5 Coolest Home Science Experiments

5. Soda and Mentos Geyser

Watching a jet of foamy soda erupt from a bottle is not only fun, but also hysterical and will impress everyone around you… while hopefully not getting them (and yourself) too messy in the process. This also happens to be a really inexpensive home experiment, but you might want to invest in several bottles of soda and a bunch of rolls of mints just in case.

Step one: Open the 2-liter pop bottle (note: diet soda seems to work better and is less sticky come clean-up time)
Step two: Unroll the package of Mentos and prepare to dump the entire pack in at once. Fashioning a tube out of an empty toilet paper roll to just fit into the bottle mouth is very helpful.
Step three: Drop the mints in and back up a few paces… quickly!
Step four: The geyser is quite impressive and the current measured record is 21 feet!

4. Homemade Plastic

Plastics are all around us. There are many different kinds, with a wide range of properties. Some are hard, others are soft. Some are transparent, others are opaque. Most plastics are made in factories, but here’s one you can make at home!

For this experiment you will need:
1 teaspoon (5 cm3) laundry borax
1 tablespoon (15 mL) white glue (e.g., Elmer’s Glue-All)
food coloring (optional)
two cups
spoon
water

Here’s what to do:

In one of the cups, dissolve 1 teaspoon of laundry borax in 5 tablespoons (75 mL) of water. You will need to stir this for a while to get it to dissolve. (If a tiny bit does not dissolve, that is fine, though.)

In the other cup, combine 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of white glue. If you wish, you may color the mixture with a couple drops of food coloring. With a clean spoon, stir the mixture thoroughly until it is uniform.

Put 2 teaspoons of the borax solution from the first cup into the glue mixture in the second cup. Stir the mixture.

As you stir the mixture, it will stiffen into a soft lump. After the lump has formed, take it from the cup and knead it in your hand for a couple minutes.

3. Potato Clock

Everyone can get ahold of a few potatoes, and what better way to use them (aside from consumption, that is) than to make them into an operating clock? It’s easy and only requires the use of a few things many people have handy, or, if you need to go to the electronics store to purchase an LED clock anyway, you can get the alligator clips and electrodes there, as well.

To run it on two potatoes, you’ll need:

1. Two copper electrodes. A 10-cm length of thick (0.64 cm) copper ground wire
works well. You’ll find it at hardware and home supply stores.
2. Two zinc electrodes. Use large galvanized nails, also available from a hardware or home supply store.
3. Three alligator-clip wires
4. Two potatoes.

Now make a potato clock. Open the battery compartment of the clock and remove the button battery. In the compartment, notice that there are two connections

for the battery marked plus (+) and minus (-). You’ll connect the potato battery to these two places. Let’s call the potatoes A and B. Connect A and B to the clock like this:

1. Insert a copper electrode and a zinc electrode into each potato, fairly far apart.

2. Use an alligator-clip wire to connect the copper electrode of potato A to the plus (+) connection in the clock.

3. Use an alligator-clip wire to connect the zinc electrode of potato B to the negative (-) connection in the clock.

4. Use an alligator-clip wire to connect the zinc electrode of potato A to the copper electrode of potato B.

Viola! This clock will last for months especially if the potatoes are very fresh.

2. Kitchen-Grown Avocado Tree

Avocados are delicious and highly nutritious fruits and can be used in myriad ways, but what to do with the pit? Well, you could supply yourself with even more of the green delights by growing your own tree right in your kitchen!

Step One: Open the avocado and remove the pit from the center.

Step Two: Wash the avocado pit under cool running water and towel-dry.

Step Three: Carefully push three toothpicks into the thickest width of avocado, you want to push the toothpicks into the pit about a 1/2″ deep. The toothpicks will help suspend the avocado pit in water and keep the top part of the pit in fresh air and the fat base of the pit under the surface of the water.

Step Four: Suspend the pit over a glass filled with water. The toothpicks will rest on the rim of the glass and hold the pit in place so it doesn’t sink to the bottom. Always check the water level in the glass and see that the water is covering the fat base of the pit by about an inch depth. If the water is below that level you’ll need to add some more.

Step Five: Place the glass in a bright windowsill. In about three to six weeks the top of the avocado pit will begin to split and a stem sprout will emerge from the top and roots will begin to grow at the base.

When the stem grows to about five or six inches pinch out the top set of leaves. In another two or three weeks new leaves will sprout and there will be more roots.

It’s now time to plant the young avocado tree.

1. Rainbow in a Glass

Try this at home: Have you ever seen the separate viscosities of liquids displayed like a fluid rainbow? Well, here is a simple way to take several household items and wow your friends and family alike with a beautiful use of such common materials! Remember to add each very slowly and to tint each clear liquid with some food coloring.

You will need the following materials:

1/4 cup (60 ml) dark corn syrup or honey
1/4 cup (60 ml) dishwashing liquid
1.4 cup (60 ml) water
1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
1/4 cup (60 ml) rubbing alcohol
a tall 12 ounce (350 ml) glass or clear plastic cup
two other cups for mixing
food coloring

Source: listverse.com