Science Experiment: Periscopes

In this experiment I made a periscope out of a card board template and two pieces of a mirror.  Well, actually...my dad put it together, because it was too hard for me to make the small cuts and glue the tiny tabs.  Here's what we started with:

   
Here's the finished periscope (the mirror in the open end doesn't show because the other mirror opening is closed to the rug, and no light is coming in):

I learned that perioscopes can be used to see over obstacles and corners.  This works because light reflects out from each mirror at the same angle in comes in at.  This was sort of fun, because I got to try and find things around obstacles using the periscope.

Science Experiment: Chromatography

In this experiment, we found out that the colours in some things (like marker ink and smarties) are actually made up of different colours.  We used filter paper to disperse the colours in a black crayola marker and some different colour smarties.  Because the chemicals used to make each colour have different properties, they get "soaked up" in filter paper at different speeds.  This means we see some of the different colours race out in front of other colours.  We used water to speed up the absorption of the colours in the filter paper.

Here's what happened when I drew a small black dot on some filter paper, and then added a bit of water:

The most obvious colour coming from the black is blue, but there's definitely bits of green and even some pink we think.

I then tried putting some different coloured smarties on the filter paper, and adding some water.  We waited a long time, but not very much unexpected happened:

I think some yellow came from the green smartie, and some green came from the brown smartie, and come purple came from the red one?  It was hard too tell, and took a while.

Next we wrote my name on the filter paper using the same black crayola marker as above -- I wrote it once, and my dad wrote it once, then we added water:

You can see lots of blue here, some green and pink again too.

For the last experiment, we cut a strip from the middle of the filter paper, and bent it down into a cup of water.  I drew another black dot in the middle of the filter paper at the base of the strip.  The water, although slowly, eventually wicked its way up the paper and to the dot.  This was very interesting because even though it was the same marker and the same water, we definitely saw different colours this time:

Most noticeable this time is the orangey-brown colour.  But there is also a turquoise wisp, along with the blue we saw before.  The pattern it made this time, just from a small dot, is very interesting.

I had fun doing this, mostly due to my discovery that smarties taste very good when they are wet.  I also learned that the colours in some things are actually made up of different colours put together.

Science Experiment: Steady Hand Game

In this experiment we made a working steady hand game.  A steady hand game requires you to move a hook along the length of a wire, without the hook actually touching the wire.  If it does touch, the game will make a noise or show a light, and that means you've lost the game.

We used electrical components to make a circuit.  I learned that electricity needs to flow (like water) in order to work, which means it needs a way in and out of each component.  I also learned from this that when the electrical components are all connected properly, the circuit is closed, and when you disconnect something the circuit is open.

These are all the pieces before we started:

After following the instructions we had made a working steady hand game with a buzzer!

The next picture shows the buzzer and light connected in series.  Only the buzzer worked, as the buzzer made too much resistance for the light to work too.  We then connected the light and the buzzer in parallel, and they both worked at the same time!

I learned a lot from this, but I really just wanted to play the game!