Burning Magnesium in CO2
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. Read more
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!
Firework colors
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 standard air pressure, NOT compressed air, you can accelerate a ping pong ball to amazing speeds. Read more
Vacuum-pack a person
Easy to do with a shopvac
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 form 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? Read more
Freezing flowers with liquid nitrogen
Is there a better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than to freeze some flowers in liquid nitrogen? Probably, but flash freezing flowers and then watching them break like glass is pretty cool.
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