Forces Experiments

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Which Thread Breaks? Using inertia to your advantage


If you suspend a bottle in the middle of a piece of cotton then pull on the end of the cotton, where will it break? It isn't as simple as you might think...

Roaring Balloon


Make various strange noises using a couple of balloons and some coins and nuts.
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Cool coin launcher


Produce a coin launcher powered by your freezer

Burning Iron - Igniting wire wool


You don't really think of iron as being particularly flammable, but as this experiment shows, get it hot enough, and it will burn away.
(c) Dave Ansell

Microscopic Laser Shadow Imaging


Just using a simple laser pointer you can see microscopic creatures far too small for the human eye to detect.
(c) Dave Ansell

Bouncing Soap


Make liquid soap or washing up liquid bounce off more soap.

Falling Cards


Confuse your friends with this slightly unorthodox card trick

Stiffening Paper Clips - Metallurgy in the kitchen


Do some metallurgy in your kitchen, and thoroughly change the properties of a paperclip

Balancing Brooms - finding the centre of mass


How to keep a broom balanced on your fingers, while moving them, without even trying!

Fireproof Balloon


How to hold a balloon over a candle without it bursting
(c) Dave Ansell

Bending water - static attraction


Bend a stream of water without even touching it.
(c) Dave Ansell

Bashing balloons - why balloons suddenly stop.


This is an experiment you have probably done by accident bash a balloon really hard, does it behave as you expect?

Jet powered Rotor


Make a jet powered rotor and find out why a hoover couldn't power a plane.
(c) Dave Ansell

Blowing out candles around corners


Find out how to blow out candles behind solid objects
(c) naked Scientists
 

Snap bracelets from tape measures - Bistable structures


Make a snap bracelet from an old tape measure
(c) Dave Ansell

Magnetic Fingerprinting - Reading a Credit Card


Magnetic Fingerprinting - see the data which is stored on the magnetic strip of your credit card.
(c) Dave Ansell
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Stringy and bobbly spit - why spit beads


Investigate some of the strange properties of a fluid you are very close to - spit.
(c) Dave Ansell

Superconducting Levitation


One of the most bizarre and beautiful pieces of physics is superconductivity
(c) Dave Ansell

The Potato Arch


The Arch is an ancient piece of technology that is still common today. If you have a potato or another root vegetable, why not have a go at building one.
(c)  original image by xenia @ morguefile
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Why is your breath sometimes warm and sometimes cold


Why do you blow on your fingers when you touch something hot, but if you breath out slowly your breath feels warm?
(c) Dave Ansell
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How does popping candy work?


Popping candy or pop rocks is a strange sort of children's sweet which seems to explode inside your mouth we try to investigate what is going on.
(c) (c) 2002 B. Crowell

Laser diffraction


Make strange patterns using a laser pointer and use them to discover a fundamental property of light
(c) USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory
 

Wallpaper paste volcanoes - why some volcanoes go bang!


Some volcanoes go off bang whilst others just ooze rapidly - this experiment shows why...
(c) Dave Ansell

Bubble Colours - Interference Colours


Make beautiful nanoscale structures using nothing more sophisticated than the washing up...
(c) Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

Can Bees Fly? - Insect Aerodynamics


There is an urban myth that 'science' says that a bee can't fly - so we thought we should look into it. You can try too with just a pond and your hand...
(c) Dave Ansell
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Hollow Flame - looking inside a candle flame


Look inside a candle using nothing more sophisticated than a sieve, and find out how the same principle saved thousands of lives.
(c) Dave Ansell
 

Blowing out a candle


As I was playing with candles this week and had a high speed camera I thought it would be interesting to watch one being blown out in slow motion...
(c) Kander

Colours from carrots - Staining


How grated carrot and some ink can teach us about staining cells

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