home experiments

Add joy and share the fun of scientific experimentation with friends and family members. Safety comes first. Be sure to follow each instruction carefully. HAVE FUN! Use an indicator made from red cabbage juice to determine whether household products are acids or bases.   Most plastics are made in factories, but here's one you can make at home. Use a heavier than air gas to suspend soap bubbles. This will allow you to more closely examine the unique properties of bubbles .   Ever played with a Lightstick? In this activity you examine the chemiluminescent reaction that makes a Lightstick glow in the dark. Use ordinary clear soda to make raisins dance. Learn what's in soda that gives it fizz, and what causes things that are heavier than water to float.   Will a bowling ball sink or float in water? The answer seems obvious, but this experiment will show otherwise. Use common liquids you can find around your house to make a density column and a rainbow in a glass.   Clean the tarnish off of silverware. You don't need expensive cleaners, just this experiment. Some wire, a couple of magnets, and a battery – and you can build your own electric motor.   The power of wind is harnessed in this experiment. Suspend a balloon in air without using your hands! In this activity you will examine the behavior of rubber as it is affected by heat, a form of energy.   What makes certain materials "glow" under a black light? This experiment will tell you why. The color of many candies come from dyes. This experiment will separate some of those dyes out using a process called chromatography.   With just a few household chemicals you can turn a glass of colored liquid into a froth that overflows its container. What is the easiest way to pop a balloon? With a needle of course. Is there a way to put a needle into a balloon without popping it?   A fire can weaken the rubber in a balloon and cause it to burst. In this experiment you will find out how you can hold a balloon directly in a flame without breaking it. Many people have water softeners in their houses. What is the purpose of a water softener? What does it mean to have "hard" water?   How much force does it take to crush an aluminum can? Is there a way to crush a can using only air pressure? Have you ever turned a liquid into a solid just by tapping on it? In this experiment you will make a liquid that behaves in a very unpredictable way.   Next time you're at a picnic, look at the soda cooler: some cans float, while others sink. Do this experiment to understand why. Why does the sky look red during sunrises and sunsets? We can learn why during this experiment.   Create a "cartesian diver" inside a 1 or 2 liter plastic bottle. This diver will sink or float on command! Static electricity can be a problem whenever the humidity is low. In this experiment you will use static electricity to "bend" water.   Even though the egg is bigger than the opening of the bottle,  you can get the egg to go into the bottle without touching it. Build your own apparatus to test the electrical conductivity of solutions!   Here are some home experiments from friends of Professor Shakhashiri. SOME SIMPLE SCIENCE WITH EVERYDAY MATERIALS from Lois Nicholson WONDERS OF PHYSICS HOME EXPERIMENTS from Professor Clint Sprott EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS, INC. A Source of Materials and Ideas for Some WOW! NEAT! Experiments and Activities Here's a list of books that contain experiments that you can do at home! Here is a list of books that contain experiments for teachers! You can order a DVD of the Holiday Lecture here.
For more information contact SciFun@chem.wisc.edu