Science Experiments. A Philosophical Toy. By Richard Frazier For nearly a decade I have challenged my students (grades 7-9) to answer the question, "How did the Cartesian Diver get its name?
" The students who have taken up this challenge have returned with little more than a description of the device and a conviction that the name is eponymous, that "Cartesian" is derived from the name of the French mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Never has a student found a documented link between the diver and Descartes although some science activity books suggest Descartes was the inventor (Vilenkin in Kikoin, 1980). We have recently made a more concerted effort to pursue the question and have posted queries by electronic and regular mail to science educators, to researchers at science museums, and to historians and philosophers of science. Air Surfing Kit Walkalong Glider. This page is out of date!
There's a new generation of designs that are easier to make here. Air Surfing Foam Walkalong Gliders Gallery of Feedback: people surfing foam gliders throughout the world! Buchwald's Bionics: Walkalong gliders that mimic living creatures! Until the foam is available again, step into air surfing with paper tumblewings. Infinity - Tech Demo Video 2010. Free electricity Video - 5min.com. I discovered a secret source of electricity that the power company and phone company do not want you to know about.
It is also a great source of emergency electricity if your power ever goes out. All you need to tap into this secret power source is phone line. Every phone line is between 40 and 70 volts running through it, 24/7. In my case, it measure around 57 volts. After some bench testing, I discovered that all you need are 4 components to use this power source. My test subject is this LED light, I picked up at Wal-Mart. I begin assembling the small circuit, using the 2 resistors, the regulator, and the bridge rectifier. I also use the small hobby box to mount everything in. Then, I made an interface cable for the light to connect to the phone jack. Instructables - Make, How To, and DIY. 7th Grader mimics Nature. 13 year old copies Nature to Improve Solar Performance.
Science Projects Experiments, Educational Toys & Science Toys. Lego printer. This is the home of the "lego felt tip 110".
A fully working lego printer with driver for Mac OSX. Many people have asked for documentation, source code, instructions etc, so here it is. Master the Power: How to Shock People with Your Fingertips « Fear Of Lightning. The circuit schematic is represented in the (incredibly detailed) drawing below:
Science Experiments You Can Do At Home or School. Iterative Algorithmic Plastic Sculpture: Fimo Fractals - Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. One of our favorite shapes is the Sierpinski triangle.
In one sense, a mere mathematical abstraction, on the other, a pattern that naturally emerges in real life from several different simple algorithms. On paper, one can play the Chaos Game to generate the shape (or cheat and just use the java applet). You can also generate a Sierpinski triangle in what is perhaps a more obvious way: by exploiting its fractal self-similarity. Beginning with a single triangle, replace that triangle with three half-size copies arranged so that their outer border form a new triangle of the same size as the original. Then, replace each of those three triangles with three triangles half that size, and so forth. We begin with a few packages of polymer clay– two colors of Fimo Soft, in this case. Form the two clay colors into long triangular shapes. Press the stack of triangles together to make sure that the edges fuse well. Cut the stretched “first iteration” piece into four pieces of equal length.
Lesson Plan for Making a Speaker Laboratory. ©1995 The Regents of the University of California.
How To Make Hot Ice!!! Crazy. A CD spectrometer. A simple spectrometer can be built from a CD and a box.
Cut a slit on one side of the box. How to Extract DNA from Anything Living. First, you need to find something that contains DNA.
Since DNA is the blueprint for life, everything living contains DNA. For this experiment, we like to use green split peas. But there are lots of other DNA sources too, such as: Spinach Chicken liver Strawberries Broccoli Certain sources of DNA should not be used, such as: Your family pet, Fido the dog Your little sister's big toe Bugs you caught in the yard Step 1: Blender Insanity! Put in a blender: 1/2 cup of split peas (100ml) 1/8 teaspoon table salt (less than 1ml) 1 cup cold water (200ml) Blend on high for 15 seconds. The blender separates the pea cells from each other, so you now have a really thin pea-cell soup. Step 2: Soapy Peas Pour your thin pea-cell soup through a strainer into another container (like a measuring cup).
Add 2 tablespoons liquid detergent (about 30ml) and swirl to mix. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes. Pour the mixture into test tubes or other small glass containers, each about 1/3 full. Why am I adding detergent? Science Experiments - 5min.com.