When you swing a bucket of water over your head, you probably expect a big, wet rush of water to soak you as the bucket goes upside down. However, if you were swinging the bucket fast enough, nothing happens. What in the world?!? Well, we have a pretty incredible physics demonstration to help you understand just why you remain dry. It’s called the Centripetal Force Board, and it will help you experience the physics and forces at play when three plastic cups of water leave you high, dry, and with new hands-on science topics in mind.
One balloon is blown up inside of another when you use a magnifying glass to focus light onto their surfaces. You expect the balloons to pop, but only the balloon on the inside bursts. What’s going on here? The Mystery Balloon Pop is a tremendous lesson in the power of the sun’s rays and the absorption of light and heat. Did we mention you’re popping balloons for science? Get started!
Science is often referred to as the most fun subject in school, but it can be the most delicious subject, too! When you create Homemade Rock Candy, you’ll be diving “string-first” into a science experiment and project that easy enough to do right at home! Young scientists will engage with principles like sedimentation and supersaturated solutions. How tasty does that sound?
We’ve found a method to take our famous Naked Egg experiment to a new level. By dropping your Naked Eggs into Karo corn syrup or water, you’ll witness eggs that have the strange ability to grow and shrink. It’s all an investigation into chemical reactions and permeability that is fun and engaging.
Amuse the neighbors for hours as you make objects float in midair. Believe it or not, the secret to this mystery of levitation is right in front of your nose. All you’ll need is a hairdryer and a ping pong ball to experience the power of air.
It’s the ultimate prank using the simplest of props… a plastic soda bottle filled with water. Even though the words “DO NOT OPEN” are printed on the bottle, people just can’t resist the temptation. Watch out, the fun is just beginning!
When Sick Science! first got its start, we introduced an experiment called the Color Mixing Wheel. This spinning science toy was a great way to show you what happens when the primary colors blend together to make secondary colors. Our Sick Scientists have taken it a step further. What happens when you spin a wheel that has all 6 primary and secondary colors?
The human body is a magnificent machine. Every part serves a purpose that seems to work like magic (except maybe the appendix). The more science discovers and understands about the human body, the more opportunities we have to replicate their processes. With the Homemade Lung science project, you’ll learn how you can replicate a working lung with household objects. You’ll have a blast recreating this bodily function, and you don’t have to give up a lung to do it!
Has the universe a beginning or was it here since forever? Well, evidence suggests that there was indeed a starting point to this universe we are part of right now. But how can this be? How can something come from nothing? And what about time? We don’t have all the answers yet so let’s talk about what we know.
Also, we try to make this one not depressing. Tell us if we succeeded.
BY THE WAY. We have a website now. We’ll try to blog from time to time, show you guys how we make the videos and give more insight to our process. Also we sell stuff. We really don’t know where this whole kurzgesagt stuff leads us. But we are really thankful for all the attention and positive feedback and yeah, maybe we can make this our jobs — it would be pretty nice and we could do more content each month. But we’ll see. For now, thank you very much everybody for making this little adventure possible.
If you like the MUSIC of the video, you can get it here: http://bit.ly/1fCOlLI
Thomas did an aweful good job again. 🙂
Next Video: April. (as soon as we can but we kind of have to make a living and visit college) Topic: Nuclear Energy (probably, if we finish the research in time — if not something else)
Short videos, explaining things. For example Evolution, the Universe, Time, the Stock Exchange or controversial topics like Fracking. Because we love science.
We’re a bunch of Information designers from munich, visit us on our website, twitter, facebook or behance to say hi!
Water and bleach: historically, this pair go together pretty well, namely in the world of cleanliness. Bleach is a remarkably caustic base that, when diluted with water, can clean stains from whites and linoleum. However, apart from their similarly clear appearance, water and bleach are very dissimilar. Bleach is very alkaline, but water is a neutral pH. Chemically, that is saying a lot. But what does that have to do with vivid colors?
Kaleidoscopes are an incredible tool for witnessing the effects of refracting light, but putting your own kaleidoscope together can be a pain. We’ve simplified the process using our famous Rainbow Peepholes. Witness a literal rainbow of colors when you build your own kaleidoscope with the Homemade Kaleidoscope experiment.
White flowers are beautiful, and so are pink flowers, but what if you could have flowers that changed from white to pink and back again? That’s exactly what happens with the Magic Color Changing Flowers. The chemistry behind these magnificent flowers will boggle your mind and create stunning visuals that will have you, and your audience, wanting to repeat the process all day.
A bottle balances precariously on it’s mouth. Nothing special, right? Well… put a dollar bill underneath the bottles mouth. Now, bet your friends a dollar that they can’t pull the dollar out from under the bottle without knocking it over. Sit back and enjoy their futile attempts as friend after friend knocks the bottle over. What’s the secret? Read on to find out!
You can have a ton of science fun with a straw. You can make it into a blow gun, using the properties of air, or it can double as a pipette when your lab has run out. But did you know you can perform some awesome hands-on science with the straw’s wrapper, too? It’s true. With the Wrapper Worm, we’ll reveal how to turn an ordinary straw wrapper into a growing worm!
Plug the drain, fill the sink with water, and take the plunge with Steve Spangler’s floating science challenge. We all know that certain things float in water while other things sink, but why? Do all heavy things sink? Why does a penny sink and an aircraft carrier float? Think you know the answers? Well, get ready for a few amazing surprises!
There’s something very important about oil that you need to know: oil doesn’t mix with water! That’s why oil spills in the ocean float on the surface and why throwing water on a grease fire is just going to make the fire worse. Now that you recognize that oil and water just don’t mix, let’s have some fun with them.
Carbon dioxide is a gas that we interact with every day. For instance, CO2 enables plants to perform photosynthesis, you exhale CO2 when you breathe, and CO2 can extinguish fire. You probably knew all those facts, but did you know that you can get really science-y and extremely creative when putting out flames with CO2? It’s as simple as pouring the gas onto fire. Pouring? You better believe it!
Milk goes great with a lot of things: cereal, cookies, cake, and pie. You know what’s even more incredible to mix with milk? A big ol’ bottle of soda! We know what you’re thinking, “Soda and milk would be disgusting, together!” You’re absolutely correct, but you aren’t supposed to drink the mixture! Instead, watch the magic happen when you mix the two.
Our Insta-Snow® powder has become pretty famous for being the most realistic faux snow on the market. What many people don’t know is that you can make instant snowballs from the fake snow! Insta-Snowballs might not work for snowball fights, but they’re remarkably easy to make, and ridiculously cool!
We’ve shown you how different sodas will either sink or swim in plain tap water, but what’s the deal with eggs? Drop as many eggs into plain tap water as you want, but they’ll all sink to the bottom. In the Floating Egg experiment, we’ll show you how the addition of something as simple as table salt, can drastically alter what happens to eggs in water.
Did you know that the majority of burps are simply caused by swallowed air? It’s true! Burping is a natural human phenomenon, but it’s also possible for a bottle to burp. Say what?! Believe it… bottles can belch just like a human. All it takes is a bit of science know-how, especially when it comes to the properties of air and water.
Here’s an easy-to-do experiment using only a balloon and a hex nut from the hardware store. This is the perfect science of sound activity because kids will love it and parents will be left shouting, “STOP!” Be sure to buy enough supplies for all of your friends. This is also the perfect Halloween experiment for making spooky sounds.
It looks like an ordinary glass of water… crystal clear water. But hiding just below the surface of the water is an amazing collection of large, jelly-like marbles that become invisible when submerged in water. The Jelly Marbles become invisible due to an identical index of refraction with the liquid. In other words, they vanish like magic! As you’ll see, there’s more to this experiment than meets the eye.
Everyone knows that water can’t flow uphill. Not so fast… When a small amount of Polyox (polyethylene oxide) is mixed with water, it dissolves, forming a thick, slippery, gooey, mucous-like gel. Oh, the visual imagery! When the gel is poured back and forth between two beakers, the gel mysteriously siphons from the higher held beaker to the lower one. Maybe water can flow uphill. You have to play with the stuff to believe it.
It’s a demonstration that almost has to be seen in person to believe. Otherwise, you’re likely to say, “It’s fake… there’s no way that could happen!” As you’re watching the video, please remember that there is absolutely no trick photography. When disbelievers see the demonstration performed, the reaction is nothing short of astonishing. Based on our past experience, we know that color mixing is not a reversible process. Mix red and blue and you make purple. Separating the colors back into their original form is not only tricky but incomprehensible for many of us. Watch the video… you’ll see why we call it a “Twist in Time.”
As a penny balances precariously on the hook of a wire hanger, you might think any sort of movement would send the penny flying. With a bit of physics know-how, you can spin the entire hanger around in a circle without losing the 1¢ coin. When it comes down to it, you just need to thank Sir Isaac Newton.
Grow and color jelly-like crystals, then layer them in a plastic tube so you can see the colors blend and change. Our baby soda bottle “test tube” makes it easy to see the scientific results, and it’s small enough to carry your “rainbow” wherever you go! Included is a science activity guide to teach you all about crystals and color!
Steve’s son, Jack Spangler, decided that it is just too hard to pour soft drinks by turning a 2-liter bottle of soda upside down. The bottle is just too heavy. So Jack decided to use the power of Mentos and Diet Coke to fill 6 glasses at once and solve his problem. It’s a fun, creative, hands-on way to utilize the epic Mentos Geyser in a way that harnesses it for your drinking pleasure.
The Energy Stick makes quite the “buzz” when you’re using it. To the untrained eye, it appears to be a plastic tube with a jumble of wires inside and two silver bands at each end. Well, those silver bands are actually electrodes. All the wires on the inside? They’re a solid state sensing circuit, tone generator, sound transducer, battery power supply, and LED lights. The perfect use for the Energy Stick is as a simple, yet fun, tool for learning about continuity and circuits. So… how do you turn it on?
It’s that time of the year when kids are heading back to school. After our science guy Steve Spangler walked his kids to school this morning, he’s here to share some secrets that parents and teachers can use to foster the excitement of a new school year.
Steve Spangler is a celebrity teacher, science toy designer, speaker, author and an Emmy award-winning television personality. Spangler is probably best known for his Mentos and Diet Coke geyser experiment that went viral in. Spangler is the founder of www.SteveSpanglerScience.com, a Denver-based company specializing in the creation of science toys, classroom science demonstrations, teacher resources and home for Spangler’s popular science experiment archive and video collection. Spangler is a frequent guest on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and Denver 9 News where he takes classroom science experiments to the extreme. For teachers, parents or DIY Science ideas – check out other sources of learning:
All it takes is a slight tug and the long string of beads literally pull itself out of the container and onto the floor. Best of all, fifty feet of beads empty from the container in under five seconds! How does it work?
You might think that you can’t fit many drops of water on the surface of a penny. Pennies are just so small! In the Drops on a Penny experiment, though, you’ll experience surface tension and cohesion at their finest. How many drops of water can you fit? There’s only one way to find out… by adding one drop at a time!
We’ve been performing the Mentos Soda Geyser here at Steve Spangler Science for years. We’ve launched so many geysers, in fact, that we created a tool to help streamline the process of creating the eruption. While the Geyser Tube is, hands-down, the best way to create a soda geyser that can be 30 feet tall, you might not be able to get your hands on one right away. So we’re going to teach you how to create a Homemade Geyser Tube with stuff you have at home.
