Weird Science:

3 projects: 

 Supplies needed: 

-string, 

-small and big spoon 

-the juice of half a lemon 

-Q-tips for each child and a plain piece of paper for each child 

-hair dryer or lamp several 

-dull and/or discolored pennies 

First experiment: 

"National Treasure" 

Dip the Qtip in lemon juice and write out a message on the piece of paper. (The darker/wetter, the easier it will work.) Allow it to dry. Once it is completely dry, use lamp or hair dryer to heat the paper. (Don't lay the paper on the bulb kiddies and don't let long hair be pulled into the back of the hair dryer!;-) This may take a couple of tries in order to get the paper warm enough to work. 

Conclusion: Lemons contain compounds of carbon. When you heat them, they breakdown and produce carbon. Carbon is black and you can see dark outlines around the lemon 'ink'. 

Second experiment: 

"CopperTone" 

Using the leftover lemon juice from experiment 1,(or vinegar) drop the pennies in and allow them to stay submerged in the juice for 5 to 10 minutes. Take out the coins, give a little rub, nice and shiny! 

Conclusion: The acid in the lemon breaks down the oxide caused by oxygen and a clean coin is born! 

 Third experiment: 

"Come On and Ring Those Bells" 

Tie the string to a spoon handle. Slide the string to the end of the spoon where the 'bowl' of the spoon is pointed down and hanging in the middle of the string. Take the ends of the string and put them in your ears and swing the spoon to hit it against a table or solid object. You can hear a low hum like a bell ringing, different than the clank you can hear if you are just standing there. 

Conclusion: String carries sound waves better than air. 

(If you are near a table, you can put your ear to the table and tap very softly. It sounds almost like it's coming through a microphone. Wood carries sound waves better than air!) 

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This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.