The Super Duper Book of 101 Extraordinary, Exciting, and (Occasionally) Explosive Science Experiments
States of Matter 105 Can’t You Believe It’s Butter 106 Pop Pop Powdered Sherbet 107 Edible Glass 108 Peanut Butter Poles 109 Ice Cream in a Bag 110 Rock N Roll Candy 112 Who’s Who in Chemistry 114 Physics Forever Wet Sand 118 Out with the Old Paper in with the New 119 Ooey Gooey Slime 120 Water Rise 121 Dancing Slime 122 Super Spinning Candle 124 A Fork and a Toothpick Walk into a Yoga Class 126 Feverishly Floating Orange 127 Totally Tubular Velocity 128 Up and Around the Magnet 129 Table Top Spin 130 Magnetic Fluid 131 Crush a Can without the Hulk 132 Egg in a Bottle 134 Bottle Balloon 136 How Much Water Can Lincoln Hold 138 Jell-O in the Dark 140 Chladni Plates 142 Simple Circuitry 144 Lemon Lime Power 145 Scientist Profile 146 6
Expanding Slippery Soap 147 Magnetic Train 148 Earl Grey Ready Rocket 150 Pop Corn on the Cob 152 Tornado Twister Tangle 154 Bucket Swing 156 Freezing Wire 158 Walking on Egg Shells 160 Sling Shot Catapult 162 Free Falling Egg 164 Rube Goldberg Activity 165 Mr Potato Clock 166 Balloon Vroom Vroom 168 Series Circuit 170 Picky Pi 171 Solar S’Mores 172 Magnifying Heat 174 Candy Chromatography 176 3D Polarized 177 Static Lightning 178 Candy Crush Light 180 Rainbow through Water 182 Clear Rainbow 184 Rainbow Reveal 185 Mini Hovercraft 186 Electric Motor 188 Basic Binary Numbers 190 Pick a Card Any Card 191 Who’s Who in Physics 192 Index 196 7
WHAT IS SCIENCE That’s a great question Science is everywhere it’s the reason your microwave works the reason that a struck match creates a flame even the reason that your bottom doesn’t fall through the chair that you’re sitting on Science is all about having a question and searching for an answer You form your hypothesis conduct experiments to determine how something works and study the results to determine how correct your hypothesis is As the wise folks from Mythbusters once said the only difference between science and messing around is writing it down We’re here for the cool stuff We want to see the explosions and color changing experiments that make us think that we’re performing magic from the convenience of our own kitchen But the goal here is to perform science not magic so get yourself a composition lab notebook and take some notes Scientists are always careful note takers because well every aspect of the experiment is important Information that you may not think is valuable now might be crucial in the future But if you don’t want to write anything down that’s ok too Grab your supplies and get going on those experiments WHAT'S NEXT I hope you’re excited for what awaits in the chapters ahead We will be exploring five different areas of science geology astronomy biology chemistry and physics Find out which one is your favorite Most of the materials used in this book can be found in your home though anything that you don’t have can be found at your local hardware store All of these experiments are designed to get you to think about why stuff happens so every experiment has an explanation in regards to the science behind it Try this think about an experiment after you do it Try to come up with your own explanation and see how it compares to the one in the book That is the first step in the scientific process You might not be right but scientists rarely are their first time around 8
UH OH SAFETY Ensuring safety is important in performing a successful experiment If you are working with an experiment that uses heat be sure not to burn yourself If you are working with chemicals make sure that you have an adult around The same goes for any experiments involving fire Breathing in too many fumes or getting copper sulfate near your mouth will NOT be fun And under NO circumstances should you eat anything that isn’t listed as being edible We definitely don’t want that For the experiments that are edible make sure that you’re working in a clean environment so as to avoid ingesting any not so friendly chemicals Lastly science can get MESSY Make sure you always have a lab coat or apron handy especially for any experiments with food coloring SAFETY IS the most important thing NOW GO GET ON WITH SOME SCIENCE AND ENJOY YOURSELVES 9
