Weird Science Tricks

Worst food of 2009

February 21, 2009

I’ve been meaning to post this tidbit from Yahoo News for a while.  You want a jaw-dropper?  Read this! The Worst Food of 2009 Baskin Robbins Large Chocolate Oreo Shake 2,600 calories 135 g fat (59 g saturated fat, 2.5 g trans fats) 263 g sugars 1,700 mg sodium We didn’t think anything could be [...]

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Superglue a snowflake

February 19, 2009

Hey, wow, I just read this wonderful do-it-yourself experiment.  A lot of people liked my previous post on the myth that no two snowflakes are alike.  Here’s a way to preserve a snowflake forever using superglue. It turns out that the reason superglue bonds things so quickly is that it’s made of a bunch of [...]

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Infrared heat camera (sciencegeekgirl on YouTube)

February 1, 2009

OK, I’ve been posting everybody else’s YouTube videos, so what about METube? After all, it’s all about me. Here is my YouTube debut, talking about infrared light as part of a full-length webcast on climate change. This was totally fun, I left Paul D. back at the webcast studio and ran off-stage, across the museum [...]

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Things to do in a microwave #5: Microwave a lightbulb

February 1, 2009

Everybody’s favorite — microwaving a lightbulb.  Pretty! At least two posts suggest that if you put the bulb in a mug of water (with the bulb part sticking up) then it won’t explode.  I believe that’s because the water acts as a dump for the microwave energy, keeping the bulb from heating up out of [...]

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Things to do in a microwave #4: Microwave a CD

January 11, 2009

OK, I wouldn’t let it run quite as long as these bored college students did, but it DOES look REALLY cool (and it’s a great use of those annoying AOL CD’s, or the romantic mixes that your old boyfriend made for you): And another really pretty one (gotta love the Darth Vader-esque breathing in the [...]

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Things to do in a microwave #3: Ivory Soap Monster

January 7, 2009

I’m surprised at the number of people who haven’t seen this one, but then again, neither had I until I went to the Exploratorium (where they’ll stick anything in a microwave). Put a bar of Ivory Soap (no substitutes!) on a paper towel in the middle of the microwave.  Press go.  About 2 minutes should [...]

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Things to do in a microwave #2: Create a plasma

January 6, 2009

Here’s what you do — slice a grape in half, but keep the halves connected by a little “hinge” of grape skin.  Some suggest drying off the grape halves a little.  Some suggest using a green grape in particular, and some say to cut it in quarters. Put the two halves next to each other, [...]

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Things to do in a microwave #1: Find your microwave hot spots

January 4, 2009

I’ve been wanting to do a series of posts on Fun Things To Do with a Microwave, and I’m just going to get off my butt and DO it!   For some of these to work well, you need to know where your microwave hot spots are. What do we mean by hot spots?  Microwaves are [...]

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Science for the holidays

December 26, 2008

A few cool things about science that relate to the holidays.  I wrote this *before* Christmas, but, oh well, better late than never? Dot Physics has a wonderful post on why Christmas tree lights stay lit even when one of them burns out, which is an unusual way for a series circuit to work.  Some [...]

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Several great YouTube science videos

December 19, 2008

Here are some great gems from some really old posts over at Swans on Tea. Thanks to Rhett at DotPhysics for the technical assistance. Robots doing amazing things: Carbon dioxide is heavier than air (neat thing to try at home) Weird psychology trick (how does he do that?)

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New study on synthesia

December 16, 2008

I got a lot of comments on my previous post on synthesia, so it seems there’s some interest there.  Check out this post on Cognitive Daily about a study of the rarest form of synthesia – tasting words. For more common (or rather, less uncommon) forms of synesthesia, the most convincing evidence that it’s real [...]

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Scotch tape is crazy stuff

December 11, 2008

Yeah, yeah, I know, this is old news, but I finally got around to reading the articles about the fact that Scotch tape emits x-rays. I’ve known for a while that when you stick scotch tape to something and then peel it off, the scotch tape gets charged (negatively for those who care). This is [...]

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Make your own phonograph (Repost)

December 6, 2008

I’ve got so many different posts that I want to write… scribbled notes on different science myths and beautiful everyday things, but I have been so very busy. I’m sorry. I will get back to writing detailed posts in a few weeks! In the meantime, I’d like to recycle a good old post on making [...]

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Myths about the earth

December 4, 2008

Ooh ooh ooh, Bad Astronomy posted (a while ago) a fabulous list of Ten Things You Didn’t Know about the Earth. If you dig my science myths, check this one out. Such gems as “The earth is smoother than a billiard ball,” “Destroying the earth is hard,” and “Mt. Everest isn’t the biggest mountain.” See [...]

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Surface tension wins – Water balloons in space

November 20, 2008

Here’s a great video of what happens when you pop a water balloon in space. This is a nice clear lesson about surface tension and the war between different forces. When you take away gravity, then surface tension is able to hold together a much larger blob of water. It no longer has gravity trying [...]

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Water droplets in space

November 6, 2008

Have you seen the videos from the International Space Station on suspended water droplets? NASA Astronaut Don Pettit is the science officer for the mission, and did some fabulous videos on how water (and other liquids) behave in space. They’ve long known about the ability of water to form suspended droplets in space, but he [...]

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Muscle trick: Why do your arms feel stuck together?

November 5, 2008

A reader to this blog posted this excellent question: Hi. My kids heard about this “trick,” one which I assume has to do with muscles or musculo-skeletal mechanics (or crampinG) but for which I don’t really have a definite, or detailed explanation. If you extends your arms out, holding your fists side by side together [...]

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Magnetic silverware in restaurants

October 2, 2008

Regarding magnetic “silverware” in restaurants from NPR’s Car talk (week of 9/22) PUZZLER: A Magnetizing Dinner Chez Magliozzi Over dinner, Ray’s wife notices that her knife and fork are stuck to each other, her knife was magnetized. Ray’s son’s knife was magnetized too, but the polarity was the reverse of her’s. Ray’s niece offers an [...]

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Myth 1: Is glass liquid? (Addendum)

September 16, 2008

This is an addendum to my earlier (and popular) post about whether or not glass is a liquid.  If you haven’t read the previous post, the crux of the myth is that many of us are taught in science class that glass is a veeerry slow flowing liquid, and that’s why old windows are thicker [...]

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The physics of baseball (and the bat marimba!)

September 11, 2008

The Exploratorium has done a lot of fun stuff with the physics of baseball, including a whole website devoted to the science of baseball (where’s the sweet spot on the bat? What are baseballs made of?). One of our senior artists, Dave Barker, has also created the Bat Marimba (photo above). I’ve just posted a [...]

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