The Ultimate Roller Coaster I had the opportunity to ride in NASA’s KC-135, which is a specially equipped plane used for testing the effect of weightlessness. The effect that it had on my body can be summed up in the nickname given to the plane, which is “THE VOMIT COMET.” Many find a roller coaster […]
Pencils Bounced Into Cups
A pencil can be bounced so that it traces out the path of a projectile resulting in the pencil landing in a glass as shown in the video below. In the video, pencils are bounced by dropping them on their eraser end. Depending on how the pencils are dropped, the trajectory path of some of […]
Spaghatti’s Structural Load
Using Games to Teach Science Process Skills The photo shows two kids transporting an empty soda can using an uncooked piece of spaghetti as a pole to carry the can. The kids are participating in a game taken from the TV game show, “Minute-to-Win” it. The objective of the game is for two people to […]
Galileo’s Pendulum Experiment
Galileo Investigated Ways to Slow Acceleration Due to Gravity The Italian scientists Galilei Galileo (1564-1642) ) established experimentally that heavy objects fall at practically the same rate. It was obvious to this scientists that a feather and heavy stone did not fall at the same acceleration. But, heavy objects of different masses appeared to fall […]
Newton’s Laws of Motion Explain Spinning Eggs
Newton’s First Law of Motion Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, is one of the most influential scientist who ever lived. In Newton’s work, the Principia was published on 5 July 1687, Newton stated what he believed to be the three universal laws of motion. It is said […]
Standing Wave
What Is A Standing Wave? A standing wave is the pattern produced in a medium as the result of the repeated interference of two identical waves moving in opposite directions through the medium. All standing wave patterns have nodes and antinodes. The nodes are points of no displacement caused by the destructive interference of the […]
Turkey Wishbone Breaking Tradition
Thanksgiving is a US holiday originating from the Pilgrims’ giving thanks to God for supplying the resources they needed to survive the long winter in the new world. Among other customs, the pilgrims brought the tradition of the breaking of the wishbone. The basic rules for this event have not changed. Two people, each holding […]
Floating Ball
Science has a magical appeal for children. While they are entertained by science demonstrations, nothing is as captivating as something they can do themselves. The best TEACHING TIP I have for club directors is to support and encourage children’s inborn gift of curiosity One way is to explore the fun of science TOGETHER. Instead of […]
Buoyancy
Archimedes discovered that fluids, such as air or water, apply an upward force on objects that are partially or totally submerged in the fluids. Such object are said to have buoyancy (the tendency to float when placed in a fluid). The upward force of fluids is called a buoyant force. A buoyant force is equal […]
Teaching about Gravity using Science Magic
Using gravity you can cause an unattached rope to seemingly lift a bottle. As with all magic–its a trick. In this trick, gravity is used to pull a ball into place so that it presses so hard against the rope that it cannot move. 1. Ask an adult helper to cut a slit in the […]