Physical science is a broad topic, as it is the study of non-living phenomena. Areas include physics, chemistry, geology and astronomy, to name a few. To get a better grasp on demonstrate physical science, try performing an experiment demonstrating one of its many principles.
Tablet Race
Begin the experiment by filling two beakers half full with water. Then take an antacid tablet and wrap a piece of paper around it. Then, place the paper-covered tablet on a hard surface and crush it using your hand or a spoon. Next, open the paper with the crushed tablet and hold it over one of the beakers. Pour the antacid tablet powder in the water. Have a stop watch ready to time how long it takes for the powder to dissolve.
In the second beaker, drop a whole tablet into the water and time how long it takes for it to dissolve.
What you will find is that the crushed tablet dissolves faster due to increased surface area (the tablet can "spread out" more because it is in tiny pieces instead of being condensed into a formed disk, like the whole tablet). The higher the surface area, the faster something will dissolve.
Super-Cooled Substances
Would you ever consider butter as a liquid, even when in firm, stick form? You should, as butter is actually grouped into the liquid substance category as a supercooled substance. The hardness of butter depends on its temperature. As butter's temperature increases, it becomes harder for its supercooled cells to "stick together" and instead loosen up and begin to flow, like a liquid. Continue to heat it and it will flows like traditional liquids. However, once the liquid butter begins to cool, it reverts back to the hardened characteristics we associate with solids. The colder the temperature, the more solid the butter.
Perform a simple experiment to test the properties of butter by placing a marble-sized piece of refrigerated butter in five different test tubes. Then, place each in a different location. Use the refrigerator, the freezer, a third in a beaker with cold water and ice cubes, the fourth in a beaker filled with hot water and the last sitting out at room temperature.
After ten minutes, examine the butter sample in each of the test tubes and record any differences in appearance and relative hardness. What did you notice? Then, discard the test tubes in the freezer and refrigerator and allow the test tubes in each beaker to sit overnight. Examine them again in the morning. What happened? More than likely, they will all be in some form of solid, even though the one in the hot water was a liquid during your initial observations.
Fruit Battery
Start by stripping 2 inches of insulation off 18 gauge copper wire. Then, clip the 2 inches of bare wire with wire clippers. Next, take a metal paper clip and straighten it out. Cut the paper clip so it is 2 inches long.
Then, take a whole lemon and roll it on a table with a little pressure. After rolling, insert the pieces of the paper clip and the wire into the lemon so they are as close together as you can get them without touching.
Last, moisten your tongue with saliva and touch the tip of your tongue to the ends of the two wires sticking out of the lemon. You will be able to feel a tingle on the tip of your tongue along with a metallic taste in your mouth.
What you have just created is a lemon battery. The type of energy you created turns chemical energy (the lemon) into electrical energy (the tingle and metallic taste). The paper clip and the copper wire are the two pathways where the energy enters and leaves the battery. When you touched your tongue to the tips of the metal and wire, you closed the opened circuit and allowed an electric current to flow.
Tags: paper clip, test tubes, your tongue, antacid tablet, clip inches, copper wire, crushed tablet