- Whoo, science rules!
- Now we're gonna pour out the hydrogen peroxide
and pour it inside of here.
Whoo, look at this, this is insane.
- Growing up, I always loved shows like
Bill Nye the Science Guy and Beakman's World
because they made science fun, accessible
and easy to do at home.
And if you're anything like me,
you love science experiments, so why do we talk
about something you can do at home right now?
These are 10 amazing science experiments you can do at home.
Number one isoobleck, oobleck is the name
for a strange, mucky substance you can easily make
with one part water and two parts corn starch.
As the corn starch is slowly mixed into the water,
it will become tougher the more you try to stir it up.
Once the two are fully mixed together,
you'll get a white, slimy goo called oobleck, or magic mud.
Oobleck is different because it's classified as
a non-Newtonian fluid because it displays properties
of both a liquid and a solid.
Smack it or roll it into a ball in your hand
to see it harden under physical force.
But if you let it rest,
it will quickly ooze out of your grasp.
The name oobleck is taken from a book
called Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss,
which tells of a sticky goo substance called oobleck
that falls from the sky.
If you wanted to get creative with your oobleck,
you can always add food coloring to the mixture
while you're stirring it, just be careful
because it can really easily slip out of your hands.
But it's a lot of fun.
Number two is the canned rainbow.
There are actually two methods of creating
a canned rainbow, and neither of them involves running
around on a rainy day trying to catch one with a jar,
you big piece of crazy.
Both methods are achieved by stacking liquids
with different densities on top of each other.
The most effective way is to use a bottom layer of honey,
colored dish soap on top of that, a layer of water,
then olive oil and finally add a top layer
of isopropyl alcohol.
Alternatively, if you don't have those things,
use a few cups of sugar, water and food coloring.
For this method you'll be adding various levels of sugar
to each cup and dissolving each amount in water with colors.
Make sure the water with the most sugar is poured in first
since it will be the heaviest and will sit at the bottom.
From there you slowly add in your different rainbow layers,
going from the mixes with the most sugar
to the mixes with the least.
Once you're done you'll have a glass
of liquid rainbow art to show off.
Number three is a miniature electromagnet.
It's time to harness the power of electromagnetism at home.
What you'll need first is an iron bolt or nail,
which will act as your magnet, some copper wire
and any kind of battery that you have in your house.
Size double A or D is best.
First, you need to wrap your copper wire
around your bolt a bunch of times,
leaving the other end of each wire long enough
to connect to the battery.
Try to wrap the wire as tightly close together as you can,
and if you have enough, wrap another layer over top
to make a stronger magnet.
Once the iron object is all wrapped up,
you'll need to connect one end of the copper wire
to the positive charged part of the battery
and the other end to the negative.
After the connections have been made,
you'll have your very own electromagnet
to pick up small metal objects.
The electricity from the battery will travel
through the copper wire and into the nail or bolt,
giving it a magnetic charge.
Number four is magnetic slime, to create magnetic slime
you'll need a tablespoon of Borax powder
or some laundry detergent that contains Borax
mixed with about two and a half cups of water.
Empty out the contents of a small bottle
of white school glue and slowly stir in the Borax water.
Stirring and mixing this enough will create the goo,
which is pretty fun to play with on its own.
Now, add a bunch of iron fillings and work that slime around
until it's uniform with small iron specks.
Once you have a suitable amount of iron incorporated
into your goo substance, grab your magnets
and watch as the slime literally crawls towards them.
The magnetic slime is most fun with powerful magnets,
so try to have some on hand
before performing your experiment.
Also, keep in mind that your slime will only stay good
until the iron fillings go rusty,
so don't plan on storing it for a later date.
That could get nasty, bran all over your hands.
Ain't nobody got time for that.
Number five is the plant maze.
Plants aren't exactly active or exciting organisms,
but they do make pretty good navigators
when it comes to finding sunlight.
To see them in action for yourself,
you'll need a small box with a lid, like a shoebox,
a few pieces of cardboard, scissors, tape,
and a little bean plant in soil.
Open the box and fashion two small walls
out of your cardboard to tape in place.
Position them sticking out on either side,
creating a little zig zag maze for your weed bean sprout
to figure out, and then secure them with tape.
Cut a decent sized hole about three inches wide
at the top of your shoebox maze.
This is where the sunlight will pour through
and guide your plant to victory.
Once the maze is ready, water your sprout
and place it at the bottom of the box.
Then place the lid over top and tape it shut
to make sure no other light can get in.
If you leave your little bean plant and come back to it
about four or five days later,
you'll find that it is grown upwards through the maze.
Mother Nature's a mad scientist.
Number six is a pressurized balloon.
For this truly odd experiment, you'll be inflating a balloon
by sucking air out of a plastic bottle.
First, you'll need an empty plastic bottle,
preferably something large enough
to allow the balloon to expand, like a large sports drink.
Once you have that, cut a small hole about halfway down
the side of it that you'll use to suck the air out.
Next, get your balloon, lower it into the bottle,
and stretch the opening over the mouth of it.
Now that you have the opened balloon dangling
in the bottle, it's time to start sucking the air out
through that hole that you cut in the side.
As you suck the air out you'll notice
that the balloon will start to inflate,
even though the end of it is wide open.
What you are doing here is creating an imbalance
in air pressure by decreasing the pressure in the bottle
compared to the air pressure surrounding the outside.
This forces the balloon to grow as it tries
to equalize the pressure between the two environments.
It's kind of some reverse mad scientist stuff.
It's fun, try it.
Number seven is the pasta rocket.
This experiment turns pasta into a miniature jet thruster.
The easiest way to do this is to have a small canning jar,
some hydrogen peroxide, dry yeast,
and a piece of hollow pasta that can stand on its end.
Pasta like ziti or bucatini work best for this.
You'll need to drill a small hold in the top
of the canning lid that you can place
the uncooked pasta over.
Once you have everything in order,
fill 75% of the jar up with hydrogen peroxide,
then mix in a quarter teaspoon of dry yeast.
As they begin to react and bubble,
place the canning lid on the jar
without the screw on top, then stand your pasta noodle
over the hole to create a funnel for the oxygen
that is now being released.
Now, light the top of the noodle with a lighter
and watch as the steady rocket-like flame is created.
The peroxide and yeast acts as an oxygen generator
while the pasta become the fuel source,
creating the same basic concept for modern day rockets.
Number eight is the Leidenfrost Effect.
The Leidenfrost Effect is a scientific reaction
that occurs when water meets a surface
with a temperature much higher than its boiling point.
First, you'll need a saucepan or another type
of metal container that you can heat on a stove top.
Heat the pan to 374 degrees Fahrenheit
and then get a small cup of water.
Now, normally when you add droplets of water
to a hot surface, they go flat and evaporate
into a steam pretty fast, but at 374 degrees,
they roll around as little balls of liquid.
Watching the water roll around kind of seems reminiscent
of watching someone run barefoot on a hot driveway
after it's been in the sun too long.
Scientifically speaking, this effect is achieved
when the water droplet first makes contact
with the surface and the heat is enough
to instantly vaporize the part of the underside.
It's amazing because the vapor created forms a shield
under the droplet, which allows it to roll around
without making contact directly with the heated surface.
Number nine are naked eggs.
Oh, everybody loves some eggies.
For this one you'll need a regular egg
from an egg carton, a cup and some vinegar.
Fill the cup up with vinegar until the egg is covered
and then leave it for at least 24 hours.
While you're waiting, the vinegar is dissolving
the calcium carbonate that makes up part of the egg shell,
and after a day you can start to rub the shell away,
leaving just the contents of the egg.
It's actually amazing, it's all held together
just by a thin membrane, and the membrane itself
is semi-impermeable, meaning liquid can be absorbed
through it, so your new naked egg might
be a bit bigger than it was before
as it now contains nasty, nasty vinegar.
Without its shell, the egg actually
becomes rubbery and bouncy,
but bounce it too hard and you can break it.
You can also shrink your naked egg down to just its yolk
through osmosis by soaking it for a day in corn syrup,
which has a very low water content.
But whatever you do, don't eat your naked egg
when you're done with it, unless you like your eggs
saturated with that nasty vinegar.
And number 10 is instant ice.
Okay, this one is really cool.
In order to instantly create ice, you'll need to put
an unopened bottle of purified water in the freezer
for two and a half to three hours.
Once the wait is over you should carefully
retrieve your super cold water bottle,
making sure not to drop or shake it.
Now, once you have your instant ice making water,
you can choose how you want to trigger the reaction.
You can actually watch the entire bottle of water
turn into solid ice in seconds just by hitting it
or slamming the bottle on a surface.
You can also pour the water slowly on a piece
of existing ice and create cool ice formations.
Or dip a piece of ice into the water
and watch everything freeze outwards from it.
Now, this trick will only work with purified water
since it doesn't contain any tiny minerals
or organic material.
Since these are mostly absent in purified water,
it can take on temperatures below freezing
without becoming solid.
If you guys end up trying any of these, record it
and tweet it to me, I want to see what you make.
But thank you guys for watching this episode.
And if you enjoyed it, remember to hit that like button
and subscribe, if you haven't yet.
I'm going to have a brand new video for you tomorrow
at 12 West Coast Time, three Eastern Standard Time,
so make sure you come by then.
Have a fantastic day.