It’s been another wonderful science-driven holiday season! We’ve experimented with balloons that blast-off, nearly unsinkable dinghies, delicious math candies, stackable liquids, desiccated dancers, split light, and put a minature Jaques Cousteau in a bottle. Tonight we’re going to give Hanukkah a fine send-off with another trick of the light. I got the idea for […]
Continue ReadingOf all the science experiments we’ve done for Hanukkah this year, and last year, this one is probably the easiest to set up and demonstrate. It also turns into a very satisfying toy. The Cartesian Diver (named after René Descartes) is not only easy to build and fun to play with, it also opens the […]
Continue ReadingIt’s the most wonderful time of the year – for science! If you haven’t been following along with my family this Hanukkah, you’ve got some catching up to do. We’ve already launched a rocket, sank a few boats, transformed math into a form of dessert, poured some stripes in a jar, and danced with the […]
Continue ReadingIt’s Hanukkah, and in my house that means it’s time to celebrate with science! Tonight, we poured some bubbly and drowned our…raisins. Well, we tried to drown them, but raisins are surprisingly good swimmers. In the video above, my five-year-old explains how “The Raisin Lifting Experiment” works, but even after the experiment was finished and […]
Continue ReadingThis year, as in years past, my family is celebrating Hanukkah with a series of science experiments. We launched under pressure on the first night of Hanukkah. On the second night, we triumphed over buoyancy. Last night, we ate mathematics for dessert. Tonight, we’re hosting a mixer. Or not. The Layered Liquids experiment has more […]
Continue ReadingUnconventional holiday traditions are fun for the whole family! So far this year, my family has celebrated Hanukkah by launching rockets indoors and constructing small boats in order to sink them. Today we’re delving deeper, into the very language of science. That’s right; it’s math time. Roger Bacon said, “Mathematics is the gate and key […]
Continue ReadingHanukkah is the festival of lights, and in my family, we celebrate with illuminating science experiments. Yesterday, we launched a balloon rocket, and today we’re sinking ships. Well, tin foil boats, actually, but this small experiment holds greater drama than you might expect. We thought it would be a simple to float and then sink […]
Continue ReadingEvery year, my family celebrates the eight days of Hanukkah with eight fun experiments. We’re at it again this year, starting with a balloon rocket experiment. It’s an easy, playful way to demonstrate Newton’s third law of motion. It’s also a good bridge to talking about air pressure, thrust, velocity, and a gateway to a […]
Continue Reading“Mom, is Santa Claus real?” No, it’s just a fun thing to pretend. “Good.” Soon: “Mom, magic isn’t real, right?” Right. “Just checking.” Later: “Mom, what’s a god?” Something like an imaginary friend who hogs all the good stuff and bosses you around, then gets mad whenever you do something they don’t like. “Why would […]
Continue ReadingOur family celebrates the holidays with science! For each night of Hanukkah, we do a different experiment. This year, we used two fabulous books for inspiration: The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science: 64 Daring Experiments for Young Scientists and The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science: 50 Experiments for Daring Young Scientists. The experiments we picked […]
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