A pendulum is anything that swings back and forth on a string, chain or rope. Due to their properties, they are good for timekeeping and are found in old clocks. Pendulums are also used for measuring gravity. Pendulums are in Seismometers and even used in religious purposes as a swinging incense burner called a censer. Even a playground swing is a pendulum.
For this experiment, we will start out with a string and 15 washers to make our pendulum. Tie 14 of the washers to one end of the string and the last washer to the other end. To test out the functionality of the pendulum, dangle the string over your friend’s finger. Common sense tells us that the end with 14 washers will crash to the table when the other side is released. Does the pendulum hit the table?
It doesn’t, thanks to the acceleration downward of the
We have shared many slime recipes over the years - Elmer’s Glue Slime is always a favorite, made with water, glue and Borax. Or Glacier GAK, made to show the movement of glaciers. We at Steve Spangler Science sell gallons upon gallons of Atomic Glowing Slime, Clear Slime and the ever popular Green Slime.
Recently, someone posted the question on our Facebook Fan Page about making slime using a material from the hospital. The secret comes from our PVA or polyvinyl alcohol slime.
Your local hospital has disposable laundry bags made from polyvinyl alcohol. They place laundry that shouldn’t be handled from a hospital bed into the bag, tie it up and drop it in the laundry shoot. The bag goes straight into the washer without being opened. The PVA breaks down in the water and dissolves.
Are you hungry for homemade ice cream? Are you in a hurry? You can whip up a batch of liquid nitrogen ice cream in just a few minutes. Just add a little half and half, candy and of course a little liquid nitrogen…
You might be surprised to find balls that don’t bounce, squish, change color, or even splat on the floor. It’s a great way to explore the science of toys.
The black rubber balls look and feel identical in every way except in the way they bounce. One ball bounces like a super ball while the other ball is “dead.” The secret is in the type of material used to make the balls. The ball that bounces is made out of a natural rubber that is highly resilient and very elastic – it’s great for bouncing. The “no bounce” ball is made out of a special type of rubber (usually butyl rubber) that absorbs the kinetic energy of the falling ball instead of changing it into potential energy.
We have had a very dry winter across the Front Range in Colorado. The threat of wildfires is high and we have already experienced a few this year. One way firefighters work to protect homes threatened by fires is to coat them with a special polymer like that found in a baby diaper. The polymer holds a tremendous amount of water. If the fire gets close to the house, the water held in the polymer evaporates and cools down the fire. Watch this demonstration with a $100 bill. Will the money burn or will it escape the fire?
