Amateur Science

Hello guys, i have a got a problem with my Beard Trimmer's motor.... The trimmer stopped working while i was trimming.... So i have dismantled and checked for the problem and found out that it was due to motor failure. The motor in the above picture is the one i am talking about, a DC motor of rating 1.2 Volts Now i need to replace the motor but the problem is that for this motor to run the trimmer it requires a shaft attached to the axle as marked in the above figure. Can anyone what do we call such stuff which are attached to the motors axle (in case of toy cars we have some gears attached). will a motor be available with such a shaft attached to it or do we …

So I have some little clay beads and small statues I'd like to fire, and while I know I could just pit fire them into bisque, I'm not sure I'd be able to glaze them that way. With just a small iron or steel container (like a gallon metal can or bucket) and some wood to burn, could I make a mini-kilt hot enough to glaze some beads? About 2250 degrees Fahrenheit at tops? What could I do to make it more efficient?

Basically, I was wondering about the nutrients and micronutrients necessary for certain plants. I was wondering if I could create a certain environment with specific amounts of everything and have, say, a rice plant survive in it. I know that the plant would be consuming water (duh) CO2 from the atmosphere, and that it would need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, but I know nothing of the micronutrients it would need throughout its lifetime. Yeah. Thank you! Lev

Hello chaps Say I have a pipe that outputs gas, that I can capture in a sandwich bag.... Is there any way to determine if there is a high concentration of oxygen in the captured atmosphere? Even better, is there any way I can tell if it is really high concentration of oxygen? 80% or more? All using easily attainable equipment or chemicals, is there anything like a test strip I could put inside the bag to show the concentration of oxygen?

While attempting an acetone dorodango(didn't last), noticed this happening in the dirt pile. Thought it was interesting enough to record(and possibly to prove it wasn't just the acetone vapors getting to me). Did find simply baking a normal dorodango in a bowl of dirt to work well in terms of speeding up the process. Then it fell... onto a hard floor... I'm okay with brief art, I just wish it hadn't been quite so brief. Interesting though. Have another one going and am planning to work on it more tomorrow.

I purchased a fox hole radio set and it doesn't work... I followed the instructions and looked at the wiring and everything is connected properly, one thing I noticed tho is the coil only has 21 turns... and every fox hole radio I see has atleast 120 turns... I am a little discouraged about it not working and not knowing why but this just increases my curiosity hopefully someone can help me out!

Based on the Raspberry Pi http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-cern-researchers-making-a-diy-cosmic-ray-detector-in-their-spare-time-cosmic-pi

I have a spring-mass system set up, and I'm trying to plot its position over time. I bought a Ping))) ultrasound sensor, and I have it wired to my Arduino so that it detects the position of the bottom of the mass. My idea was to pull the mass down, then release it and have the sensor capture the oscillations over time. However, the problem I'm finding is that the mass doesn't just oscillate neatly up and down: it bounces around in all directions, so it's hard to get a consistent reading without a lot of "noise". Does anyone have any ideas for an apparatus I can use to make sure the mass oscillates vertically, without affecting its natural frequency (i.e. not slowing i…

So hey guys i'm slightly confused as what sort of relatively cheap materials i could use in my Foundry project the names Ceramic,Graphite and refractory all pop up i have explored all of these thoroughly and have concluded that graphite is very efficient for being able to withstand heat and refractory materials are good for insulation but i seem to struggle with picking an appropriate material to make the "Outer Shell" of the foundry (Furnace) Out of Any ideas or heads up ? ((Keeping in mind I'm only 15 and aren't the most intelligent being on earth))

I'm building a statistical package for positional analysis in R. One of the metrics that has proven useful at predicting the outcomes of my games is "piece mobility." For example, here's a chess game I lost: https://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=111224894 Here's its mobility chart: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xnlpOszUF9uPowNvYPSGTHx27OAYp3sT5o1vrdJPDco/edit?usp=sharing And the attached image is the game's mobility broken into types of pieces. White won the game, but first it clearly won a war of options. Its mean & median total mobility was 38.30 and 39.5 respectively, compared with black's mean & median of 30.46 and 31.00. As a disclai…

I'm trying to understand the definition of active particles in relation to passive particles. Specifically light particles resonance vs passive element resonance.

Hello! For some time, when I am eating vegetable or fruit, instead of throwing seeds to trash, I am putting them to container with soil. And waiting to see what happens. I did it with f.e. - lemon. So far 5 new trees are growing. Pretty poor rate between plants/seeds. I am eating/drinking one per day with tea, so every week there is ~70 new seeds. Just 2 days ago, 2 of them appeared after nearly few months after placing them in soil (together with my chokeberry, so they were every day properly irrigated "accidentally") - grapes. 4 new plants grew from a few hundred seeds. - red sweet pepper. Nearly every seed grew to plant. This is photo taken from my red …

Hello everyone first post here and i am looking for a solution to a problem. I am attempting to use some water based paints for my business as i do custom painting on crash helmets. I am currently running into difficulties with the paint absorbing too much moisture from the environment of my workshop and ruining (at times) the paintjob. I have to create an area on a relatively low budget for now, where i can put the helmets/panels to sit where the moisture cannot attack the paint. At present i am thinking of utilizing an old fridge/freezer (turned off of course) in the hopes that my predictions of it being a generally tightly sealed and insulated unit that thi…

Would it be possible to make threads of ice using supercooled water? Cotton Candy and Instant Ice videos got me wondering

How does this work, first time a magnet run machine has me stumped.. https://www.facebook.com/fizikist/videos/943426745706464/

Hi all, I have an opportunity to get some new Arduino stuff for Christmas this year. I haven't choose what I want yet. I am not asking for like some links on how to do stuff from the internet. I know how to Google, and have done some research. Nothing has really interested me. I was wondering if anyone had any unique ideas that wouldn't cost a large amount of money. I have done a lot of AI with Arduino, such as turning one of my RC cars into a UAV rover thing, and making a quadrocopter drone. For the project, I was thinking something not in that direction, as I would like to learn something new(Not saying that I know everything about that!) Any suggestio…

Hey guys, I'm new to this forum, but I've created an account to ask you guys for some help. This summer I'm in charge of testing the communication system for a cubesat and one of my tests calls for the use of a weather balloon to create the separation that we will see in orbit. The thing is, I have no experience with weather balloons. I need to tether a balloon around 150 feet (thats the maximum height I can tether without getting the FAA involved) which will allow my radio communications to clear the 1st fresnel zone through about 14 km of separation. My main problem is choosing which balloon I need and determining the amount of line I will need for a stable 150 foot…

I recently purchased some 7Ω 1% resistors and used one in a circuit. However. my digital multimeter says it's closer to 11Ω, which is 'way outside the 1% tolerance. My meter isn't top of the line, so this made me wonder: How much can I trust it, and for that matter, how can I trust any meter readings? How typical is miscalibration in low-end measurement devices? Or should I trust the meter and gritch at Mouser that the Vishay resistors they sold me are monstrously out of tolerance? (Or at least one of them; I haven't checked all of them.) Thanks!

What would happen if you made a bunch of magnets shaped like spikes and when you put (glued with super glue) them together they formed a sphere with the south pole at the center of the sphere and the north pole on the surface? How would such a magnet look with it's magnetic field?

Normally around here a patient when they go to hospital etc is given a wristband to identify them. These are generally printed each time a new patient is admitted. Would it be possible to create a re-usable wireless wristband given to patients to monitor their blood pressure, heart rate, Spo2 etc which would essentially lock so the patient couldn't remove it?

We have wind power generators here which are skyscrapers pretty much but I want to know if it is possible to convert the already exsisting towers hull into solar panelling to provide heated water to the surrounding villages which currently run on water heated by dwindling fossil fuels.

I have been meaning to make this list for some time in order to commemorate celebrated amateurs, people remembered specifically for activities unrelated to their professions. In no particular order: Socrates, sculptor Jesus of Nazareth, carpenter Leibniz, attorney Einstein, patent clerk Faraday, bookbinder (apprentice) Spinoza, optician/lens grinder Lavoisier, tax collector Priestley, clergyman/teacher Dalton, teacher/tutor Joule, brewer(why not toast him with the next pint?) Morse, painter(portrait) Mendel, beekeeper/gardener/friar Voltaire(Arouet), lawyer Cervantes, soldier/accountant/tax collector Henry,(Joseph), watchmaker and silversmith appren…

I understand the magnetic principle behind the working of speakers and microphones. I am just inquiring into the circuitry sense of it. I am pre-designing a project where I would require a very basic speaker where I could modify the frequency at which it plays. Old speakers from headphones or computer speakers would probably be the primary source, with a homemade resonance chamber for my purposes. In order to modify the frequency though using a "basic" circuit, I was wondering about the configuration of this. Would it be accomplished with a variable resistor, an oscillator or timer, and a speaker, on the most basic level? (With batteries, resistors, switches and LEDs to t…

Goosepimples and general feelings of spook arise whenever my mind is exposed to visuals relating to paranormal activity or science fiction. Coincidence? I think not. According to my experience my body reacts the same way when my mind is exposed to horror movies and documentaries/movies on science, pertinently relating to extraterrestrial life and space. The same chill and spook leads me to wonder the relationship between the two entities. Scientifically it has never been proven that aliens exist. Man can only go so far on a mathematical presumption that aliens are likely to exist. Similarly, events of horror or paranormal activity hinges on a world totally un…

I used a pressure washer on the surface of a car at close range. It began to cause static, why is that? here is the video