Thanks to the Leidenfrost Effect water dropped on an extremely hot surface is capable of floating instead of immediately evaporating. While studying the effect, physicists at the University of Bath realized that not only does the water float, but under the right conditions and temperatures it can actually climb upward. The playful experiments lead to the creation of an incredible superheated maze. Thanks to Alessandro Narduzzo we could perform this amazing demonstration on the show....
Many people have made fire tornado’s using nothing more than a bowl of liquid alcohol for the flame. The addition of cotton balls removes the risk of splashing. If you use several cotton balls and add some boric acid for green flame and lithium chloride for red you will get this beautiful fire...
This large demonstration uses hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), sodium iodide (NaI) and soap. First we pour in the hydrogen peroxide, then the soap and finally the sodium iodide disolved in water. The hydrogen peroxide used in the demonstration is 30% hydrogen peroxide. The 30% hydrogen peroxide is not something you would put on a cut or scrape, but it works perfectly for this demonstration. The sodium iodide reacts with the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) by removing an oxygen atom. This essentially produces water and oxygen gas (H2O + O2). The oxygen gas produced gets trapped in the soap which produces the big ball of foam. The reaction produces oxygen gas, water and iodine. That is why the foam has a yellow color. If you were to touch this foam, your hand would be stained yellow just as if you put iodine...
To begin, you’ll need to find some magnetic coins containing iron or nickel. Certain ferromagnetic elements, notably iron and nickel, can become magnetized when placed in an external magnetic field. Many steel or nickel-based coins fall into this category. When these magnetic coins become magnetized, they can stick to each other to form elaborate towers. By suspending the coin tower underneath a strong magnet, the coins remain magnetized and continue to stick to each other, and the magnet helps support the stack against the force of gravity. The magnet pulls hardest on the topmost coin, which is closest, and helps stretch out the coin stack to keep it from folding....
Cornstarch and water have launched a thousand geeky pool parties. Stirred together in roughly equal proportions, they form a fluid that turns miraculously solid for a fraction of a second wherever it’s struck. To show it we got Geraldine Chaplin to hammer in a nail into this liquid! Why the stuff does this is a puzzle. The grains of cornstarch are so closely packed together that when the rod hits them, they have nowhere to go, like cars in a traffic jam. As with the traffic jam, untangling slowly is easy enough to do. But rushing things only cause you to rear-end or side-swipe the surrounding cars–or cornstarch grains. In both cases, this results in what is effectively a solid mass of material....
The Mouse Trap Reactor is a visual representation of a chain reaction in a confined space. Useful as an analogy for an uncontrolled nuclear reaction. This demonstration utilized 1000 mousetraps that were set-up for a chain reaction. It took 10 people 8 hours to set up the traps! As far as we know there has not been a similar reaction this big. As in a nuclear-fission chain reaction, a neutron (the starter ping-pong ball) creates the first fission reaction. This event is simulated by the mousetrap releasing two additional ping-pong balls. These, in turn, potentially each release two more balls (neutrons) initiating a doubling of the available neutrons with each fission. As additional ping-pong balls are released, the rate of the reaction accelerates. This chain reaction is simulated by rapidly releasing ping pong balls, which in turn releases other ping-pong balls...
We combined plants and circuits to get musical plants. Drawdio is an electronic sound synthesizer. Ehe Drawdio circuit plays a musical tone with a frequency that varies based on the resistance between two points. When you hold Drawdio in your hand, your body becomes part of the resistive loop, and you can do all kinds of fun tricks, like play a little tune with a plant! Makey-makey is a circuit that turns everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. When you touch the plant, you make a connection, and MaKey MaKey sends the computer a keyboard message. The computer just thinks MaKey MaKey is a regular keyboard (or mouse). Therefore it works with all programs and webpages, because all programs and webpages take keyboard and mouse input....
Ekso is a wearable bionic suit which enables individuals with any amount of lower extremity weakness to stand up and walk over ground with a natural, full weight bearing, reciprocal gait. Battery-powered motors drive the legs, replacing deficient neuromuscular function....