Vacuum Bazookas, Electric Rainbow Jelly, and 27 Other Saturday Science Projects

by Downie, Neil A.

• ISBN13: 9780691009865
• ISBN10: 0691009864
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-24
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

How do you crack nuts with a piece of string? Reverse gravity? Cobble together a clock out of a coffee cup, a soda bottle, and some water? Use a vacuum cleaner and nineteenth-century railroad technology to fashion a makeshift bazooka that can launch paper projectiles? Create a rainbow in a block of Jello? This is a one-volume romp through a whole array of counterintuitive science experiments that require little more than common household items and a sense of curiosity. Prepare to have your surprise sensors on overload as Neil Downie stretches math, physics, and chemistry to do what they have never done before. This book describes twenty-nine unusual but practical experiments, detailing how they are done and the math and physics behind them. It will delight both casual and inveterate tinkerers. Of varying levels of complexity, the experiments are grouped in sections covering a wide field of physics and the borders of chemistry, ranging from dynamic mechanics (''Kinetic Curiosities'') to electricity (''Antediluvian Electronics'') and combustion (''Infernal Inventions''). The chapters are titillatingly titled, from ''Twisted Sinews'' and ''Mole Radio'' to ''A Symphony of Siphons'' and ''Tornado Transistor.'' More-detailed explanations, along with simple mathematical models using high-school level math, are given in boxes accompanying each experiment. Armchair scientists will welcome this edifying and entertaining alternative to idleness, not least for the buoyant prose, enriched by historical and literary anecdotes introducing each topic. With this book in hand, tinkerers, whether dabblers in science or devotees, students or teachers, need never again wonder how to impress friends, the judges at the science fair, and, not least, themselves.

Table of Contents

Contents in Detail	p. vii
Project Ratings	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Kinetic Curiosities
Hovering Rings	p. 3
Dynabrolly	p. 14
Gravity Reversal	p. 21
Maypole Drill	p. 28
Rotarope	p. 33
Strong String Things
String Nutcracker	p. 45
Twisted Sinews	p. 51
Strong Nothing
Vacuum Muscles	p. 61
Vacuum Bazooka	p. 70
Sounds Peculiar
String Radio	p. 83
Mole Radio	p. 93
Bat Doppler	p. 102
Transmissions With Omissions
Toothless Gearwheels	p. 113
Flying Pulleys	p. 121
Clocks Without Cuckoos Or Quartz
The Crank and the Pendulum	p. 127
A Symphony of Siphons	p. 134
Bernoulli's Clock	p. 142
Curious Conveyances
Dougall or U'brocraft	p. 151
Follow That Sunbeam	p. 157
Duohelicon	p. 167
Fishy Boat	p. 174
Rotarudder	p. 182
Cable Yacht	p. 190
Antediluvian Electronics
Beard Amplifier	p. 199
Tornado Transistor	p. 207
Electric Water
Meltdown Alarm	p. 215
Electric Rainbow jelly	p. 222
Infernal Inventions
Binary Match	p. 229
Ultimate Bunsen Burner	p. 234
Useful Materials and CompOnents	p. 241
A Reminder about Units	p. 245
Bibliography	p. 247
Index	p. 251
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.