Experiments

did you know that a standard LPG Bunsen burned on a Blue flame gives just over .25g of Downwards thrust, and only .06g of thrust on a yellow flame.

This is the place, where you can write about the experiments YOU have done, or are planning to do. This is not the place to write about something, which others have done, and it also is not the place to talk about some school lab, which you have to do. It should be about your own experiences, you have chosen out of interest. What we want to achieve with this forum is that people actually DO science and not only talk about science. Experiments can be described for all sciences. The most obvious thing may be chemistry, physics, electronics. But also mathematical experiments (e.g. computing and investigating properties of certain mathematical objects, recreational math…

here`s the place to add/list any quick and easy experiments that can be done either at home or with simple equipment. this is NOT a thread for Chat, and all experiments entered here MUST BE according to the SFN safety/legality regulations. please keep all entries as complete and exact as possible. where possible provide links with pictures (not a requirement). All subjects are welcome, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Psychology etc... single post... single experiment

If you place a laser pointer on its side on a table and point it at the wall across the room, there will be a straight beam of light, of course. Then, if you twist the laser pointer on the table only 2-5 millimeters, the location where the laser was hitting the wall will move much greater than 2-5 millimeters; it will move maybe an inch or more. So, a very small movement of only a few millimeters on the table produces a much larger effect/offset on the wall across the room-maybe an inch or more. If you increased the distance from instead of across the room to a mile, then twisting the laser pointer the same 2-5 millimeters on the table would offset the laser at the other …

The usual way seems to be heating a mix of Niacin and catalyst (I used basic copper carbonate) and limiting temp at the heating mantle to 250 deg C. I put a K-type thermocouple between the mantle and distillation flask. After 2 hours the head temp was only 60 deg C and nothing was happening (actually something was happening the Niacin was melting with drops forming in the head). So I raised the mantle temp and started getting distillate. Problem is the Niacin sublimes as a white vapor passing over to the receive flask, the Niacin in the rxn flask is burning and recrystallizing in the rxn flask. A loss of yield. Do I have to just let it sit at 250 deg C mantl…

I have some copper sulfate in solution along with various metals which should react and cause a displacement reaction for example Mg Zn Al If I make up a 0.1 molar solution of copper sulfate at 100ml volume I need 2.49g of copper sulfate in 100ml water. This is fine. Now if I wanted to add just enough of one of the above metals to displace all the cooper do I calculate as follows ( I could look this up, but I have an idea of how to do this, so am asking to see if I am on the right track) So if 1 M of Copper sulfate weighs 249g if mass of copper is 63.54 g then calculating the % composition gives 63.54 / 249 = 0.…

I Hypothesize that when doing the experiment I will be able to determine the speed and light at which Lithium Hydroxide will combust when ignited. By doing so, this will help in determining whether lithium hydroxide is a great combination for the purpose of traveling at the speed of light. This low budget experiment will be the result of being able to determine a faster rate to travel in space. Budget is under $50 Supplies: Bowl Lithium Water Lighter Tweezer Gloves Un-Inflammable gloves 8” x 8” Tarp Table top stove …

I am using some Red Cabbage indicator to investigate the pH of seawater collected locally. I seem to be getting results that imply that local seawater is acidic. I have attached a photo and also attached a pH scale portion of the CompoundChem website https://www.compoundchem.com/2017/05/18/red-cabbage/ According to : https://centerforsurfresearch.org/chemical-composition-of-seawater/ "Seawater has a slightly alkaline composition, ranging between 7.5 and 8.4". Granted, seawater pH probably varies around the world. But this just seems way off. In which case the colour should surely be more towards Purple / Blue The pH indicator does w…

I just wondered what was in Universal Indicator paper, I have some really old stuff here at home. It doesn't seem to work very well. however soaking some in a beaker of water, turned it blue. I tried to investigate further and see if this could actually be used as indicator, but my results seem rather inconclusive. It did turn citric acid a pale pink colour, but it didn't change colour when added to bicarbonate of soda, which given that is alkali, it would turn towards the blue / purple anyway depending on the pH. So just asking what is in this and if it has a shelf life, I think mine could be 20+ years old, so probably not much good any more.

I want to make a solution of Citric Acid, for experiments, so just asking here to make sure my method is correct So to make 250ml of 1M Citric Acid and having looked up the Molecular weight of Citric Acid: I need to calculate as follows Producing 250ml – so need to weigh out ¼ of the molar mass 192.12g / 4 = 48.03g which is the same as 0.25 (ml) x 192.12g Where 192,12 is the mass of Citric Acid therefore 1 Mol As i Mol is Formula Weight in 1 Litre of water, then we only need 1/2 of this as 250 ml is 1/2 of litre Therefore just dissolve 48.03 g in 250ml water. As I don't have a lab balance, Will use 48g, This is…

In an attempt to get back in to doing some more home chemistry and also come up with ideas for a STEM group i am running,. I recently had a go at seeing what would happen if various metallic elements were added to White Vinegar. So using 3 test tubes, Magnesium Ribbon, Copper foil and Zinc Granuals (all i have access to at the moment), I added these to the vinegar So given that the latter two don't react, I can probably re-use, but rather than simply putting back in the containers they came from, is there a easy way to clean them (not sure if that is the right term). I was thinking of just adding to a beaker of water to hopefully remove any residue of Wh…

I have been researching the production of graphene oxide for a year now. The problem was not obtaining the graphene but it was difficult to get workable piece to experiment with. The main issue was that, either the quality of substance or the quantity was not good enough. The main method of production I used was graphite mixed with water and soap in a blender. The problem with this method was that I could only get a few flakes of graphene and there was a lot of waste material. No good.. The second method I saw is quite dangerous as there is a massive fire risk. Also the website I read it on was rather sketchy. The basic principle of this method is using the burn f…

Hello people. I need to reproduce an experiment to inspect the effect of bile salt on pancreatic lipase action. I get a paper describing how the experiment can be accomplished. Under the "material and apparatus" section one of the materials required is the sodium cholate solution. The paper says that sodium cholate solution can be prepared by "adding 10% NaOH slowly with stirring to a suspension of 10g cholic acid in 150 ml distilled water, until pH was 8.0 and the solids dissolved". A little further down, under the experimental procedure section, it says: "Pipette 10 ml of distilled water to 100mg of porcine pancreatin to make a suspension of 10 mg/ml. Place the enzyme s…

Interested if anyone wants to do Eratosthenes' experiment with me. I'm at Longitude 111.85423 (Chandler, AZ), so people in Flagstaff, AZ, Salt Lake City, UT, Helena, MT, Idaho Falls, ID, Richfield, UT, Loreto, Mexico, Baja California del Sur, Mexico, and lots of other places would be welcome. Looking at 6/21 at noon. lol. Lemme know.

Have an odd piece of pyrite that I was doing some acid testing on, and I've gotten some really strange acid test results. I purchased some other pyrite so I could compare note and the results are a world apart. There is no way I can explain what I saw with words, but I do have pictures, so would it be cool to post and share them on here?

The liquid was water and the surface waves appeared after I put some in a large brandy bowl. Using the usual technique, rubbing around the edge of the glass, a radial pattern of standing waves was made. I could see little or no turbulence even at the perimeter of the liquid. Everything looked nice and smooth, a really nice spatial derivative. A good way to prove water is an elastic fluid.

I'm trying to figure out a way to calibrate the intensity response of a fiber optic spectrometer (Ocean Optics Red Tide - 350-1000nm). Let's assume that the wavelength calibration is accurate. The problem is that each pixel of the detector array (corresponding to each different wavelength) has a different response - call it A(lambda). So when a source with a spectral irradiance of B(lambda) is input to the spectrometer the measured output is A(lambda)*B(lambda). Note that this is no problem for transmission measurements since in that case a ratio of responses is measured and the A(lambda) factor divides out. I, however, would like to measure the spectral irradiance o…

Hey, I want to do an experiment to see if a metal pipe (copper) will burst if it is filled with water and then frozen using a freeze spray on the outside of the pipe. The spray I am looking at is the kind you use on skin tags so it goes to minus 50c (-60f) https://www.amazon.co.uk/MG-Chemicals-403C-235G-Super-HFO-1234ZE/dp/B07CCHPC1R/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=liquid+nitrogen&qid=1640914658&sr=8-5

I am interested in knowing if anyone can repeat my modification of the "DIY Quantum Eraser Experiment". Directions for how to perform the experiment can be found on YouTube. My modification involves replacing the two linearly polarized films in the experiment with two circularly polarized films to see what happens. I have observed that marking the two light paths with circularly polarized light does not erase the interference pattern contrary to the which-path theory. Ordinary clear cellophane tape "Scotch tape" serves well as a circular polarizing film and the tapes become orthogonal at a 45 degree angle. The tapes can be applied to glass for support. A micro…

Why are mathematicians afraid of contradictions? In my opinion, contradictions should be afraid of physics, and mathematicians study everything that can be imagined. So why not head into the world of prohibitions and experiment with "absolute mathematical completeness"? In this article, I will briefly try to describe the results of my observations. Here you will not see the hard evidence on which my assumptions are based. All the same, they will not be interesting to anyone. I just want to get people interested in looking for new ways to code. Binary classical and quantum systems are not the only ways of ordering information, and for some reason no one talks about this, a…

When soap water is applied to a paper where a thin layer of turmeric paste is coated , the paper had become red color. When washed with soap the stain of turmeric turns red because turmeric contains the tartaric acid and soap contains sodium hydroxide, a base. ... Therefore, it is the chemical reaction that led to the change in the colour of the stain from yellow to red.

I just joined up. Normally I could get the attention of 10s of thousands of views a day on Twitter, but the grand masters of information decided to silence me for my humble opinions regarding technical stuff on molecular biology...I digress.. I have been doing my own style of microbiological research for close to 2 decades. I call myself an amature, but have done real life practice in the field, dispite any board certifications including running a "hobby lab". About the rat, named Marcel. He is a pet now. He suffers from extreme itch, and scratches incessantly...and sometimes it drives him crazy. Checked him for everthing. Even treated for several othe…

While browsing around "Amateur Science" topics, I was reminded of an experiment I did a while ago. Whenever I'd go hiking with friends, especially one particular friend, I'd come out of the woods and he'd never have a single tick on him. I often wondered if ticks somehow choose a preferred host. So, one day after hiking, we took the tick that was on me and did a small experiment. We sat between two to three feet apart on a wood floor and placed the tick in the center of us. We would then wait to see who the tick would walk to. After he within a couple inches of our body, we would change our positions and orientation and put the tick in the center again. The result w…

Hi I would like to have a go at growing crystals with Water Glass, or Sodium Silicate, NaSiO_3 IIRC, As I don't have any to hand, I do have small bags of Silica Gel that you get in shoe boxes for example. Is this the same substance, and is this water soluble . In which case is this a case of fill a small container with water and place the gel in to dissolve it.. I am guessing this is yes, but just asking. Thanks Paul

Hello all! I'm designing an experiment of using a variable voltage power supply (0-30V, max 10A) to power magnetic copper wires wrapped around an E shaped iron core. The wire has a resistance of 0.000533 ohms per cm, the diameter of the wire is 0.065cm, the iron core's dimensions are 2.54x3x6.5 cm3. From the calculations, I found that it takes roughly 40 'turns' of the wire around the core; this is in total 760cm of wire length (minus the wire length between the core and the power supply). The total resistance I found in the coil would be 0.405 ohms. From Ohm's Law, I would get around 74A of current from this setup. Questions: 1. To calculate the mag…