Mad Scientists

Last night we had our "Mad Scientist" family night (#13).  We used the beakers and experiments that we got from Chick Fil-A (paraphrased below), but you could follow the experiments without an "official" beaker too.  Daddy enjoyed teaching the kids a little bit of science.

Experiment #1 - Protective Pressure

What you need: 
Your Beaker * Bowl * Sheet of Paper * Water

What You Do:
1. Push paper into beaker
2. Sink upside down beaker into bowl of water
3. Rest rim on bottom of bowl, hold for 10 sec.
4. Remove beaker from water
5. Is paper wet or dry?

What's Going On?
Air takes up space.  Turning the beaker upside down traps the air inside so water cannot rush up and fill the beaker.

Experiment #2 - Ice Fishing

What You Need:
Your Beaker * Piece of Yarn * Ice Cube * Timer * Water * Salt

What You Do:
1. Place ice cube in beaker
2. Wet yarn and lower one end onto ice cube
3. Sprinkle salt on part of yarn that's touching ice cube
4. Wait 2 minutes and try to remove yarn.  What happens?

What's Going On?
The yarn froze to your ice cube.  When salt is sprinkled on the ice cube, it lowers the freezing point.  As the ice cube continues to melt, the salt water becomes more diluted, causing the freezing point to rise back up.  At this point, the water refreezes, attaching the string to the ice cube.

Experiment #3 - Paper Clip Float

What You Need:
Your Beaker * Dish Detergent * Paper Clip * Fork * Water

What You Do:
1. Fill beaker with 200mL water
2. Place paper clip flat on fork and gently lower into beaker
3. Does paper clip sink with fork or does it float?
4. Without touching the paper clip, remove fork from beaker.  Add 1 drop of dish detergent.  What happens?

What's Going On?
The water's surface tension can support a paper clip! The fork helps you lower the paper clip without breaking the surface tension.  Adding dish detergent disrupts the water molecule order.  They no longer line up from positive to negative.  This means the surface tension is no longer strong enough to support the paper clip's weight.  So the paper clip falls.

THANKS DADDY!