Classic Candle in a Glass
This demonstration has been done for over 2,000 years! Non-the-less there are still incorrect explanations of the science being published and distributed today.
Read more →
Microscale Thermite Reaction
Combine some iron oxide (rust) with a little aluminum and you get some really nice sparks as well as some microscale chemistry.
Read more →
Ballplosion at Weather and Science Day
At Comerica Park in Detroit, as part of Weather and Science Day, we see what happens when a gas expands inside a closed bottle!
Read more →
Amazing Milk
Combine whole milk, some food coloring and dish detergent to create some cool color mixing patterns.
Read more →
Egg in a Jar
How can you get a egg inside jar that has an opening smaller than the egg?
Read more →
Extract DNA at home
You can extract DNA from fruit using just stuff you have in your bathroom and kitchen.
Read more →
Liquid Nitrogen Cloud
How to make a cloud with liquid nitrogen and warm water.
Read more →
Making a Naked Egg
Making a Naked Egg is really simple and some pretty cool kitchen chemistry, check it out!
Read more →
Rainbow snow for St. Patrick’s day
Fun with instant snow polymer for St. Patrick’s day, but why stop at just green snow?
Read more →
Burning food with Liquid Oxygen
Calories are just a measure of energy.
Read more →
How to make Slime
Slime is one of those chemistry activities that never gets old. If you have a source of polyvinyl alcohol you can make some really nice slime. Most people will have to work with polyvinyl acetate that you find in white or clear glue. Either way, a dash of borax will allow you to mix up a batch of gooey slime.
Read more →
How to crush a 55 gal steel drum with air pressure
Using just air pressure, 14.7 pounds per square inch, it’s easy to crush a 55 gallon steel drum!
Read more →
Will it Float or Sink?
Will a soda can float or sink if placed in water? It all depends on density…
Read more →
How do antacids work?
Have you ever eaten to much, or perhaps some spicy food that did not agree with you? Antacids are often your friend, but how to they work?
Read more →
Live Cow Eye Dissection
A cow eye is very similar to our own eye. Watch as we take an eye apart and explore the parts that allow us to see the world around us.
Read more →
The Ballplosion… liquid nitrogen, a 2 liter and some playballs
Quickly expanding liquid nitrogen explodes a two liter bottle with massive force to launch 30 gallons of balls into the air.
Read more →
How strong is a sheet of glass?
Generally you think of glass as a very fragile thing. It turns out that some glass is surprisingly tough!
Read more →
Cabbage Juice Indicators
Cabbage juice makes an excellent and easy to create acid/base indicator solution.
Read more →
Singing sound pipes
A steel pipe, a mesh screen combine to form a musical instrument. Or what we call a screaming tube!
Read more →
Elephant’s Toothpaste aka “Old Foamy”
This is a classic chemistry demonstration involving the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Add some soap, food coloring and a jumbo flask and you can have a lot of fun!
Read more →
The Ethanol Rocket
Fill a 2 liter bottle with flammable vapors, add an ignition source and you have a rocket!
Read more →
Thermite Reaction
Combine a bit of aluminum and rust (iron oxide) with good bit of pressure and you can initiate a thermite reaction.
Read more →
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Milk, Suger, Cream, Vanilla and a dash of liquid nitrogen are all you need to whip of a batch of really tasty ice cream in less than two minutes.
Read more →
The non-burning cloth
You would expect a cotton cloth soaked in a flammable liquid to burn up when hit with a torch… right?
Read more →
How to shatter a basketball
Dunk a basketball in liquid nitrogen and then try to dribble it. What do you think will happen?
Read more →
How to make Oobleck
Oobleck is a liquid or a solid depending on how much pressure you apply to it. It’s easy to make and fun to play with.
Read more →
Lycopodium powder
Very fine powders present a large surface area that can combust in impressive and dangerous ways.
Read more →
Make ice cream in 2 minutes
Using liquid nitrogen we make a batch of ice cream in under two minutes.
Read more →
The Flame Tube
The Flame Tube (aka Rubens’ Tube) gives us a way to “visualize sound waves” using gas pressure.
Read more →
Energy from Hydrogen + Oxygen
Combining hydrogen and oxygen gas in the right proportions can release a tremendous amount of energy.
How to make edible blood
Having fun creating some edible blood for Halloween. It’s super easy and you most likely have everything you need at home already to make some.
How to make Slime
Slime is messy, fun to play with and a nice example of some polymer chemistry.
Methane Bubbles
Methane gas is not only lighter than air, it is also combustible. The combination of lighter than air, combustion and human hand make an interesting combination.
Edible instant worms
The seaweed extract Sodium Alginate is so cool. It gels nearly instantly when added to a calcium rich solution. Read more →
Cow Eye Dissections
What’s more amazing than dissecting a cow eye on live tv? Check this out.
Read more →
Combustion of fine organic powders
A fine powder injected into a flame can create an incredible torch of flame. One correction, the second powder is lycodpodium which has nothing to do with mold, not sure where that came from!
Burning Magnesium in a carbon dioxide block
Carbon dioxide does not extinguish a magnesium metal that is burning. The Magnesium reacts with the CO2 and rips it apart providing it’s own source of oxygen.
Mentos Fountain
It’s become a classic summer experiment – mentos and cola. Drop a handful of mentos candies into a container of your favorite carbonated beverage and you get a jet of liquid as the candy makes the carbon dioxide come out of solution.
Ballplosion
The ballplosion is created by filling a 2 liter bottle with super cold liquid nitrogen and allowing the expanding gas to rupture the bottle. The force of the explosion launches the balls 20 feet or more into the air!
Fireworks 2011
Added a small bit to the burning metal salts with the iron powder. Cool bits of hot iron making a shower of “sparks” that are hard to clean out of the beaker afterwards.
Water Rockets
This was the second annual water rocket event at Imagination Station. We had all the supplies on hand for any visitor to build a water rocket and then head outside to launch it. We only had a few land in the river and none hit a building like happened in this segment. Overall it was a lot of fun.
The Ping Pong Ball Cannon
With just a bit of air pressure you can accelerate a ping pong ball to some amazing speeds. This device relies on creating a small vacuum in front of the ball and 14.7 pounds per square inch of air pressure behind the ball to accelerate it.
How to vacuum-pack a person
We live in a ocean of air, in fact, we live at the bottom of that ocean of air. All those miles of air above us end up exerting a force of about 14.7 pounds over every square inch of our bodies.
Disappering Ink
Disappearing ink is one of those classic back of the comic book toy pranks. There is some nice science behind the prank in the chemistry of acid-base indicators.
Freezing Flowers for Mother’s Day
What could be more fun for Mother’s Day than to flash freeze some flowers in liquid nitrogen – and them break them like glass?
Freezing flowers with liquid nitrogen
Is there a better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than to freeze some flowers in liquid nitrogen?
How to make an air vortex cannon
Making an Air Cannon is super easy and you probably have everything you need at home or in the garage right now. Learn how it’s done.
Exploding Eggs
Some people color eggs for Easter, I think it’s more fun to fill them with hydrogen gas and see what happens when you bring a flame nearby.
How to make a naked egg
Naked eggs are one of the coolest science experiments you can do at home. Check this out.
Rip a pop-can in half with your hands
Ripping a pop can in half with your bare hands is not all that hard if you know a bit of chemistry and a little about how soda cans are fabricated.
Fun with Instant Snow
Superabsorbant polymers are amazing things. They trap liquids in diapers and can even simulate snow.
Where’s the Bacteria?
I thought it would be interesting to test some common surfaces around an office for bacteria. Even better would be to test some spots at abc13 – the host of our Imagine It segments.
The Earthquake Platform
As part of engineering week I challenge local meteorologist Jay Berschback to build a stable tower on the Earthquake platform exhibit.
What makes safety glass, Safe?
Learn about the various kinds of glass that material scientists use to create a safe automobile environment.
There’s Iron in My Cereal?
Many iron fortified cereals contain tiny iron fillings. I’m talking about plain old elemental iron, the kind you would find in a nail, train or car.
How to break glass
Breaking glass is easy unless it’s tempered glass that can take quite a beating before breaking.
Tri-zonal Space Warper
I thought it would be fun to talk about how your brain processes the information that your eyes send it.
Liquid Nitrogen in a two liter bottle
Find out what would happen if you tried to contain 200 liters of expanding gas inside a 2 liter bottle?
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
How to make really tasty ice cream using liquid nitrogen as a cooling agent.
Burning Cheese puffs, Hot food science
A very graphic way to visualize how much energy (calories) is in a handful of food is to burn it and observe the flame.
Make your own lava lamp
What could be more cool than making a lava lamp with stuff you already have at home?
What is Oobleck?
Oobleck is a suspension of cornstarch and water that can behave like a solid or a liquid depending on how much pressure you apply.
How do antacids work?
Just how do antacids give your stomach relief when you’ve overdone it with spicy foods?
Superabsorbant Polymers
These amazing polymers are capable of absorbing up to 400 times their weight in water!
Methane Bubbles
Nothing better than safely experiencing combustion in the palm of your hand with methane gas.
Fun with dry ice
Solid carbon dioxide is often called dry ice because at normal atmospheric pressure it never forms a liquid state.
Fun with seaweed extract
Sodium Alginate is derived from seaweed and is used as a gelling agent in foods like pie fillings and jellies. I think it’s just fun to play with!
