Levitating ball

This is one of those experiments that I've seen in a number of books and kept passing up because it seemed like one of those experiments that looks like they should work but never do. The idea is that you use a hairdryer to "float" a light ball in the air. It works using Bernoulli's principle (the same principle behind airplane flight) - the fast air moving around the ball creates an area of low pressure, effectively acting to hold the ball in a tunnel. We were flipping through one of our books and Jr. scientist A found that experiment and asked to do it. I reluctantly got out the hairdryer, pointed it up and placed it on cool air, and gently placed the ball in the air stream. I was more than a little surprised to see the ball just float there on a cushion of air. Then Jr. scientist E did the next logical experiment - she nudged the ball. It moved a little and then moved back on its own to the center of the air stream like it was attached to a spring. That really got her excited. We all had a lot of fun with this experiment.

Playing (safely) with electricity

We got Jr. scientist A a snap circuit kit where we can put together different electrical experiments (the different parts of the circuits snap onto a board like Legos). He had lots of fun trying to put every piece of the kit on the board but I was eventually able to convince him to separate out the pieces needed for the "flying saucer" experiment (the little island of circuits in the middle of the board). After a little fiddling we launched the flying saucer by putting it on the motor, getting it going fast, and then cutting the power. The little disk flew up in the sky - it was pretty cool. Bedtime got pushed back quite a bit as we played with the new toy.

Parachutes

We decided to try our hand at making parachutes. Once again our brave gingerbread men rose to the occasion. Our first attempt used a coffee filter (nicely hyperbolic), and resulted in a slightly slowed descent. Jr scientist A came up with his own design (on the right), which worked better than mine (what does it say when a 4 year old can design a better parachute than you!). Jr scientist A wanted us to make parachutes for him and his sister, but I think such an endeavor might be a little premature.

High flying fun

I swear there was a time when I could make paper airplanes that flew, but that time has clearly passed. So I got a book on making paper airplanes (recommended by friend of the lab Arthi). We were able to make a bunch of really cool airplanes (some of which actually took decent flights). Although I got this book for Jr. scientist A, I was surprised at how much fun the younger Jr scientist E had watching the airplanes fly by. She eventually started toddling over to where they fell and bringing them back for another flight. We had a lot of fun seeing how different designs and different modifications resulted in different flight patterns (I have to confess that I started making two of each design because I wanted more turns!). At some point, Jr. scientist A must have decided that the planes were flying because they were made of paper and insisted on trying to fly an (unmodified) paper bag. This isn't the first time that he's gone from observer/participant to actively guiding experiments in new directions, and I have to say I'm a bit proud of that!

Paper helicopter

We did a science experiment I found in the book "The Usborne Book of Science Fun." We made an easy-to-build paper helicopter (takes less than 5 minutes to make). We also made a more durable version out of art foam. Because of the way the wings stick out, the helicopter spins around as it makes its way to the ground - just let it go from a height and it does the rest. We even tried dropping it over a third floor balcony for an extra long spinning flight. A fun little experiment.