experiments

Showing 41 posts tagged experiments

Watch YouTube user Xraise Cornell create a homemade horizontal vortex ring generator. When a small burst of air is released into a toroidal or poloidal vortex — essentially a spinning donut of water — it shapes the air into its own ring along the water’s trajectory, creating a vortex ring or a bubble ring.

While we have not made this invention (yet), it looks like a lot of fun. Or of course, with a lot of practice, you could try to make them with no materials at all, just like the dolphins do. Just remember to always be safe. Adult supervision is recommended when using tools or trying experiments underwater.

Or if you want to stay dry, try making a homemade vortex cannon with a tightly closed box with a narrow round hole at the end. Watch!

And here I thought this was just an animated gif, but no, via Daily Picks & Flicks, there’s a video of a diver making a bubble ring or vortex ring, above.

A vortex ring is the phenomenon where a quantity of fluid or gas in a toroid (donut) shape, travels through a medium of fluid or gas, while spinning like a thick circular bracelet that is being rolled off of a person’s arm. (Except the spin is in the opposite direction as when a bracelet is rolled off in this way.)

And evidently there are a series of videos from this diver. Here are two more:

Are these videos real? Yes, we’re pretty sure they are. So how exactly is this done? A small burst of air is released into a toroidal or poloidal vortex, essentially a spinning donut of water. 

Bubble rings are actually made of two different rings, one inside the other, spinning in the same direction. The outer ring is made of water, and the inner one is made of air… 

From YouTube User Maxwel Hohn, How to make a horizontal bubble ring:

Just remember to always be safe when underwater. Please conduct all experiments with adult supervision. 

Related watching: make your own underwater vortex ring generator, make a homemade vortex cannon, or the viral video of cetaceans blowing bubble rings.

Easy experiment: Drink orange juice. Brush your teeth. Drink orange juice again. What just happened?

From Bytesize Science, an explanation as to why most toothpastes change the taste of orange juice. The video includes an intro on the five basic tastes that we’re able to detect: sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and umami — a Japanese word that we’ve borrowed to describe a “pleasant savory taste” or “a pleasant, brothy or meaty flavor” — and the ingredients of toothpaste.

More videos about the body and how things work.

A pretty spectacular science experiment: how to make an Incredible Egg Geode. 

Your egg geode is formed through a process called sedimentation. The heated alum solution contains suspended particles of alum powder and as the solution cools, these particles of alum begin settling. When the alum particles settle towards the bottom of the beaker or glass, they begin crystallizing. With the alum-covered egg at the bottom, the alum particles from the solution begin attaching themselves to the egg. Covering your egg in alum powder beforehand gives the suspended alum particles a surface to which they can more readily attach themselves. The particles that settle onto the surface of the egg crystallize, and you will also see crystallization on the bottom and sides of the beaker or glass.

Robots have to be able to move, perhaps quickly, on all kinds of terrain — search and rescue missions on remote parts of Earth or explorations on other planets like Mars will require it. So terradynamic researchers at Georgia Tech are creating and testing robots that have different leg shapes, all inspired by animals, to handle movement in a variety of environments. Bonus technology: 3D printing.

Watch this robot with c-shaped legs running super fast on Mars-like sand, and read more about the experiments here or here.

h/t PopSci.