Things you need - Two polarizers - A ziplock bag, various acrylic plastic items and a few glass items - Light For polarizers you can use polarized glasses, polarized camera filters or lcd screens (which serves as the light source and one polarizer) This experiment will allow you to see the stress in glass and plastic that is normally invisible to out perception. I will tell how i do it but you can modify it for whatever polarizers you have. I put a bright white background on my monitor which again serves as my light and one polarizer, but a ziplock bag between the LCD monitor and you. Put on your sunglasses or hold your polarizer (i propped my polarizer so i could use both hands on the ziplock). So the order light-polarizer-ziplock, polarizer, eyeball Now with your hands pinch and pull apart the ziplock and see what happens! You can also use some glass and acrylic to see the stress in the material as seen in my picture here (glass).
Guppies make a great model organism for at home genetics experiments. Guppies are fun to raise and breed as well and are extremely easy to care for -yuri
Here is a cool experiment to demonstrate the Ideomotor effect. Gather together some friends and use a Ouija board just as instructed. It will work and the scientifically illiterate people in the group will be amazed and think that spirits are talking to them. After that, blind fold everyone, but let someone watch and not participate to monitor the results. The pointer will now move around but will end up in random spots and produce nonsense for answers. You can then educate people on the Ideomotor effect. I know of some great Astrology debunking experiments too!
Set up several fire pits. Collect different plant specimens from around your area. Burn them seperately and see if the fire changes color. I noticed one type of leaf in my apartment area produces a crimson colored flame, noticeable red compared to the normal orange flames. This can indicate if the plant contains larger ammounts of certain elements. -yuri
Get a red light bulb, close your eyes with it on next to you and listen to white noise. Thank me later.
Things you'll need; 1 <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">tablespoon </span>baking powder - <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">1 <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">pinch of </span><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">salt - <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">1 teaspoon </span><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">white sugar - <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">2 large </span><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">eggs </span>(beaten) - <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">30 grams </span><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">butter </span>(melted and cooled) - <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">300 ml </span><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">milk - <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">225 grams </span><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">plain flour - <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">butter </span>for frying</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> \nThe easiest way to make these is to put all the ingredients into a blender and blitz. But if you do mix up the batter by hand in a bowl, make a well in the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar, beat in the eggs, melted butter and milk, and transfer to a jug: it's much easier to pour the batter into the pan than to spoon it. \nHeat a smooth griddle or pan on the stove. \nWhen you cook the pancakes, all you need to remember is that when the upper side of the pancake is blistering and bubbling it's time to cook the second side, and this needs only about 1 minute, if that. \nI get about 16 silver-dollar-sized pancakes out of this. \nHow's that?
tell a friend that microwaves can wirelessly charge a phone. Throw in terms like: faraday cage, ion potential, potential difference. Watch in amazement as they toast it
Here's an experiment I conducted when I was a kid : If you take every liquid thing you can find in your household (except for the toxic stuff) and mix it in a container and leave it for a day then smell it - you will be able to vividly remember tht smell for the rest of your life.
When I was a kid, I found a dead squirrel and threw it in a bucket of water thinking it'd preserve it like in the movies with specimen jars. Well I let it sit for quite awhile, probably a few months.. and when I was opening it, the smell made me instantly puke before I barely even got the lid off. I still remember that smell.. and it wasn't like a typical dead animal smell, this was on a whole other level. The visual was gross too.. but didn't phase me, just that smell. Even just thinking about it now is making my stomach feel funny.. but that's how I learned that you need a special liquid to preserve dead things. Go science!
Thats similar to my memorable smell experience. I took a frozen rat in a ziplock and set it on a heatpad to thaw for one of my boas. I cant recall how many days (maybe 3) i forgot about it. That was the most funky rancid smell ive ever experienced. Post more experiments!
I'm not sure I'd consider that a win.. lol So my family seems determined to leave a mess in the kitchen that draws in ants. Now I love ants, they're one of my top favorite insects.. but when it comes to poking and prodding them, I won't lose any sleep. Normally I just let them be.. they're putting wasted food to good use at least, but a couple nights ago they were out in full force. So I literally poked at them, got them running.. spraying their fear and threat chemicals.. but didn't think it'd be enough. So I squished some and used my finger to dab their dead essence all over the place.. but then I took it up a notch and singled out one ant at a time and "chased" it. Tapping my finger near it to get it running.. giving it time to get full of fear. Even chased some and then let them calm down and relax and hit them again.. cause they might have different chemicals for different severity of threats and I wanted to cover all my bases. Probably only squished 30 some ants.. but after I was done, I put my finger on one of their trails. It was kind of neat to see their reaction.. they were too scared to attack my finger, but they would either go around my finger or haul ass the other direction. They never got closer than a half inch to my finger and some of them were funny. They would come up on it and go around it while still facing my finger with their butt in the air in defensive mode. Reminded me of when you see someone pull a gun on someone and point it at them while they make their escape.. but my finger must of smelled like the grim reaper to them. I then rubbed dead ant on their trails and outside their entrance.. and they haven't come back since. Hoping that hive mind logged that area as a no go zone for a bit.. but time will tell. Sounds cruel, but it relates to how I think we should be making repellent for animals out of dead animals from their species rather than random chemicals.. kind of like when people put dead people on display to deter other people.