay at test and an object in motion tends to continue in motions unless acted up on by an external force. This is the principle of inertia. The tendency of the body to continue to stay as it was is called its inertia. You can demonstrate this principle with a simple experiment. As shown in the video when the hoop is pulled out the pen cap falls in to the bottle. Here the hoop is acted upon but the cap is not...

How To: Splint a broken bone in an emergency

This video is about how to splint a broken bone in an emergency situation. You will need two sticks. For a broken arm you will place the sticks on the front and back of the arm. Now tear a shirt, piece of clothing or other cloth into strips. Tightly wrap the strips of cloth around the arm and the sticks on either side of the fracture - near the elbow and near the wrist. If you have a severe break where part of the bone is sticking out through the skin, take two strips of cloth and wrap one at...

How To: Make clouds inside a bottle

Using a huge jar and with water colored with die in it you can make clouds. To do this set up the apparatus as shown in the video. Now open up the top valve and blow air into the jar. Now this causes the air inside to be compressed as we are pushing more air into the confined jar. This creates a high pressure inside the ball. To understand how clouds are formed you need to know two concepts. The first concept is that as pressurized gas expands it cools. The second thing is that warm gases can...

How To: Do a cool volcano experiment at home

In this Education video tutorial you will learn how to do a cool volcano experiment at home. You will need a bottle of tonic water, mentos and some paper. Wrap the paper around the mentos to make a tube for releasing the mentos in to the bottle. Now pour about half a packet of mentos in to the paper tube and prevent them from falling off with your finger. Now open the bottle of tonic water and release all the mentos from the paper tube in to the bottle all at once. The tonic water will gush o...

How To: Do a flaming ice experiment

In this fascinating "how to" video, you will see how a simple process creates the illusion of ice that is burning. Only a few items are needed to enact this scientific experiment. As the narrator describes, "Calcium carbide reacts with water to form acetylene gas." To illustrate, the video shows a bowl of ice cubes, to which the special ingredient is added. As the ice melts into water, it reacts with the calcium carbide, forming the high flammable acetylene gas, which is often used in welding...

How To: Make a rain gauge

In this how to video, you will learn how to make a rain gauge. First, you will need a 2 liter bottle to collect the rain. You will also need scissors, a ruler, and a permanent marker. First, take the bottle cap off of the soda bottle. Next, cut the top of the bottle off. Now, collect some pebbles and put it at the bottom of the bottle. This will keep the bottle in place. Pace the top of the bottle on top to use a as a funnel. Now, take a ruler and measure 7 cm high on the rain gauge. Mark it ...

How To: Build a simple electromagnet

Electromagnets are super cool to experiment with. In this educational video, Science Bob teaches us about electromagnets - what they are and how to build one of your own. These magnets are are very powerful and make an extremely neat experiment for the science fair. Electromagnets are unique in the sense that they convert electricity into magnetism. Try this experiment with your kids for a unique science lesson.

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: Draw the Lewis dot structure for sulfate

TTUchme1010 teaches viewers how to draw the lewis dot structure for sulfate. The formula for this is SO4^2-. 2- means we will have to add 2 electrons into the lewis dot structure. First, we will have Sulfur in the middle with Oxygen surrounding it. Sulfur is in group 6A so it have 6 valence electrons and oxygen has six, so fill this all in around the elements. Now, you have to add in the 2 extra electrons onto the most electronegative atom. This will be oxygen. Now, you should start bonding t...

How To: Use Google to easily convert kilos to pounds

The video describes how to convert any unit of weight to any other unit. The example used here is conversion of pounds to kilos. Going to the Google homepage, the desired conversion should be typed in the search box directly, e.g., "150 pounds in kilos". Click the "Google search" button and Google will use its built-in converter to give the result, in this case, 150 pounds is equal to 68.0388 kilos. This, if it is ones own weight, will of course make anyone feel better, because kilos look les...

How To: Draw a Lewis dot structure for nutrite anion

This video shows you how to draw the Lewis electron dot structure for the nitrite anion- first you start by drawing the symbols o, n and o, in that order, and then you proceed to draw two dots on the top of the n, and one on each other side.On the 'o' on the far left, you draw two dots on the top, and two dots on the left, putting just one dot on the bottom and the left- the right 'o' mirrors this pattern.Next you link all three letters with two lines, using the single dots on the left and ri...

How To: Calculate weight average atomic mass of an element

In Chemistry weight of some elements are measure in the form of Average Atomic Mass. Isotopes are found in different abundances in nature. Certain elements have many isotopes and certain elements have few isotopes. Regardless of the number of the natural isotopes, the weighted average mass takes into consideration not only the mass of each isotope, but what also its natural abundance in terms of percent as found in the nature. So when you have the mass of two isotopes of an element and are gi...

How To: Convert grams to moles for chemistry

310tutoring shows viewers how to easily convert Grams to Moles for Chemistry. If you have 120 grams NaOH and we want this in moles we need a periodic table. Now, you need to figure out what the mass is of each individual element in NaOH. You need the mass of Na, O and H. Na mass is 23, O has 16 and H is 1. Add all of these up to get the molar mass of NaOH is 40 g/mol. Now use this to convert 120 g to moles. Now take 120 grams NaOh and multiply this by 1 mol NaOH/ 40 grams NaOH. You can cancel...