Educating Kids On Science Blog

Energy transfer through balls

What you’ll need:

Instructions:

What’s happening?

If you dropped the balls at the same time, the tennis ball should bounce off the basketball and fly high into the air. The two balls hit each other just after they hit the ground, a lot of the kinetic energy in the larger basketball is transferred through to the smaller tennis ball, sending it high into the air.

While you held the balls in the air before dropping them they had another type of energy called ‘potential energy’, the balls gained this through the effort it took you to lift the balls up, it is interesting to note that energy is never lost, only transferred into other kinds of energy.

Making Music with Glasses of Water

What you’ll need:

Instructions:

What’s happening?

Each of the glasses will have a different tone when hit with the pencil, the glass with the most water will have the lowest tone while the glass with the least water will have the highest. Small vibrations are made when you hit the glass, this creates sound waves which travel through the water. More water means slower vibrations and a deeper tone.

There’s a lot of people out there that like drinking fizzy drinks, so why not do a fun science experiment that leaves you with your own lemon soda to drink afterwards! A bit of lemon here and a bit of baking soda there and before you know it you’ll be making your own drinks.

Making ‘Sour Fizzy Drink’

What you’ll need:

• Lemon
• Drinking glass
• Water
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• Some sugar to make it sweet

Instructions:

1.        Squeeze as much of the juice from the lemon as you can into the glass.

2.       Pour in an equal amount of water as lemon juice.

3.       Stir in the teaspoon of baking soda.

4.       Give the mixture a taste and add in some sugar if you think it needs to be sweeter.

What’s happening?

The mixture you created should go bubbly and taste like a lemonade, soda, fizzy or soft drink, if you added some sugar it might even taste like a lemon flavoured soft drink you’ve bought at a store. The bubbles that form when you add the baking soda to the lemon mixture are carbon dioxide (CO2), these are the same bubbles you’ll find in proper fizzy drinks. Of course they add a few other flavored sweeteners but it’s not much different to what you made. If you are wondering how the carbon dioxide bubbles formed, it was because you created a chemical reaction when you added the lemon (an acid) to the baking soda (a base).

Read some fun chemistry facts for kids and find out more about atoms, elements, gases, liquids, solids, metals, chemicals, experiments and much more.

Interesting chemistry info will help you learn a thing or two along the way:

• Hydrogen is the first element on the periodic table. It has an atomic number of 1. It is highly flammable and is the most common element found in our universe.

• Although it is still debated, it is largely recognized that the word ‘chemistry’ comes from an Egyptian word meaning ‘earth’.

• At room temperature, mercury is the only metal that is in liquid form.

• Things invisible to the human eye can often be seen under UV light, which comes in handy for both scientists and detectives.

• Alkali metals such as sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium and francium are extremely reactive elements, just putting them in water can result in an explosion! They are carefully stored in oil to prevent this happening.

• Humans breathe out carbon dioxide (CO2) while plants breathe it in. Plants use the carbon dioxide to make food from sunlight (photosynthesis).

• Chemical reactions occur all the time, including through everyday activities such as cooking. Try adding an acid such as vinegar to a base such as baking soda and see what happens!

• Water expands as it drops in temperature, by the time it is frozen it takes up about 9% more space.

• Helium is lighter than the air around us so it floats, that’s why it is perfect for the balloons you get at parties.
• Athletes at the Olympic Games have to be careful how much coffee they drink. The caffeine in coffee is a banned substance because it can enhance performance. One or two cups are fine but they can go over the limit with more than five. (update – as of 2004 caffeine has been taken back off the WADA banned list but its use will be closely monitored to prevent future abuse by athletes.)