Aerodynamic Drag Race

If you understand aerodymanic principles, it's no problem at all to meet the challenge of making a slip of paper and a coin hit the ground at the same time.



Materials:

Quarter, paper



Doing it:

1. Cut or tear a slip of paper so that it's slightly smaller than a quarter (when placed on top of the coin, no corners of the paper should stick out).

2. The challenge is drop the coins and the slip of paper from the same height, at the same time, and have the paper and coin reach the ground at the same instant. Can anyone do it?

3. The trick: Put the paper on top of the coin (make sure that there aren't any corners of paper sticking out over the edge of the coin). Press the paper down on the coin, so that there is as much contact between the two surfaces as possible. The idea is to keep air from moving under the paper and lifting it fromthe coin. Drop the coin and paper together, ensuring that the coin remains horizontal as it falls.

4. Variation : Putting the paper under the coin should also work because the coin should also work because the coin presses down on the paper as both fall to the ground. The paper -under-coin approach is a little harder to set up. You must quickly remove your finger from the paper, and drop the paper and coin without shifting the paper's position under the coin.

Story behind the activity:

Air exerts friction on objects moving through it. The amount of this air, or drag, depends on the shape of an object and its speed. Streamlining and smoothing surfaces reduces drag. A slip of paper flutters to the ground slowly because drag acts against the force of gravity. Drag also affects a falling coin, but the coin's weight counteracts the drag. If the slip of paper is palced properly on top of the coin, the coin shields the paper from the effects of the motion through the air (e.g. as on moon), all objects dropped from the same height would reach the ground at the same time.

Change in direction

You can solve problems by approcaching them from dirferent directions. Can you move coins in the triangle to change the direction it's pointing?

Materials:
Ten conins or bits of paper.

Doing it:
1. Arrange the objects in the shape of a triangle, as show.

2. The challenge is to make the triangle point is the opposite direction. You can move only three of the objects.

Answer:

Doing it:
The following letters are in a logical sequence : o, t, t, f, f, s
Can you figure out the pattern?
What are the next four letters?

Answer
The missing letters are s, e, n, t.
The sequence is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Story behind the activity:

One way to solve a problem is simply to jump in and start trying things. This is called trial and error. The approach isn't bad, if you get a solution before you get frustrated. A better strategy for solving the coin problem is to think about where you want to end up -- and work backwards from there.

Salted Popcorn

If you want to mix something up, you might put all the ingredients in a jar adn give the jar a good shake. The up-and-down movement should combine all the foods and evenly mix evertything together. That's what you'd think, but is that what really happens?

What you need

• 1 cup (250 ml) table salt
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) unpopped popcorn
• clear plastic jar with screw lid
• 4 or 5 large nuts such as brazil nuts
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) peanuts
• a few cashew nuts

What you do

1. Place the salt and popcorn in plastic container and tightly screw on the lid.
2. Roll the jar on the table so the salt and popcorn are really mixed together.
3. Stand the container on the table or counter and gently bang the container up and down. Watch what happens to the popcorn.
4. Empty the container. Try the same steps again with a jar filled with large and small nuts. What happens to the large nust when container is banged on the table?

What happend?

That's strange. the more you banged teh jar, the more the popcorn rose on teh top of the jar. Istead of mixing the tow ingredients, you actually sorted them. In fact, the salt gets packed togetehr under popcorn. When tapping loosens the salt so that it moves down and around the popcorn. When the salt gets underneath the popcorn, it packs together tightly and the salt crystals from a solid layer that the popcorn can't get through. After you given a few taps on the table, the popcorn has moved all the way to the top. The same thing happened with the larger and small nuts: the large nuts came to the surface.

The glass puzzle

One way to solve a problem is to see it differently. Can you rearrange these glasses in a certain way in only one move?

Materials:
Six drinking glasses
Water

Doing it:
1. Arrange six glasses, three empty and three full, as shown

1 2 3 4 5 6
empty empty fulll full full empty

2. The challenge is to arrange the glasses so that they stand alternately, one full, one empty, one full, one empty, one full, one empty. You can only move or touch one glasss.

Answer:
Lift the glass and pour its contents into the first glass. Return the fourth glass to its original position, and the problem is solved!

Story behind the activity:
Scientific discoveries often occur because someone has been able to see an obvious solution to a problem --- a solution which, to many others, may not have been quite so obvious. In this activity, people often put unnecessary restrictions on their options -- like thinking that it isn't "legal" to pour the water from one glass to another.

A classic: The Dot Problem

Science involves problem-solving. Can you join these nine dots without lifting pencil from paper?

Materials:
Paper
Pencil

Doing it:
1. Draw nine dots as follows:
o o o
o o o
o o o

2. The challenge is connect the dots without lifting pencil from paper. How many lines do you have to use? How would you use five lines? How would four lines work? Can you use only three lines?

Story behind the activity
When horses were used in cities for pulling wagons, they often wore blinders. The blinders were like walls, shutting off the periphery. Horses wore blinders so they wouldn't get frightened or distracted. Blinders may have been useful for horses, but mental blinders in people can prevent a person from solving simple problems. In this activity, the key is to see the pattern of dots in form other than a square.

Albert Einstein's quotation

We should make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.

What you see isn't what you get

Sometimes science involves realizing that what you see isn't what you think you see and that what seems impossible has an explanation.

Materials:
Paper plate
scissors

Doing It
Plate pieces
1. Cut a paper plate in half.

2. Trim of the rim.

3. Cut the piece of the rim in half.

4. Hold the two new pieces together and trim them to make them exactly the same size.

5. Now put both pieces flat on a table, one piece above the other. Do the pieces look to be the same size?

6. Put the pieces into various positions. When do the pieces look the same size?

Strory behind the activity:
In plate pices, your eye-brain system compares the shorter upper arc of the one piece of plate rim to the longer bottom arc of the second piece. The bottom pice always looks shorter. The only way you can get around the optical illusion is to turn the top piece upside down. The shorther arcs then face each other and you see the pieces as the same lenght.

Jules Henri Poincare's quotation

Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts in no more science than a heap of stone is a house.

You Name it

Observation is involved in all aspects of science. Use your observation skills to make up your own names for living and non-living things.

Materials:
Paper
Pencils

Doing it:
1. Choose a large are, either outdoors or indoors.

2. Set a time limit, perhaps 10 minutes. Each person must find a certain number of objects (five to fifteen) and write down a name for them. All the objects may be living; all may be non-living; or some objects can be living while others are non-living. Make up names based on appearance, location, needs, or function. For example, a purple plant with tall, pointed leaves might look like church steeple at sunset; why not name it the Purple Steeple palnt? No real name can be used, even if people know them.

3. When the time is up, everyone shares their list of names. Visit each living or non-living thing. What really looks like the name(s) people have given it? What was given the most names?

4. Variation: Select objects in the immediate surroundings and name them, one name per folded slip of paper. Mix up the slips of paper and have each person choose a slip. Can people find the objects based on the clues in the new names?

Story behind the activity:
A name is just a name. But making up your own name for a living or non-living thing puts everything in awhole new light. Naming is fun. It also encourages people to think about the thing they're looking at and to notice details. Once people notice details, it's easy to go back to an identification guide to find a real name for a plant, for example. Names are often based on observing the characteristics that are most important. If you don't know what poison ivy looks like, it doesn't help you to know its name.

A close look

Take a look around you. What do you see? Science involves exploring and examining the world. Try a game tests your observation skills.

Materilas:
A group of small objects (there must be similar objects in the immediate surroundings);
a covering for the objects (e.g. cloth, jacket)
Paper
Pancils

Doing it:
1. Gather together five to fifteen small objects. There should be other examples of the objects in the immediate surroundings. For example, if you're outside, include one leaf from a tree full of leaves. If you're inside, take one pieces of chalk, or take one pencil from a container full of pencil.

2. Don't let anyone see the objects you've collected. Place them on a flat surface and cover them with a cloth or jacket.

3. People should stand in a circle around the objects. pull the covering away for about 30 secondas (for younger observers, you may want to allow a longer period of time). Everyone should take a good look at each object.

4. When the time is up, cover all the objects. People now work indivicually to hunt for objects "exactly" like all the ones they just looked at. Each person makes a secret list of the objects he or she remembers, and notes a place in the immediate surroundings where an "identical" object can be found.

5. When the hunting time is up, everyone gathers to compare secret lists. Take the cover off the initial collection of objects. How many people remebered all the object? What "identical" objects did people find? Was it possible to find obbjects "exactly" the same? For example, there may be a piece of chalk in the initial collection of objects and a piece of chalk on a shelf, but are the two pieces the same length? Do they have the same markings on them? Observe all the differences between apparently "identical" objects.

Story behind the activity:
If you look closely enough, you'll realize that even the most "ordinary" things around you are fascinating. Observation is a cornestone of science. Observation prompts people to ask questions, and it helps to answer questions. Observation involves closely inspecting things. It involves seeing and sensing through careful analytic attendtion. It's all about coming to know and understand something by putting together all the information that you can collect through direct experience.

Alexander Graham Bell's quotation

There are things around us and right at our very feet that we have never seen, because we have never really looked.

Albert Einstein's Quotation

The whole of science is nothing more than a refiment of everyday thinking.

Communication Challenge

Science is about asking and answering. So, you have to be able to comunicate well. Try giving precise drawing instructions to a blindfolded partner.

Materials:
Two different coluured pencils; paper . Optional --blindfold.

Doing It:
1. Your partner should close his or her eyes, or put on a blindfold.

2. Draw a path on a sheet of paper with one colour of pencil. Don't lift the pencil until the path is complete. The path can go in any direction, be easy or complicated, take up the whole sheet or only a corner, cross itself, or form geometric shapes. Put an arrow at the start and an X at the end.

3. Give your blindfolded partner a pencil of a different colour and position it at the arrow. The blindfolded person has to trace over the path --- following only the verbal instructions you provide. You can give any verbal instructions you wish, but you can't touch the pencil or blindfolded person's hand.

4. How difficult is this communication challenge? Why? Whta can you do to make your instructions clearer?

5. Switch roles and try the activity again.

Story behind activity:

We often take communication for granted. But sometimes it's not easy to get someone to understand something. Communication is important in science because the more complex our world gets, the more we have to understand in order to make responsible decisions. This activity challenges people to develop communication strategies, as well as demonstrates that people think differently. Whta means one thing to one person may not mean the same thing to another. Meanings aren't in words; they are in people.

Discovering Science 7

What has a tougue but never speaks?

What has a face , but no eyes,nose , or mouth?

What has legs, but can't walk?


Answer:
A shoe
A clock
A chair

Riddle Me

Science is about answering puzzling questions. These riddle are quick to read, but may ake some time to figure out.

Materials:
None

Doing it:
1. A change in direction riddle:
The man was almost out of breath. But home was in sight. Then he spotted a masked figure. The figure come toward him. The running man spotted and quickly turned around. He ran all the way back to where he started. Why?

2. A real killer of a riddle:
John, Laura and Toby shared a house. One day, Belinda came to live them. John and Laura went out to a party that evening. When they arrived home, Toby was hovering over Belinda's dead body. Toby wasn't arrested. He wasn't even questioned for any crime. Why?

3. A travellinh Riddle:
A girl with a fox, a goose, and a bag of corn wanted to cross a river. She could take only one animal or object at a time. The fox would eat the goose if they were left alone together; but if the girl took the fox firstr, the goose would eat the corn. How did the girl get all threee safety across?

4. An old riddle:
In medieval England, a king's jester was imprioned (the king didn't like the jester's jokes). The jester was locked in a room at the top of high tower. The room had only one tiny window. The jester found a piece of rope. It wasn't long enough to reach the ground. So, he divided it in half and tied the two halves together. This made the rope long enough and he escaped. How?

5. A rainy day riddle:
A man out jogging felt the first few raindrops fall. He didn't have anumbrella or a raincoat or a hat. He started jogging a little faster. It started to pour. The rains seeped through his clothing. His running shoes got wet. The rains rolled off the end of his nose. But his hair didn't get wet. Why?

6. A really sweet riddle:
A women had a sweet tooth. She put one spoonful of sugar into her coffee. She put in another. the she put two more spoonfuls into her cups. But the sugar didn't get wet. Why?

Answer
1. It was baseball game and the masked man was the cather; the player ran back to third base.

2. Toby was a cat and Belinda was a bird.

3. The girl first crossed with the goose and then returned. She then took the corn over and brought back the goose. The fox was next across the river. Finally the girl went back and got the goose.

4. The clever jester didn't cut the rope in half -- he untwisted the two full strands of which rope was made. When he tied the tow strands together, the rope was twice and long.

5.The man was bald.

6. The coffee was instant, and the water hadn't been added yet.

Story behind the activity

You think about many things when you try to answer a question or solve a puzzle. You try to remember things you know that might help you. You look for new information about the question. Sometimes you try to guess how someone else would answer the question. Other times you might pick an answer because of what you would like the answer to be. these things may help you find a correct answer. When you're trying to answer a question, it's often important to ask yourself some other questions: What do you know about the situation? What more do you need to know? What assumptions are you making?

Physicsts Richard Feynman's quotation

I wonder why I wonder why.
I wonder why I wonder.
I wonder why I wonder why.
I wonder why I wonder.

Questions, questions??

Scientists ask a lot of questions. This game involve asking a lot of questions to quess the identify of mystery object from among group of very similiar objects.

Materials:
None

Doing it:
1. Choose a particular object from the nearby surroundings --- a specific tree, a chair. a mark on the wall. The idea is to choose something of which there are many, so people arer forced to carefully distinguish between similar object.

2. Tell everyone that you're thinking of an object. You may or may not want to give a clue. Invite people to ask question in order to figure out the mystery object. But, you can answer only "yes" or "no".

3.As people narrow down the possiblities, let them know that they'll have to ask precise questions to get the exact object. If everyone is stumped, give a general clue.

4.The first person to run and touch the object, or pick it up, wins the game.


Story behind the game
i. Developing observational and questioning skills is important in science.

ii. Scientists are peole who are curious. They want to know about the things around them.

iii. Scietists are always asking quetions and trying to answer them. Science is what scientists use to answer questions.

iv. Sometimes finding a good question is hard --- a weak question can point you to a wrong answer. This activity encourages asking strong questions that will quickly zero in on a mystery object.

v. What kinds of questions do you wonder about? Things close to you -- like why you yawn when someone else yawns? Things about long ago -- like what happened to dinosaurs? Things about far away --- like whether there is life on other planets? Or do you wonder about questions themselves -- and whether scietists have all the answer?

Discovering Science 6

Fill a plastic bag 2/3 full with water. Hold the bag tightly closed at the top. Stick a sharp pencil straight through the bag and leave it there. What will happen??


Answer:
Not a single drop of water will leak out. Why?
The polyethylene film molecules pull together to form a seal around whatever is puncturing the film.

Discovering Science 5

Bet you can't fold a sheet paper --- any paper --- in half more than nine (9) times! The way the layers of paper included in a fold increases is called a "geometrical progression". On the first (1) fold, you have two layers of paper. On the second (2), four. The third (3) fold creates eight layers. But the time you get to the seventh (7) fold, you already have 128 layers. It's like trying to fold a book!

Discovery Science 4

Draw a square on a piece of paper. pretend the square is one surface of a cube. How many edges (not surfaces) of the cube are hidden?

Answer: Eight

Discovery Science 3

Pi is an interesting number. Most books give it value as about 3.14, or perhaps 3.1416. But, in reality, Pi seems to go on forever. In 1983, two computer workers in Japan divided Pi out to 8,388.608 decimal places. It hasn't shown a repeating pattern yet.

Discovery Science 2

Science is away of thinking. It's sometimes called "orginized common sense." But that isn't quite right. Many times a new scientific idea seems to contradict common sense. After all, what's a more common-sense notion than the idea that the earth is flat? it's abvious --just look around you! But we now know the Earth is sphere. Science is actually a form of orginized curiosity.

Discovery Science 1

There is a famous ancient Greek myth that asks, "What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon and on three when evening comes?"

Answer:
Human beings, who crawl as babies, then walk as adults, then use a cane in old age.