Do try these at home!

Sep 22, 2016 8:42 PM

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Fluorescein

Fluorescein is a fluorescent tracer that can be used in a variety of ways, from microscopy of biological organisms to understanding the flow of rivers. NASA also used this to find space capsules that landed in the ocean. This non-toxic bright green color can be created in a glass bowl of water after the fluorescein has been harvested from ordinary highlighters.

Try it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIpoLiesBgg

Oobleck

Fluids and solids typically behave very differently from one another, but that's not so with oobleck. A simple 2:1 ratio of starch and water, oobleck is known as a non-Newtonian fluid. While it has the regular, free-flowing attributes or an ordinary fluid most of the time, it firms up and acts like a solid when force is applied.

Try it! http://www.instructables.com/id/Oobleck

Dancing Oobleck

Sure, sometimes applying force to oobleck in the form of punching or walking on it is pretty fun, but it's also pretty mesmerizing to let sound waves control this slimy substance. In order to make this ooze dance, put oobleck on top of a speaker, and crank up the bass. The sound waves will push the oobleck into forming solid shapes as they dance around. If this isn't hypnotizing enough for you, add in some food dye and watch the colors swirl together.

Try it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zoTKXXNQIU

Freezing Water Instantly

If you've been dying to control ice just like Elsa, now's your chance. Purified water is able to be cooled past freezing temperatures while staying as a liquid, as long as there isn't a nucleus for the ice crystal to form, like an impurity in the water or another piece of ice, as shown. The water is so cold, that the introduction of an ice crystal causes a runaway freezing effect throughout all of the supercooled water.

Try it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQdLttUh_b0

Melting Spoon

Let's break it down: No, this spoon isn't stirring a nice hot cup of acid or anything like that. The utensil is actually made out of gallium, which is a metal with a melting point of only 85 degrees Fahrenheit. By merely stirring a mug of water barely warm enough to steep tea, the metal actually melts and breaks apart easily.

You can also melt gallium just by holding it in your hand, as your body temperature is enough to reduce the metal to a puddle. It's kind of like what your parents did with mercury, but a whole lot less toxic.

Try it! https://www.amazon.com/Gallium-Spoon-Mold-By-Rotometals/dp/B0061DPTW4

Magnetic Liquid

The reason this black liquid can be manipulated through the glass is because it is a magnetic substance known as a ferrofluid. You can actually make a batch of this yourself, simply using ink toner, vegetable oil, and a rare Earth magnet that can be found at your local hardware store.

Try it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsQh1AT6qUE

Instant Hot Ice

Just how the supercooled water had a runaway freezing effect when it came in contact with ice, sodium acetate (the stuff in reusable hand warmers) does the same thing. When the solution is disturbed enough to have a point of nucleation, the supersaturated formula quickly creates crystals and lets off heat. Pouring the solution out onto a plate will form "hot ice" sculptures.

Try it! http://www.seeker.com/building-hot-ice-sculptures-hard-science-1792415263.html

Disappearing Marbles

The spoon clearly pulls clear marbles out of the water, but the instant they're submersed, they seem to disappear. The marbles are made out of a super-absorbent polysaccharide which can hold over 300 times its weight in water.

When they're completely full of water, they have a refraction index very similar to water itself, meaning that light bends in the same way through water as it does through the marble. Without light bending in a way that differentiates the marble to our eyes, they're essentially invisible.

Try it! http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/vanishing-jelly-marbles

Colorful Milk Art

The surface tension on the milk is reduced when it's touched by the cotton swab, which has been dipped in regular dish soap. The parts of the milk that haven't been affected by the soap try to run away, which ends up mixing the color in with the milk. Holding the swab in place for a while or putting in a couple of them in different places will cause even more crazy swirl patterns.

Try it! http://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/milk-art

Dry Ice Bubble

No, this isn't a mini nuclear explosion, this is what happens when the fun of bubbles intersects with the creepy-yet-cool nature of dry ice. Dry ice, which can be bought at nearly any grocery store, is frozen carbon dioxide. When a chunk of this ice is put into water, it produces a great deal of steam. By adding some dish soap to the water before adding the dry ice, you can make a bubble that takes up the entire area of the bowl. When the bubble pops, it has a hauntingly beautiful appearance as the steam is freed.

Try it! http://www.instructables.com/id/Dry-Ice-Bubble-Project-for-Kids

Waterproof Sand

The sand being poured into the beaker has been coated with a hydrophobic chemical, which means that the sand does not like water. It won't dissolve, and the grains will clump together as best as they can to avoid contacting the water. This allows for the creation of snake-like underwater sculptures. When the sand is spooned back out of the water, it acts like ordinary sand once again, losing its shape.

Try it! http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/magic-sand.html

Flammable Gummy Bears

It's a total myth that eating sugar causes someone to have an excessive amount of energy. However, you can get an incredibly energetic reaction from candy (well, the carbohydrates in the candy) by dropping it in a little heated potassium chlorate. The resulting reaction is extremely exothermic, meaning it releases heat.

Try it! http://lecturedemos.chem.umass.edu/chemReactions5_5.html

Water Bending

When a stream of water is flowing out of the bottle, the scientist is able to bend it just by holding a pipe near it. Is the water completely contaminated? Is this cause for concern?

Nah, it's just static electricity. The positively charged particles in the water are attracted to the negatively charged particle on the pipe. When they're brought close enough to one another, the water will actually bend toward the pipe. You can do the same thing by running a plastic comb through your hair a few times and holding it near water running out of a faucet.

Try it! https://sciencebob.com/bend-water-with-static-electricity

Slowing Down Gravity

No, the person in the video doesn't have lightning-fast reflexes that allow for the cube to be caught by the time it passes through the copper tube. The cube that is being spun into the tube is actually a magnet. The magnet actually isn't attracted to the copper pipe itself, but the magnetic field created by the pipe interacts with the one from the magnet itself, slowing the fall. The cube's weight is ultimately stronger than the force slowing it down, and the magnet does eventually fall out, albeit at a much slower pace than you'd expect.

Try it! http://www.bbc.co.uk/bang/handson/magneticcopper.shtml

wait, i thought that by eating too many calories, you stored the excess of energy as fat...

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Did anyone else read "Try it" every time?

9 years ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 0

Always upvote science that engages normies.

9 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 6

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Lost my marbles at #8

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Isn't potassium chlorate + sugar how they make homemade explosives in the Middle East?

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

THEY ARE ESCAPING

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#3 those poor unfortunate souls

9 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I have some fluorescein on my desk right now. It's used in some eye exams (but I use it to test awesome science instruments I build).

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Please can make urinal trough that has a microphone attached that amplifies back to the metal trough, which is filled with cold non-newtonia

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Them damn shear thickening fluids, fuckin up our understanding of newtonian fluid mechanics

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The descriptions on these are trying too hard to be funny

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

I like how it says "don't try these at home!" but it also has "try it" links...

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

You should take another gander at that title...

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

So how much Fluorescein would I need to dye a town fountain. Just for theoretical research, of course.

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

It would be hard to estimate, but a similar chemical (Brightdye, aka Xanthene) can dye 10,000 gallons with one pint.

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I make Dancing Oobleck in my socks every night.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The water bending is caused by a dipole dipole moment

9 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

THANK YOU! Went too far through the comments to find this.

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Last time we used flourescein at work it was raining and it got everywhere. It looked like we had murdered an alien.

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

The first is indeed non-toxic, but a little taste and you will crap your brains out.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Okay

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Dry Ice and Water does not produce steam. It produces cold CO2 gas that condenses water vapor out of the air, creating a foggy cloud.

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

What would happen if you drank supercooled H2O??

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The shift from liquid to solid isn't quite "solid" it's more like a slushy. If you drank it you'd prob just get a brain freeze

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I do it with my water bottles all the time. The movement of the water causes it to slush instantly. Its very entertaining to watch.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

But just the movement of the water coming out of the bottle would make it freeze.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Experiments for the kid.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

v

9 years ago | Likes 276 Dislikes 1

Technically this isn't science. These are phenomena. Science is the methodology of understanding why / how a phenomenon happens.

9 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 2

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

That's kinda how I felt coming out as agnostic in my fanatically christian family.

9 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 3

I know what you fucking mean dude lol!

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Lol.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

Caution advised with the gummy bear/potassium chlorate. A teacher is out of a job after his demo exploded and injured students...

9 years ago | Likes 155 Dislikes 1

Your username makes me think this was you...

9 years ago | Likes 31 Dislikes 0

When we did that in chemistry, it had to be placed in the vent hood.

9 years ago | Likes 43 Dislikes 0

No, it wasn't me...

9 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

But she caught me on the counter.

9 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 2

Saw me bangin' on the sofa

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

That's exactly what someone who did it would say...

9 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but Wikipedia says "Topical, oral, and intravenous use of fluorescein can cause adverse reactions, including [1]

9 years ago | Likes 32 Dislikes 2

My first thought was, "Naw, better not." When I read like first one. Technically it still would be a scientific reaction.

9 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

Technically pretty much everything that ever happens is a scientific reaction?

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Optometrists use a fluorescein dye in your eye when they fit you for contacts or to check for a dry eye.

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

That's mostly for IV use, I use it regularly in my clinic topically and it's generally regarded as extremely safe: I'm an eye doctor.

9 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

I was going to mention this too, we use it in the veterinary field as well to check for corneal ulcers.

9 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

"mostly" lol

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

[2] nausea, vomiting, hives, acute hypotension, anaphylaxis and related anaphylactoid reaction, causing cardiac arrest and sudden death due

9 years ago | Likes 20 Dislikes 1

yeah.." I wonder if my veins will glow?" Written on their tombstone.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

[3] to anaphylactic shock." So it can still kill you if you have a reaction to it.

9 years ago | Likes 19 Dislikes 1

Ophthalmic photographer here! I inject this into people daily, have been for 10 years, and I have yet to kill someone! Reaction is very rare

9 years ago | Likes 18 Dislikes 0

Damn near anything can kill you if you have a bad enough reaction to it

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Oh, you mean like peanuts?

9 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

TIL I can buy dry ice at most grocery stores.

9 years ago | Likes 111 Dislikes 5

You can where I live.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

But you have to be 18 or older due to the fact that if you trap it in a completely sealed area, it will explode.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Several around me have it available any time... but that is Texas, so...

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

We sell it at the store I work at.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Protip: don't look like a criminal when you do purchase it. Or better yet, get a non-criminal friend to purchase it for you.

9 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

But why criminals need dry ice?

9 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

you just have to know the secret handshake

9 years ago | Likes 29 Dislikes 0

Or just make your own in the oven!

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Google it, usually there a shipping facility or something near by that sells it.

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Indiana has no such place last time I checked :(

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

In the Netherlands you can get it delivered. Maybe that's an option?

9 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I work in a grocery store, just ask where the 'jalupas' are and they'll show you the secret area.

9 years ago | Likes 25 Dislikes 1

Can confirm. Here in Iowa most our stores have dry ice. Great for camping!

9 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Man, I was born in Iowa, how did I not know about this? I would have had so much more fun as a kid!

9 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0