Top 10 Geeky Science Projects You Can Do at Home

Do you consider yourself the next Stephen Hawking or Leonardo da Vinci? With the advent of the Internet, home science projects are more accessible than ever (5 Online Science Projects You Can Get Involved in). There’s no end of YouTube tutorials and aspiring chemistry teachers ready to take you through a variety of experiments, all of which will leave you surprised and hopefully enlightened.

We’ve selected ten of our favorite science projects to suit people of all ages, whether you’re looking to expand your scientific understanding or introduce science to kids.

Read on to find out more…

1) Magic glow in the dark

What are potatoes for? Food, removing rust, desalinating soup — oh, and making dirt in the dark, obviously…

This process can be confusing so don’t try it if you’re not fully prepared, but if you want to surprise people with some cool goofball, check out the video below.

The process revolves around extracting the starch from the potato, peeling it, and then adding tonic water that glows under ultraviolet light. If you are doing this with young children, you must be careful not to let them eat the mixture — in small doses it is not dangerous, but extremely unhealthy.

2) Homemade Lava Lamp

Are you longing for sixties glitz in your salon? Try making your own lava lamp to recreate the rock and roll vibe!

Lava lamps were invented in 1963. They typically contain a colored waxy substance inside a translucent liquid that melts and bubbles on the surface when heated. At their peak in the late 60s, they were selling around 7 million a year and you can still buy them today.

They are surprisingly easy to make at home — you just need an empty plastic bottle, a glass of water, cooking oil, Alka Seltzer (or similar) and food coloring. Once you have all this, follow the instructions in the video below.

3) Make an alien egg

Do you know what osmosis is? In short, it is the process by which a solution on one side of a semipermeable membrane interacts with a higher concentration of a solute on the other side of the membrane, equalizing the concentration over time.

In the real world, he is responsible for a number of both positive and negative factors, from cholera epidemics ( 6 sane resources for studying Ebola and other sane outbreaks about Ebola and other sane outbreaks ) and murders. slugs (everyone poured salt on slugs as kids, right?) to rehydrate dried fruits and replenish our cells with water after a workout.

Using just an egg (with its predominantly chalk outer layer), a glass of vinegar (which contains 4-8% acetic acid and the rest water), and corn syrup, you can watch bi-directional osmosis happen before your very eyes. Then make the egg blue, because why not?

While you’re at it, check out the rest of the Sci Guys video — here’s another great, flaming bottle whistle.

4) Make a cloud at home

If you live in the UK, Northern Europe, or northern US/Canada, you are probably wondering why you want to create even more clouds. However, whether or not you’re lucky enough to live on a tropical beach all year round, this is a simple experiment to help you better understand our weather systems.

To create your own cloud in a bottle, all you need is pure alcohol, an empty plastic bottle, a cork and a pump. I’ll let Benjamin walk you through the process in the video below.

5) Lemon Battery

Ever run out of battery on your phone (7 Ways to Increase Your Cell Phone Battery Life 7 Ways to Increase Your Battery Life) and been miles away from a power source? Don’t be afraid, just use a lemon! Okay, you actually need a huge amount of lemons to charge your phone, but one or two lemons can easily power an LED or something.

As the video above explains, it’s a common misconception that electricity is actually held inside the lemon. In practice, the lemon’s citric acid acts as an electrolyte — one of the three main components of any battery (along with the cathode and anode). Lemon juice will oxidize whatever anode you use (usually a zinc nail) and protons are then free to flow down the wire to the cathode (usually a copper coin).

A similar experiment can be done using other species or fruits and even potatoes!

6) Balloon piercing without that flapping

No, it’s not the trick of puncturing it before blowing it up, you can actually inflate an inflated balloon surprisingly easily using just a needle and some Vaseline (such as petroleum jelly).

Balloons are made up of millions of invisible polymer chains. These polymer rubber chains exist in random loose clumps when not stretched, but stretched to their limit on the balloon side. Therefore, the solution is to puncture the balloon at its base and its head, where the balloon is darker. At these points, the balloon can absorb the needle between the polymer chains without their inhibition.

7) Rainbow in a glass

Not only is this scientifically valuable, but if done right, you can end up with a nice piece of art (where can I find decorative art online?).

All you need to make your own rainbows is five glasses, four different types of food coloring, and plenty of sugar and water. The experiment works by using sugar to change the density in each of the five glasses, adding water and coloring, and then combining these densities together in the final glass to create a layered effect.

Clue — pour the liquid very slowly as you make layers or you will have to start over.

8) Heron Fountain

Heron’s Fountain is a hydraulic machine invented by the 1st century AD inventor the Alexandrian heron. He was the man who was at the forefront of mathematics in Roman Egypt, and is also credited with describing the world’s first steam engine and inventing the world’s first vending machine, wind wheel, and power pump.

It amazed the inhabitants of the classical world at the time and is still used in schools today as an introduction to the principles of hydraulics and pneumatics.

Using only plastic bottles, straws, plastic tubing and glue, you can create your own fountain. Just follow Arvind Gupta’s instructions:

9) Make your own carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is vital for life on our planet. Sometimes this can have a negative impact on global warming and greenhouse gases, but the truth is that without carbon dioxide, there would be no trees, no plants, and no animals.

Although we do not propose to produce CO ₂ on an industrial scale, you can produce small amounts of gas with a bottle, sugar, a plastic bottle, and a packet of yeast.

The balloon is filled with carbon dioxide as the yeast is immersed in the sugar solution. This works because yeast is a living organism, and when it feeds on sugar, CO ₂ is a by-product.