Get Your Science On
Get Your Science On is our newest podcast. It features the Little Shop of Physics traveling hands-on experiments that make up our road program (see School Visits). These short videos will teaching you how to make cool science experiments with household items.
How does the shape of your ears affect how you hear? Brenna and Brian explore Animal Ears: ears shaped like those of a brown long-eared bat and an aye-aye lemur. Hear the world in a brand new way with this simple experiment!
This week, Brian and Elizabeth show us how to use a humidifier, inner tube, and a light to make little fog doughnuts.
This week Lena and Brian explore lenticular plastic — which contains many tiny cylindrical lenses — to play some cool tricks with light. This special plastic defocuses light along one axis, and is the basis of the LSOP experiment “Straw Crossed”.
Beau shares one last experiment with Heather before he heads off to medical school. “Muscle Memory” uses nitinol wire; sometimes called memory wire, nitinol is a nickel-titanium alloy that “remembers” its previous shape and reverts back to it when heated. The mechanism is an unusual phase change in the metal.
This week, we have a special video from our visiting science teacher Chris Chiaverina. Chris shows us how a microphone works and how to build “Slinky Sounds”, an awesome little experiment that makes some sci-fi sound effects!
This week, Rachel shows us how to make a vortex canon. This simple device shoots rings of air, and it can be made any size from tiny to gigantic!
The week Rachel shows us this awesome experiment using a wireless baby monitor and a microwave oven along with some bottles of water.
Eva has an egg and a bottle. The egg will not fit in the mouth of the bottle. She uses two different methods to get atmospheric pressure to push the egg into the bottle. The first method uses hot water, some of which evaporates. The water vapor displaces the air inside of the bottle. When the bottle is cooled, the vapor condenses into a liquid, which decreases the pressure inside of the bottle. The second method is similar, but uses a small fire to heat the air inside of the bottle, causing the air to expand. When the flame goes out, the air cools, lowering the pressure on the inside of the bottle.
Continuing on our theme of atmospheric pressure, this week we experiment on increasing and decreasing pressure, and how it affects the air trapped inside of marshmallows.
Last week, we showed you how atmospheric pressure can be used to give a giant “bear hug”. This week, we use atmospheric pressure to crush a metal can.
A plastic bag is connected to a vacuum pump. Initially the air inside the bag pushes out with the same force as the air outside of the bag pushing in. However, when the air is pumped out of the bag there is nothing to counteract the atmosphere squeezing the bag against the bear.
Last time we saw that we can separate mixtures by using size and magnetism. This time we use density to separate a mixture. This process is used to separate different types of plastics so that they can be recycled.
River sand is a mixture: it’s a combination of many types and sizes of materials that are combined together without being chemically bonded to each other. Mixtures can be unmixed, or separated into component parts using various physics techniques.
Ignasius and Sherri from B2Gold Namibia join the Little Shop of Physics team for a demonstration of crystal growth in a supercooled liquid.
Three balls go down tracks of varying widths. Which gets down first? The answer may surprise you!
This week, Fey shows us a neat experiment called Crystal Clear, which uses a calcite crystal to make an image that is only clear when you’re wearing polarized glasses.
This experiment creates an illusion of an endless tunnel of lights going off into the distance forever.
This week, Katie shows us how to build a cool science experiment while recycling an old laptop computer.
This week, McKenna teaches us how to build Chronophones, a classic LSOP experiment that makes things sound like they’re coming from different places than they actually are.
This week, Heather shows us how to build a toy that detects static electricity!
This week, Mayon shows us how to build a neat little experiment which show some of the physical properties of gasses in a way you can really feel!
This week John shows us how to build a human powered clock.
By manually turning the drill, you can make the white square get warm or cold.
Bryan shows us a surprising experiment you can do with a ping pong ball. You might think this is a trick, and you’d be right.
Joe shows us how to make a strong electromagnet with a horseshoe.
Katie shows up how to build Mag Nuts, a simple experiment with a magnetic and hardware nuts.
This week Rachel shows us an awesome experiment to transmit sound using light.
Victoria has a simple surprising experiment. What Keeps the Ball in the Cup?
John shows us Color Confusion — an awesome and colorful little experiment.
Wormhole is an awesome illusion created by using special mirrors.
Katie shows us how to build Frozen Shadows. Put your hands or other objects on the glow paper, and engage the flash. Check out your awesome Frozen Shadows!
John shows how to make a Jupiter Jar. This awesome experiment shows you how a fluid flows in a spinning globe. This is analogous to the motion of the atmosphere on Jupiter (or the Earth!)
Kayla shows us an awesome experiment to show changing magnetic field lines!
This week Katie shows us how to build Big Ears. This experiment makes it so you can hear sounds very well, but only in the direction the headphones are pointing.
This week Adam shows us how to make an awesome glowy science experiment.
Katie shows as an awesome experiment you can build where sound actually travels through your head instead of through the air! It’s all in your head!
Joe shows us how we can make an electric generator with a salad spinner, some magnets and a coil of wire.
Adam shows us how you can use a magnet to make the filament in a lightbulb dance!
Heather shows us a cool experiment you can make with glow-in-the-dark paper and different color LED lights.
This week, Mayon show’s us how to build an awesome experiment: Funky Ferro Fluid. Music is used to make a magnetic liquid dance!
In this episode, and show us how to make a beach ball levitate in the air! All you need is an air blower and a ball.
Adam shows off a colorful and dynamic experiment that you can build with a blower, some flexible tubing, plastic pipe and some yarn!
Jesse shows us an awesome experiment you can build with an ultrasonic humidifier, aquarium, and laser. It’s a really neat way to view the dynamic convection of a cloud.
In this episode, Mayon shows us an awesome way to see sound using a microphone, speaker, and a piece of rubber!
In this episode of Get Your Science On, Mayon demonstrates how to build a Bolt Eater — a simple electrogmagnet with made with a solenoid or a coil of wires.
On this episode of Get Your Science On, Mayon shows us an awesome experiment that you can build with a some magnets, iron filings, and glass bottles.
In this episode of Get Your Science On, Katie shows you a neat experiment that shows waves. You can build it with a vibrating back massager and some string.
In this episode of Get Your Science On, Spice shows us an awesome new experiment that she came up with a couple of months ago. Fogland uses a humidifier, and under-inflated tire, and a plastic tub lid.
In this episode of Get Your Science On, Joe shows off a cool obstacle course you can set up and do with a ping pong ball and a hair dryer!
In this episode of “Get Your Science On”, Nicole shares a great little experiment you can make with some catchup packets and a plastic bottle filled with water. This also makes a great party trick!
In this episode of “Get Your Science On”, Heather shows you a simple experiment you can build with a humidifier and a bowl.
In this episode of Get Your Science On, Rachel shows off a cool experiment you can do by hanging a pair of small toys (like rubber ducks or toy cars) from a string.
In this episode of “Get Your Science On”, Adam shows you some cool experiments with light scattering that you can do using a laser, a humidifier, and some small mirrors.