Surface tension is a force that pulls together the outermost molecules of a liquid. It makes water form tiny beads on a leaf and hold a raindrop in the air. It is also why bubbles can form and then burst. Here’s a STEM challenge. This challenge is to see how many drops of water will …
Air can exert pressure on other objects. That force is called the air pressure. After shaking a soda can and open it, the soda explodes. That’s air pressure at work. But you don’t have to use a can of soda to see how air pressure works. There are other, less messy ways. In this air …
Even though there is a severe drought in the area where we live, thunderstorms are still a common spring occurrence. I have shown my kid how rain was created before. Now she’s curious how thunderstorms form and what causes them. So what is a thunderstorm? A thunderstorms is a storm with lightnings and thunders. What causes …
Toothpicks are made of dry wood. Using the absorbing property of wood and the surface tension property of water, you can create a fun trick to impress your kids (or friends). In this simple experiment, we will turn broken toothpicks into an expanding star. Before you start, be sure to watch the video below. The …
Refraction Of Light Have you ever noticed if you look through a glass of water, the image behind the glass sometimes looks funny or distorted? It’s like the glass of water is playing tricks on your eyes. The trick is actually created by the refraction of light. Light travels at different speed through different materials. …
Have you noticed that things look a little funny when you see them through a glass of water? Some of the aberrations are caused by the imperfection in the glass production. But there is more to it. Refraction is the bending of light as it passes from one transparent medium into another1. This bending by …
Propulsion And Newton’s Third Law How do airplanes fly in the sky, ships move in the water and rockets take off into the space? These movements all have one thing in common — thrust. Newton’s Third Law of action and reaction states that for every action, there is an equal and opposition reaction. For every force, …
Magnetism is invisible, but it’s all around us. There is a giant magnetic field on Earth. In this experiment, we will see a smaller version of magnetic field. We will use iron filings to see the magnetic field in 3-dimension. (Here’s an example on 2-dimensional magnetic force field.) Magnet attracts iron and the magnetism can …
Do you know that flowers can drink up water and change their own colors into the color of the water they drink? Flowers and plants drink water through their roots. In cut flowers, since there are no roots, water travels from the cut directly into the stems and travels to the petals and other parts …
How Are Rainbows Formed? Sunlight or white light is a mixture of all the rainbow colors. The different rainbow colors are essentially mixed together to result in a white color. You may wonder why when you mix all the different colors of paint together result in black instead of light. That is because light mixing …
Have you tried our popular experiment “Why is the sky blue?” experiment? Now the next question is, “If the sky normally looks blue, why are sunsets orange in color?” From the last experiment, we know that when light (representing the sun) passes through a clear fluid (representing air) holding small particles (representing dusts), blue is scattered …
What Is Water Cycle? Water cycle is also known as hydrologic cycle or hydrological cycle. It describes how water moves continuously on Earth. Water loops through different stages – evaporation, condensation, precipitation and flow. It then goes back to the evaporation stage. The whole cycle starts all over again and hence the name “water cycle”. Water Cycle …
The Blue Sky On a clear day, the sky is nothing more than the air in the atmosphere. The air itself or the sunlight doesn’t seem to contain any color. So why is the sky blue if sunlight is colorless? The sky is blue due to the scattering of light by tiny particles in the …