Absolutely Epic Science Experiments: More than 50 Awesome Projects You Can Do at Home

By Anna Claybourne and Anne Rooney

Young readers can turbo-charge their science skills with this mind-expanding book, jam-packed with over 50 awesome science experiments!

These eye-opening tricks will introduce children to the miraculous world of biology, chemistry and physics, including forces, optics, acoustics and more. Every experiment is set out in clear, step-by-step instructions with hilarious cartoon artworks and includes a breakdown of the scientific principles behind it.

Experiments include:
• How to make eggs bounce and bones bend
• How to make secret messages using just a ... lemon?!
• How to bend light with water
• How to create your own eye-opening optical illusions

Through these fun experiments, this book will spark a life-long interest in the marvels of science. Perfect for readers aged 7+.

ABOUT THE SERIES: Bamboozle, befuddle and blow the minds of young readers with the Absolutely Epic Activity Books. This fab and funny series of puzzles, experiments and activities feature wacky cartoon illustrations and are perfect for kids aged 7+.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
• Release date: Apr 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781398821484

Anna Claybourne

Anne was born in Portland, Oregon, and received her BFA from Oregon State University. In addition to her collaboration with Trina Robbins on the Lulu Award-winning GoGirl!, Anne's work includes the Eisner-nominated Dignifying Science and Pigling: A Cinderella Story for Lerner's Graphic Myths and Legends series. She has illustrated and painted covers for children's books and provided interior and cover art for regional and national magazines, including Wired, Portland Review, and Comic Book Artist. Anne's art also appears in the anthology 9-11: Artists Respond and is now in the Library of Congress.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Experiments with Forces

Spoon Shooter

Balloon Rocket

Marble Run

Balancing Shapes

Magic Magazines!

Eraser Slide

Does Water Have Skin?

Diving Bell

Fun with Magnets

The Speed of Gravity

Bottle Ball

FORCES

How do you make a tower of bricks fall over? Push it! How do you get a toboggan up a hill? Pull it! These pushes and pulls are called forces. They are everywhere, making things around us move, stop, or change shape.

PUSH

A push can make something move, like when you push a scooter along with your foot. Pushes can also make things fall over or get squashed—like when you squeeze clay.

PULL

A pull can make something move, like when you pull a plug out of the sink. It can also make something stretch, like a rubber band.

Working together

There is often more than one force at work at the same time. The push of the bat makes a ball fly forward. At the same time, gravity pulls it down.

Try this!

Take two toy cars, and Zoom them toward each other at high speed. Your hand pushes a car and makes it move. The cars stop when they push against each other. The cars may fly up in the air, but then gravity pulls them back down.

GRAVITY

Gravity is a pulling force between objects. The Earth is a huge object that has lots of gravity. So when you jump up, the Earth’s gravity pulls you down again.

FRICTION

SPOON SHOOTER

Have you ever tried to throw an apple to a friend, or taken a shot at a basketball hoop? You have to get it just right!

You will need:

•A long wooden or metal spoon

•A ruler

•Rubber bands

•Balled-up pairs of socks

•Scrunched-up paper balls

•A plastic bowl

1 Lay the spoon on top of the ruler, with the ends of the ruler and the spoon handle lining up. Loop several rubber bands tightly around the handle end to hold them firmly together.

2 Stuff one or two pairs of socks between the spoon and the ruler, close to the rubber bands. This will make the curved end of the spoon stick up.

3 Put the plastic bowl a short distance away. This will be your target to shoot at. Make some scrunched-up paper cannonballs.

4 Put a cannonball in the spoon. Holding the ruler still, gently push down the bowl end of the spoon.

5 To shoot the cannonball, let the spoon go, so that it flips back up. Fire!

Another fun idea

What else will your spoon shooter shoot? Try table tennis balls, marshmallows, or raisins (but you might want to avoid anything too hard or messy!).

WHAT HAS HAPPENED?

As the spoon flips back up, it pushes your cannonball into the air. Friction with the air slows the ball down. As it slows, gravity pulls it to the ground. This creates a smooth, curved path through the air. When you aim, you have to balance your pushing force with the way friction and gravity will work, to get that curve exactly right. When you do—PLOP! A hole in one!

DID YOU KNOW?

Some people are human calculators and can do really complicated sums in their heads instantly—even faster than someone with a calculator! No one knows exactly how their brains are different.

Malaria is a tropical disease spread by mosquitoes. Since the Stone Age, malaria has been responsible for half of all human deaths from illness.

Each person’s tongue print is unique.

In ancient times, Indian doctors used live ants to stitch wounds together. The doctor would hold the edges together and get the ant to bite through the skin. The ant’s head would then be snapped off, leaving its jaws as the stitch!

If scientists could build a brain from computer chips, it would take a million times as much power to run as a real human brain.

Your brain receives about 100 million pieces of information at any one moment from your eyes, nose, ears, skin, and receptors inside your body.

Eating asparagus produces a chemical that makes urine smell strongly, although not everyone can smell it. Lucky them!

A sneeze travels at 161 km (100 miles) per hour.

A body left unburied in a tropical climate will be reduced to a skeleton in two weeks by the action of insects.

People can be born with ears growing from their necks.

There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people in the whole world!

BALLOON ROCKET

What makes a rocket blast off into space? Rockets push gases out of their engines. The gas pushes back, and this makes the rocket move. Make this model balloon rocket to see how it works.

You will need:

•A balloon

•A straw

•A long piece of thin string

•Tape

•Several assistants!

1 Cut a piece of string 3–4 m (10–13 ft) long. Thread the straw onto it.

2 Ask two people to hold the ends of the string and pull it tight. (Or you could tie it to something.)

3 Blow up the balloon. Don’t knot the end—just firmly hold it closed.

4 While you hold it, ask someone to tape the balloon to the straw, like this.

Another fun idea

Can you make two teams, each with their own balloon rocket, and have a race?

5 Move the balloon and straw along to the end of the string, with the open end of the balloon pointing back.

6 On your marks, get set