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THE
ULTIMATE
BOOK OF
SATURDAY
SCIENCE
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Press All Rights Reserved
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
VI CONTENTS
4. Eddy the Coniclock—A Spinning Disk Powers a Conical Pendulum 280
5. The Humming Clock—Recycle Unwanted Mains Hum to
Run Your Clock 285
6. An Hourglass Wallah—The Sands of Time Updated 292
7. The Knife-through-Butter Clock—Melting Time 300
8. Creepy Clocks and Time Pencils—The Slow Flow of Solids 307
9. A Polymerizing Clock—Telling Time with Glue and Chemistry 316
10. Delay-Line Oscillators—Pass-the-Parcel Oscillators 322
11. The Fan Flap Flip-Flop Clock—A Huffing and Puffing Clock 328
12. The Faucet Oscillator—Measuring Time with Spurts of Water 333
13. The Slugulator—Not an Oscillator for the Impatient! 338
14. The Sloshulator—Time from Waves 344
CONTENTS VII
4. The Preposterously Big Party Blowout—The Holiday Party Favorite
Scaled up to Span Football Fields 457
5. Pink-Noise Pipes—Make Music from Noise! 463
6. Turbo Panjandrums—The Auto-Unicycle 469
7. The Impossible Turbine—The Backward-Forward-Always-Clockwise
Turbine 477
8. A Rocket Railroad—This Rocket Pumps Propellant from
the Track as It Goes Along 483
9. The Hovertrain—A Railroad without Rails 489
10. A Jet-Wash Rocket—The Superclean Rocket 496
11. The Single-Helix Pump—You Don’t Need a Double Helix to
Squirt Water at Surprising Pressure 503
12. Leonardo’s Bridge—No Nails or Screws or String: It’s Just a
Subtle Stack of Sticks 509
13. Your Personal Hovercraft—You Have a Personal Computer,
Why Not Ride Around on Your Personal Hovercraft? 517
VIII CONTENTS
PREFACE
Inside this book you will find projects and experiments that reflect new ideas, in-
ject new ideas into older ideas, and aim to generate new thinking from those who
try them out.
The projects demonstrate principles and phenomena—sometimes very unusual
phenomena—in engineering, physics, and chemistry. With the exception of one or
two more open-ended activities, they offer one sure-fire version of the project,
alongside suggestions for variations and improvements. The ideas come from my
work in industrial gases, and from running science sessions both for younger (8–
13) and older (16–19) age groups, in schools, with educators, at a Saturday morn-
ing club in my hometown of Guildford (England), and, more recently, in project
work with university students.
The projects for the book are chosen on the grounds that they are new, that
they work, that they are spectacular, and that they are interesting. As demonstra-
tions, most of these projects will fascinate anyone, child or adult. Some of the eas-
ier experiments can be carried out by kids as young as nine or ten, while teenage
or adult abilities are needed to do more complex projects or those needing greater
manual skills. Others are fairly open-ended challenges that you could carry out
quickly at a basic level, but which could absorb considerable time if you were to
make them more sophisticated and develop your own ideas around them.
The science explained in the main text of the project chapters is kept at a
straightforward level, with more complex explanations in boxes, and just a little
math.
Safety Hazards
Some of the projects and experiments, sometimes by virtue of their newness, will
carry new risks, albeit small risks. However, this book is NOT about doing dan-
gerous projects and demonstrations because they are dangerous—rather, it is about
doing interesting projects, some of which happen to have elements of danger.
Real dangers and perceived dangers are of course two different things. Driving
your automobile you probably feel fairly safe. By contrast, an aluminum box sus-
pended 40,000 feet up in the air and held there by nothing more substantial than
the wind rushing by, sounds dangerous. But in fact, travel by jet airliner is 100
times safer than going by automobile. In each project, where there is some element
of hazard, this has been highlighted. All experiments should be done under the
supervision of an adult, and caution is recommended at all times.
The BBC in London asked me to participate in a discussion during the UK’s Sci-
ence Week. In the UK, just as in the US, there is a major shortage of science edu-
cators, and an unwillingness of students to do physics, chemistry, or engineering
degrees. I reminded the audience in the broadcast about how important hands-on
practical work is to science learning, and how often this key curriculum item is cut
back for lack of time or suitable staff.
The other reason we have neglected hands-on science work is because we don’t
let kids get on with stuff at home so much anymore. With many parents based in
city locations where there is no backyard, kids aren’t encouraged to do anything
that requires bulky stuff or is messy in any way. So Morse code telegraph wires
don’t get connected between houses; model airplanes don’t get glued together and
flown; ponds don’t get dragged for bugs to study and dissect; and black powder
isn’t mixed up for homemade fireworks. A whole panoply of interesting stuff that
used to go on doesn’t go on today, and our kids lose out on tremendous educa-
tional experiences that benefited previous generations enormously.
Although there is much to be done by government action and by the manage-
ment of our schools, there is also much that can be done by us as individuals. I
think that science clubs can have a significant role in taking the place of much that
is now not done at school or home.
So why not volunteer to run a science club at your local school or the school
your children go to? Or set up an independent science club, as I did fifteen years
ago, alongside other Saturday morning recreational activities. And if you can’t run
a science club for a whole bunch of kids, you can still make sure your own kids get
some hands-on experience. Can you clear them a space in the garage, put a shack
up in the garden, buy them an Erector Set and some other hardware?
X P R E FA C E
Saturday Science on the World Wide Web
And Finally . . .
A few remarks to those who have read—or who might want to read—my previous
books. First of all, none of the projects in earlier books are duplicated here. Sec-
ond, I have put in just a little math. The publisher and I have decided that less
math gives a better balance for many readers. This is not to say that more math is
not a good idea: it would deepen understanding, and probably the performance
or reliability of the project or demonstration. So if you do have a math neuron or
two in your brain, let them loose on the projects here.
Lastly, look out for my next great popular science book. I’ve got a garage and
workshop full of semi-completed projects—albeit with a few duds in the mix—
more books in draft in my study, and a bunch of kids trying things out. Stay tuned!
N.A.D.
Odiham, Hampshire, 2012
P R E FA C E XI
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Unless otherwise credited, photos are courtesy of Diane Downie and the author.
Pages 102 and 524: Photos courtesy of Ian Ackerley.
Page 110: Photo courtesy of Airlight Ltd., Biasca, Switzerland.
Page 146: Photos courtesy of Ron Ward.
Page 490: Photos courtesy of John Turner, Railworld, Petersborough, United
Kingdom.
This book wouldn’t have happened without contributions from a lot of my family,
friends, and colleagues. My heartfelt thanks to my wife Diane and my children,
Helen and Becks. Many of the projects you see here were first tried out by them.
My friends and the children of the Saturday Activity Centre in Guildford have
been an enormous help too. Colleagues at work (Air Products Plc in Basingstoke),
including my boss Dr. Declan Weldon, have been terrific too. And of course noth-
ing would get into print without the staff at Princeton University Press, from
Karen Fortgang to Ingrid Gnerlich, with special mentions for Eva Jaunzems for
copyediting and Boris Starosta for the drawings. Thank you everybody!
This page intentionally left blank
Raffiniert ist der Herrgott, aber boshaft ist er nicht.
[Subtle is the Lord God, but malicious He is not.]
Albert Einstein speaking at Princeton University, 1921
This page intentionally left blank
1. BLUNDERSPUDS AND
CARROT CANNONS—
ARTILLERY AND
BOYLE’S LAW
The spud gun was a staple weapon of junior soldiers from at least the 1960s on-
wards. It comprised a tiny piston mounted on the handle of a toy handgun, the
trigger of which pulled back a cylinder over the piston. The cylinder had a nozzle
that could be jabbed into a potato, removing a pellet. When you squeezed the pis-
tol hard, you compressed air in the cylinder and the pellet of spud was ejected like
a small bullet. Later a three-in-one design came out that could do more. It could
not only fire pieces of potato, but also squirt water and ignite tiny explosive caps.
I have to admit, however, that I have recently tried out these weapons of my
youth, and they are much less impressive than I recall. Perhaps instead of a potato
pistol, we should aim for something a little bigger, a potato musket maybe?
In the olden days there was a very large-bore musket rather wonderfully named
a “blunderbuss.” With the assistance of the kids at our Saturday Science Club in
Guildford and a little science, I decided to come up with a vegetable equivalent
worthy of the name “Blunderspud.” (Though as it turns out, we discovered that
carrots actually made the best bullets . . . so I guess we’ll have to call it a Carrot
Cannon from now on.)
A metal tube about 600 mm (24″) long, preferably steel, thin-walled, with an
internal diameter of 10–20 mm (3/8″ to 3/4″), or a plastic tube of the same
length, thin-walled (about 1.5 mm), with an internal diameter of about 20
mm (3/4″)
A plunger: a strong round wooden rod or bamboo stick that fits inside the
tubing
Sponge rubber or plastic, duct tape—to make a hand protector for the
plunger
Carrots—large ones—larger in diameter than the outside of the tubing
A rod or tube (of steel or some other strong metal) that fits loosely inside the
tube (for widening the tube at the ends)
A hacksaw
A round file, a deburring tool, or a knife
What You Do
You can use plastic, copper, or other metal tubing for the carrot cannon. First cut
your barrel to, say, 600 mm (2′) long. The longer the barrel, the more compressed
air there will be to store energy, so long is good. However, there is an ergonomic
limit to how long you can make the barrel, because the plunger needs to be longer
than the barrel, and you need to be able to push the plunger with a high degree of
force into the barrel. So, unless you have arms like a gorilla, the plunger shouldn’t
be much longer than 900 mm (3′), including 150 mm (6″) for a handgrip.
Next you need to bevel the edge of the ends of the tube on the inside of the tube
to sharpen it. You will then be able to cut into the vegetable with a reasonably low
force. More subtly, that bevel should be on the inside so that the piece of vegetable
cut off will be slightly larger than the inner diameter of the tube; that way it will
form a gas-tight seal. I find that a simple craft knife will do a reasonable job of this
on plastic, but you may find it easier to use a file, and a file is certainly indicated
for metal. I also have a slightly unusual workshop tool called a “deburring tool.” A
deburring tool consists of a tiny curved blade made of hardened steel that is
mounted so that it rotates freely in its handle. It is easy to use and does a neater
job. The edge of the tube doesn’t need to be razor sharp—cutting the edge down
from its normal 1.5 mm to, say, 0.7 mm or 0.5 mm will be fine.
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