Easily Peel a Hard-Boiled Egg

You're an adult making adult food decisions, like cobb salads and egg salads and devilled eggs for your family pitch-ins. (Uh, yeah you gotta pitch-in now.) You don't have time to sit and pick off little shell crumblies like some dumb, desperate kid after an Easter Egg hunt. Here's a quick way to peel an egg, you kidult.

Freeze Water Instantly

When purified water is cooled to just below freezing point, a quick nudge or an ice cube placed in it is all it takes for the water to instantly freeze. You can finally have the power of Fr ozone from The Incredible on a very small scale! Check out the video on this "cool" experiment. 

Make Objects Seemingly Disappear

 
Refraction is when light changes direction and speed as it passes from one object to another. Only visible objects reflect light. When two materials with similar reflective properties come into contact, light will pass through both materials at the same speed, rendering the other material invisible. Check out this video from Brit Lab on how to turn glass invisible using vegetable oil and Pyrex glass.

Make Slime with Glue and Borax

You will need

• Elmer’s glue (most kinds of white craft glue will work)
• 2 disposable cups
• Food coloring (you pick the color)
• Water
• Borax Powder (available at most large grocery stores near the laundry detergent)
• A plastic spoon (for stirring)
• A tablespoon (for measuring)

What to do

1. Fill one small cup with water and add a spoonful of the Borax powder and stir it up. Then set it aside.
2. Fill the other small cup with about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of the glue.
3. Add three tablespoons (20 ml) of water to the glue and stir.
4. Add a few drops of the food coloring and stir it up until mixed.
5. Now the fun part…Add one tablespoons of the Borax solution you made earlier and stir well. Watch the slime form!
6. After the slime forms let it sit for about 30 seconds and then pull it off the spoon and play with it!

Tip: Keep your slime in a tightly closed plastic bag when you are not playing with it, and keep it away from carpet and your little sister’s hair.

How does it work?

Now for the SCIENCE part…. This POLYMER is unique because it has qualities of both a solid and a liquid. It can take the shape of its containers like a liquid does, yet you can hold it in your hand and pick it up like a solid. As you might know, solid molecules are tight together, liquid molecules spread out and break apart (drops) POLYMER molecules CHAIN themselves together (they can stretch and bend like chains) and that makes them special. Jell-O, rubber bands, plastic soda bottles, sneaker soles, even gum are all forms of polymers. The polymer you made should be kept in a sealed plastic bag when you aren’t playing with it. Also, be sure to keep it away from young kids or pets who might think it’s food. Have fun!

MAKE IT AN EXPERIMENT

The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:

1. How can you make the polymer stretch the farthest?
2. Does the amount of Borax added change the slime?
3. What method of storage will make the polymer last the longest?
4. What brand of glue makes the stretchiest polymer?
5. Does the amount of water added to the glue affect the gooeyness of the slime?

Science Bob

More Images & Video

Build A Hovercraft You Can Ride!

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 Hovercrafts are lots of fun, and a great way to demonstrate the power of moving air. Here are the instructions to build a hovercraft of your own that you can ride on. Construction time can be as little as a few hours. These plans are based on the plans we used for the hovercraft built for Jimmy Kimmel Live. (see video) To build a smaller, tabletop hover craft powered by a balloon, click HERE.

You will need:

• 4’ X 4’ 3/4 inch plywood
• Piece of heavy-duty tarp material 5’ X 5’
• .25 inch machine bolt (1.5 inches long) with nut
• 2 2-inch washers for the bolt
• Plastic cover for a round electrical box
• Leaf blower (cordless electric leaf blowers are great – we used a Makita BUB182Z)
• Lawn chair (optional)
• String
• Pencil
• TOOLS: (adult use only) jig saw, staple gun, drill, utility knife, sandpaper

Keeping Water Separate

Fill two identical glasses with water. Add two tablespoons of salt to the water in one glass and stir well. Add a few drops of food coloring to the water in the other glass.

Cover the glass containing the colored water with a sheet of paper, turn it upside down and place it on top of the glass containing salt water. (Be sure to do this trick over a saucer or bowl.)

Gently pull the paper out from between the glasses. The colored water and the salt water will remain separate.

How Does It Work?

Salt water is heavier than colored water, so the two stay separate as long as the boundary between them isn’t disturbed. Try turning the two glasses over, though. The heavier salt water will now be on top, so it will flow down and mix with the colored water.

Toothpick Torpedo

Dab a little shampoo on the blunt end of a wooden toothpick.

Drop the toothpick in a pan of water. The toothpick will start moving in the direction of the sharp end.

How Does It Work?

Shampoo contains agents that reduce the surface tension of liquids. As the shampoo on the end of the toothpick dissolves, it reduces the water’s surface tension around it, thus releasing the water’s hold on that end of the toothpick. The water around the other end of the toothpick still has surface tension, so it pulls the toothpick in that direction.