My Science School

          A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth comes directly between the Sun and the Moon. As the Moon moves through Earth's shadow, the planet prevents direct sunlight from reaching the surface of the Moon. The Moon does not disappear but turns red because Earth's atmosphere bends the Sun’s rays. A lunar eclipse can occur only on the night of a full moon. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon's proximity to either node of its orbit.

          During a total lunar eclipse, Earth completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon. The only light reflected from the lunar surface has been refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. This light appears reddish for the same reason that a sunset or sunrise does: the Rayleigh scattering of bluer light. Due to this reddish color, a totally eclipsed Moon is sometimes called a blood moon.

          Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly 2 hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only up to a few minutes at any given place, due to the smaller size of the Moon's shadow. Also unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view without any eye protection or special precautions, as they are dimmer than the full Moon.

          Earth’s shadow can be divided into two distinctive parts: the umbra and penumbra. Earth totally occludes direct solar radiation within the umbra, the central region of the shadow. However, since the Sun's diameter appears about one-quarter of Earth's in the lunar sky, the planet only partially blocks direct sunlight within the penumbra, the outer portion of the shadow.

          A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through Earth's penumbra. The penumbra causes a subtle dimming of the lunar surface. A special type of penumbral eclipse is a total penumbral lunar eclipse, during which the Moon lies exclusively within Earth's penumbra. Total penumbral eclipses are rare, and when these occur, the portion of the Moon closest to the umbra may appear slightly darker than the rest of the lunar disk.

          A partial lunar eclipse occurs when only a portion of the Moon enters Earth's umbra, while a total lunar eclipse occurs when the entire Moon enters the planet's umbra. The Moon's average orbital speed is about 1.03 km/s (2,300 mph), or a little more than its diameter per hour, so totality may last up to nearly 107 minutes. Nevertheless, the total time between the first and the last contacts of the Moon's limb with Earth's shadow is much longer and could last up to four hours.

          The relative distance of the Moon from Earth at the time of an eclipse can affect the eclipse's duration. In particular, when the Moon is near apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, its orbital speed is the slowest. The diameter of Earth's umbra does not decrease appreciably within the changes in the Moon's orbital distance. Thus, the concurrence of a totally eclipsed Moon near apogee will lengthen the duration of totality.

          A central lunar eclipse is a total lunar eclipse during which the Moon passes through the centre of Earth's shadow, contacting the anti-solar point. This type of lunar eclipse is relatively rare.

          If you are standing on the moon, the sky would always appear black, whether it was night or day. This is because there is no atmosphere to scatter sunlight. On Earth, atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere have an effect on sunlight passing through them. Light scatters when it passes through particles that are one tenth as large as the light’s wavelength. The atoms of oxygen and nitrogen are one tenth the size of the blue wavelength, so blue light is scattered more effectively than other colours.

          We see the sky as colored because our atmosphere interacts with the sunlight passing through it. This phenomenon is called "scattering." The type of scattering responsible for blue sky is known as Rayleigh scattering. Because this effect becomes sharply more pronounced as the energy of light increases, wavelengths at the blue end of the spectrum, where energy is the highest, are scattered preferentially. The sunlight reaching our eyes has a high ratio of short, bluish wavelengths compared to medium and long wavelengths, so we perceive the sky as being blue.

          Without an atmosphere the sky appears black, as evidenced by the lunar sky in pictures taken from the moon. But even a black sky has some lightness. At night, the sky always has a faint color, called “skyglow” by astronomers. Much of this skyglow is light pollution - sources of light prevalent in urban areas that reduce our ability to see stars, planets, and other celestial phenomena.

          In the absence of light from human sources, skyglow is present due to a faint airglow in the upper atmosphere (a permanent, low-grade aurora) and starlight scattered in the atmosphere. Even beyond our atmosphere, faint skyglow is caused by sunlight reflected off interplanetary dust (zodiacal light), and background light from faint, unresolved stars and nebulosity.

          Like the earth, half of the Moon is always lit by the Sun, while half remains in darkness. Its orbit around the Earth, and Earth’s orbit around the Sun, means that we see the Moon with different amounts of sunlight on its surface. Although it appears to be altering its shape, only the position of the Sun’s light on the Moon’s surface is changing. These phases follow a cycle from a new Moon, where the dark side is facing us and the Moon appears invisible, to a full Moon, where the entire sunlit part is visible.

          For millennia, humans have kept track of time by observing the changing face of the moon. In fact, you may have noticed that the word “moon” shares its first few letters with the word “month” — and that's no coincidence. 

          The phases of the moon — new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter — repeat themselves about once every month. But why does the moon have phases at all? To answer this question, it’s necessary to understand two important facts. First of all, the moon revolves around the Earth once every 29.5 days. And secondly, as the moon carries out its voyage around the planet, it's lit from varying angles by the sun. 

          One half of the moon is always illuminated by the sun. But here on Earth, we can’t always see the half of the moon that's lit up. What we call the phases of the moon represent the different fractions of the moon's lighted half that we can see as the moon circles the Earth.

          When the moon and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, we perceive the moon as full. However, when the sun and the moon are on the same side of the Earth, we say the moon is “new.” During a new moon, the side of the moon that we can see from Earth is not illuminated by direct sunlight at all.

          Between the new moon and the full moon, the moon is a crescent (less than half illuminated). It then waxes — grows bigger — into a half-moon (half-illuminated). The first half moon after the new moon is called the first quarter because at that point, the moon is one-quarter of the way through its monthly cycle of phases. After the first quarter come the gibbous moon (more than half illuminated) and finally a full moon.  This cycle of phases then repeats itself in reverse. After a full moon, the moon wanes — becomes smaller — into a gibbous moon, a half-moon (also called last quarter), a crescent and finally a new moon. 

          Just before and just after the new moon, when a slim crescent of the moon is lit, you can also see the rest of the moon lit dimly. This owes to sunlight that bounces off the Earth and illuminates the otherwise dark portion of the moon that’s facing us, an effect known as “earthshine.”

          The major phases of the moon — new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter and next new moon — occur, on average, about 7.4 days apart. If you need some help tracking these phases yourself (or if you want to see where the moon was on an important day in history), NASA provides an online calendar of the dates and times of all phases of the moon for the six thousand year period between 2000 BCE to 4000 CE. 

          Nobody knows exactly how the Moon formed. The most common theory is that shortly after Earth formed; it was hit by an object the size of Mars. The impact was so powerful that it sent billions of tonnes of molten material into space. This debris was held in orbit around Earth, and eventually solidified to form the Moon.

          Analysis of samples brought back from the NASA Apollo missions suggest that the Earth and Moon are a result of a giant impact between an early proto-planet and an astronomical body called Theia.

          ‘There used to be a number of theories about how the Moon was made and it was one of the aims of the Apollo program to figure out how we got to have our Moon,' says Sara. Prior to the Apollo mission research there were three theories about how the Moon formed. Capture theory suggests that the Moon was a wandering body (like an asteroid) that formed elsewhere in the solar system and was captured by Earth's gravity as it passed nearby. In contrast, accretion theory suggested that the Moon was created along with Earth at its formation. Finally, according to the fission scenario, Earth had been spinning so fast that some material broke away and began to orbit the planet.

          What is most widely accepted today is the giant-impact theory. It proposes that the Moon formed during a collision between the Earth and another small planet, about the size of Mars. The debris from this impact collected in an orbit around Earth to form the Moon.

          The moon experiences temperatures both hotter and colder than those on Earth. When the Sun is directly over-head, the temperature on the Moon’s surface is higher than the boiling point of water — 100°C (212°F). However, at night, the Moon becomes very cold, with temperatures dropping to —173°C (-280°F). Earth and the Moon are approximately the same distance from the Sun, and therefore receive the same amount of heat. But the lack of an atmosphere on the Moon means that its temperature range is much more extreme. The Sun’s radiation is not filtered out by gases in the atmosphere, and there are no clouds to stop heat escaping at night.

          The moon rotates on its axis in about 27 days. Daytime on one side of the moon lasts about 13 and half days, followed by 13 and a half nights of darkness. When sunlight hits the moon's surface, the temperature can reach 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius). When the sun goes down, temperatures can dip to minus 280 f (minus 173 c). Temperatures change all across the moon, as both the near and far side experience sunlight every lunar year, or terrestrial month, due to lunar rotation.

          The moon tilts on its axis about 1.54 degrees — much less than Earth's 23.44 degrees. This means the moon does not have seasons like Earth does. However, because of the tilt, there are places at the lunar poles that never see daylight.

          The Diviner instrument on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter measured temperatures of minus 396 F (minus 238 C) in craters at the southern pole and minus 413 F (minus 247 C) in a crater at the northern pole. 

          “These super-cold brightness temperatures are, to our knowledge, among the lowest that have been measured anywhere in the solar system, including the surface of Pluto,” David Paige, Diviner's principal investigator and a UCLA professor of planetary science, said in a 2009 statement. Since then, NASA’s New Horizons mission set Pluto’s temperature range at a comparable minus 400 to minus 360 F (minus 240 to minus 217 C).

          Scientists suspected that water ice could exist in the moon's dark craters that are in permanent shadow. In 2010, a NASA radar aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft detected water ice in more than 40 small craters at the moon's North Pole. They hypothesized that over 1.3 trillion lbs. of water ice hid among the permanently darkened craters.

          The Moon is Earth’s closest neighbour in space. Its orbit around Earth is elliptical, rather than circular, which means that its distance from us varies. At its closest point to Earth (its perigee), the Moon is 384,400km (240,000 miles) away. Incredibly, the Moon’s orbit is slowly carrying it away from Earth at a rate of around 5cm (2in) a year.

          The distance between London, where I live, and Oxford, where I used to live, is about 100 km (or 60 miles). It takes about 90 minutes by car and about 120 minutes by bus. I can easily make sense of that distance.

          Harder to consider: the distance between the Earth and the moon, which is 384,400 km (240,000  miles). It’s a fact we’ve likely all learned in high school. Unlike the distance between London and Oxford, however, it’s not easy to comprehend what 384,400 km means in real terms.

          Luckily, you don’t have to think too hard. A NASA spacecraft has solved that problem for us. In October, OSIRIS-REX, a spacecraft that’s bound to intersect an asteroid in August this year, took the photo above from about 5 million km (3 million miles) away from the Earth. NASA posted the picture on Jan. 2, providing the public with a unique view of our planet and its moon. The angle is great to get a grasp of what the distance between the two celestial bodies really looks like, but it’s not perfect.

          Here’s a back-of-the-envelope calculation to explain why. For ease, we’re going to use round figures. The Earth’s diameter is about 13,000 km (8,000 miles). That means, in the 390,000 km distance between the Earth and the moon.

          Although the moon’s interior structure is difficult to study, scientists believe that it has a small iron core. Surrounding this is a partially molten zone called the lower mantle. Above this lies the mantle, which is made up of dense rock, and the crust, which is also made of rock. Together, the mantle and the crust form the lithosphere, which can be up to 800km (500 miles) thick. There are only two basic regions on the Moon’s surface — dark plains called mania and lighter highlands. These heavily cratered highlands are the oldest parts of the Moon’s crust, dating back over four billion years. The darker plains are craters that were filled with lava.

          The composition of the Moon is a bit of a mystery. Although we know a lot about what the surface of the Moon is made of, scientists can only guess at what the internal composition of the Moon is. Here’s what we think the Moon is made of.

          Like the Earth, the Moon has layers. The innermost layer is the lunar core. It only accounts for about 20% of the diameter of the Moon. Scientists think that the lunar core is made of metallic iron, with small amounts of sulfur and nickel. Astronomers know that the core of the Moon is probably at least partly molten.

          Outside the core is the largest region of the Moon, called the mantle. The lunar mantle extends up to a distance of only 50 km below the surface of the Moon. Scientists believe that the mantle of the Moon is largely composed of the minerals olivine, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene. It’s also believed to be more iron-rich than the Earth’s mantle.

          The outermost layer of the Moon is called the crust, which extends down to a depth of 50 km. This is the layer of the Moon that scientists have gathered the most information about. The crust of the Moon is composed mostly of oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium, and aluminum. There are also trace elements like titanium, uranium, thorium, potassium and hydrogen.

          Venus is covered by hundreds of thousands of volcanoes. This is because the surface of the planet is a thin skin floating on hot molten rock. This lava is vented wherever possible, meaning that, unlike Earth, Venus has volcanoes everywhere. Most of these volcanoes are around 3km (2 miles) wide and 90m (395ft) high, but there are over 160 much larger than this. Some volcanoes on Venus are over 100km (60 miles) in diameter! The volcanic activity on Venus means that the surface of the planet is always changing.

          The surface of Venus is dominated by volcanic features and has more volcanoes than any other planet in the Solar System. It has a surface that is 90% basalt, and about 65% of the planet consists of a mosaic of volcanic lava plains, indicating that volcanism played a major role in shaping its surface. There are more than 1,000 volcanic structures and possible periodic resurfacing of Venus by floods of lava. The planet may have had a major global resurfacing event about 500 million years ago, from what scientists can tell from the density of impact craters on the surface. Venus has an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, with a density that is 90 times greater than Earth's atmosphere.

          Even though there are over 1,600 major volcanoes on Venus, none are known to be erupting at present and most are probably long extinct. However, radar sounding by the Magellan probe revealed evidence for comparatively recent volcanic activity at Venus’s highest volcano Maat Mons, in the form of ash flows near the summit and on the northern flank. Although many lines of evidence suggest that Venus is likely to be volcanically active, present-day eruptions at Maat Mons have not been confirmed.

          Less than 20% of sunlight falling on Venus breaks through the clouds. Despite this, Venus has the hottest surface temperature of any planet in the Solar System. This is because infrared radiation (heat) released from the planet cannot escape back into space. The atmosphere traps heat inside, like the glass in a green-house, meaning that the temperature is over 400°C (750°F), greater than it would he if Venus had no atmosphere.

          Greenhouse involving carbon dioxide and water vapor may have occurred on Venus. In this scenario, early Venus may have had a global ocean if the outgoing thermal radiation was below the Simpson-Nakajima limit but above the moist greenhouse limit. As the brightness of the early Sun increased, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere increased, increasing the temperature and consequently increasing the evaporation of the ocean, leading eventually to the situation in which the oceans boiled, and all of the water vapor entered the atmosphere. This scenario helps to explain why there is little water vapor in the atmosphere of Venus today. If Venus initially formed with water, the greenhouse would have hydrated Venus’ stratosphere, and the water would have escaped to space. Some evidence for this scenario comes from the extremely high deuterium to hydrogen ratio in Venus' atmosphere, roughly 150 times that of Earth, since light hydrogen would escape from the atmosphere more readily than its heavier isotope, deuterium. Venus is sufficiently strongly heated by the Sun that water vapor can rise much higher in the atmosphere and be split into hydrogen and oxygen by ultraviolet light. The hydrogen can then escape from the atmosphere while the oxygen recombines or bonds to iron on the planet’s surface. The deficit of water on Venus due to the runaway greenhouse effect is thought to explain why Venus does not exhibit surface features consistent with plate tectonics, meaning it would be a stagnant lid planet. Carbon dioxide, the dominant greenhouse gas in the current Venusian atmosphere, owes its larger concentration to the weakness of carbon recycling as compared to Earth, where the carbon dioxide emitted from volcanoes is efficiently sub ducted into the Earth by plate tectonics on geologic time scales through the carbonate-silicate cycle, which requires precipitation to function.

•  Stuck on top

Few things are quite as irritating as dropping a needed screw or tool from the top of a ladder. One way to put an end to such mishaps is to glue a magnetic strip to the top rung of your ladder. It will safely hold onto all your fasteners and small tools until you need them. When it comes to larger tools, secure a canvas tool bag to the ladder to keep them in.

•  Off on the right foot

A scrap of thick carpet wrapped around the bottom rung of a ladder makes a handy mat for wiping the soles of your shoes before you ascend. It will also let you know that you have reached the bottom when climbing down. Secure the carpet scrap with gaffer tape and replace with a fresh piece when needed.

•  Don't leave your mark

Cushion the tops of a ladder's rails with an old pair of socks, gloves or a couple of bunched up old T-shirts to prevent it from leaving marks or scratches on interior walls while you are working.

•  Boot up a ladder

Set the feet of a ladder in a pair of old gumboots (Wellington boots) to give it a skid-free footing on smooth surfaces.

•  Clamps from the car

If you have an old set of jump leads just lying around collecting dust, cut off the battery clips and use them in your workshop. They make excellent spring clamps and can accommodate objects up to 40mm thick.

You could also use a car hose clamp (Jubilee clip) to secure a cracked wooden leg or spindle while you re-glue it. Just be sure to put a piece of cloth between the clamp and the wood so that you don't risk gouging the surface.

•  Pour on the pressure

It’s almost impossible to clamp irregularly shaped items and fragile objects when gluing them back together, but there’s an easy way to provide adequate pressure. Fill a small plastic bag with sand to weigh down repairs on small, fragile items so it shapes itself to the item being glued, without undue pressure.

•  True grit

To extend the life of sanding belts and get the most use out of each sheet of sandpaper, back them with strips of gaffer tape. The tape will prevent the paper from tearing and take some of the stress off the belts. Write down the grit size of the paper and the direction of the belt on the tape using a permanent marker.

• Resizing sandpaper

Many sanding jobs require the use of sandpaper in odd shapes or sizes. Here are a few household items you can use to get the job done:

1.  Pencils and pencil erasers


2.  Section of garden hose


3.  A wood block secured to a sponge mop holder (for walls and ceilings)

•  Cold weather sealing

When you need to do some sealing on a crisp, cool day keep your sealant pliable and running smoothly by wrapping the tubes in a heating pad (like those sold for pain relief) for 30-45 minutes before using them. Trap the heat by wrapping each tube in plastic wrap before inserting it into the sealant gun.

•  Clean fingers

 Don't use your finger to shape a bead of silicone sealant around a bath or basin (unless you don't mind wearing it for a while). Instead, use a lollipop stick or the back of an old plastic teaspoon; both have smooth, rounded edges and are easy to hold, so you can avoid getting silicone on your skin.

•  Improve your aim

It can be hard to manoeuvre a sealant gun in a tight spot or to properly seal a crevice that’s out of reach, but an effective extension tool may be as near as the kitchen drawer: a plastic drinking straw. Push the straw (or any plastic tube of the right size) into the nozzle of the sealant tube. Keep your impromptu extender from slipping off by securing it with gaffer tape.

•  Mix it up

Old jam jar lids are ideal for mixing two-part epoxy adhesive. The raised edge keeps the adhesive from spreading out as you're mixing it, and the limited interior space prevents you from using too much.

•  In the bag

If you are looking for an easy way to mix and apply two-part epoxy adhesive there’s a solution in the pantry. Take a plastic sandwich bag and squeeze as much adhesive as you need into a corner section. Tie off the rest of the bag and mix the epoxy by rolling it between your fingers (You'll notice the adhesive gets warm as it is mixed.) Use a pin to put one or more small holes in the bag and gently squeeze the epoxy adhesive out.

•  Unglue the glue

You shouldn’t have to fight to get adhesive out of a bottle or tube. Dab a little petroleum jelly on the inside of the lid or on the tip of the tube before replacing the cap. It will prevent the glue from sticking to the cover, and you will have one less frustration to face.

•  Sharpen blades with a matchbox

You can restore the cutting edge to a dull blade on a small craft or utility knife by rubbing it a few times on the striking surface of a box of matches or, if one is handy, an emery board. Be sure to sharpen both sides of the cutting edge.

•  Be carpet scrap happy

As handy as they are for repairing tears and burns in matching carpeting, carpet remnants may actually be even more useful around the workshop. You can do the following:

1.  Glue them to the inside of your toolbox to cushion tools in transit.


2.  Tack them to the tops of workbench surfaces to prevent scratching furniture finishes.


3.  Staple several remnants inside a narrow cupboard to form cushioned cradles for drills and other power tools.


4.  Staple remnants (one at a time) to a small block of wood to make a reusable contact-adhesive applicator, where a thin even coating is required.

•  Hands-on handles

You'll get a firmer (and more comfortable) grip on hammers, spanners, screwdrivers and other tools if you wrap the handles with adhesive tape or flat foam draught-proofing strip. Hard tools will become soft to the touch.

•  Save your fingers

To avoid bruised fingers when hammering home really tiny nails, hold the nails upright in the teeth of a pocket comb rather than between your fingers.

•  Save the wood

Claw hammers are great for pulling nails out of wood — but you can easily damage the wood's surface as you lever the nail up. Slip a piece of thick cardboard under the hammer head to prevent this from happening.

•  Shield wood from hammers

Protect wood from accidental hammer blows with a homemade hammer guard. Take the lid from a small plastic container and cut a small hole in the centre large enough to fit over the nail head. Place the lid over each nail before hammering it in. To stop wood from splitting, blunt the tips of your nails with a hammer before using them: simply hold the nail upright on a block of metal and tap its tip lightly.

•  Pliers as torch holder

Trying to hold a torch and work at the same time is a juggling act that you don't want to perform. But you can still get the illumination you need if you don't have a helper to hold the light. Place the torch between the jaws of a pair of pliers and position it at the required angle. Slip a thick rubber band around the handles of the pliers to keep the torch from slipping.

•  Fizz away corrosion

Loosen a rusty nut or bolt by covering it with a rag soaked in vinegar or a fizzy drink. Let it sit for an hour to give the liquid time to work into the corrosion. The carbonation in fizzy drinks has another workshop application as well: it will unfreeze a rusted padlock or cabinet lock.

•  Get a better handle on glass and mirrors

If you need to move a large pane of glass or a mirror, and wish there were some way to get a better grip, cut off two short sections from a garden hose (four sections for a two-person job). Use a sharp knife to slit each piece down the middle, then slip them onto the top and bottom edges of the glass. Never attempt to move a large sheet of glass when it is windy.

•  Bag a lock

Give external padlocks some necessary protection in winter by covering them with plastic sandwich bags. The plastic wards off rust and prevents damage when moisture seeps inside the lock.

•  Juice out concrete patio rust stains

When unsightly orange rust stains are defacing your concrete or stone patio, you can remove them with the citric acid found in powdered lemonade, lemon-lime or orangeade drink mixes. Wet the surface with water, and then pour the powder over the stain. Cover it with a sheet of plastic to keep the moisture from evaporating and put a weight on top to hold it in place. After 30 minutes or so, remove the plastic, scrub with a stiff-bristled brush and rinse. Repeat if necessary.

•  Replace slipped slates and tiles

 If a roof tile or slate has slipped out of place, it needs to be replaced as soon as possible — or water could get into the roof space and cause untold damage.

Tiles are easiest — you can normally prise up the surrounding tiles and re-hook the tile over its supporting batten. To re-fix a slate, you’ll have to make yourself a ‘tingle’ from a strip of thin lead, around 25mm wide and 230mm long with a small hole drilled in one end. This is nailed in place under the slate (exactly in the gap between the two slates below with the nail through the hole), the slate replaced and the end of the ‘tingle’ bent up and over to hold the bottom edge of the slate in place. Caution: don’t attempt roof repairs without proper access equipment — a proper extension ladder to reach up to the roof and a roof ladder (hooked over the ridge) to get up on to the roof.

•  Make a gutter scoop

The next time you need to clean the leaves out of your gutters, don't worry if you haven't got a proper gutter scoop. You can make one out of an empty plastic bottle with a handle (for example a bottle that used to contain toilet cleaner or fabric conditioner). Turn the bottle so that the handle is on top and use a utility knife to cut the end of the bottle so that the handle side is shorter. Leave the cap on the bottle and you have a perfect scoop that should fit virtually every size gutter.

•  Foil a leaking gutter

If your steel gutter has sprung a leak, patch the hole by applying a generous coating of silicone sealant to the hole or crack and then covering it with a piece of heavy-duty aluminium foil. Repeat the process and finish off the job with a top coat of sealant.

•  A quick fix for a loose brick

You don't need to mix up a fresh batch of mortar just to replace a single loose brick in a retaining wall or porch step — but never a brick on the house. Simply get out the two-part epoxy adhesive and apply it to the sides of the brick where the mortar has come loose. Let it cure for 24 hours, then seal any remaining gaps with building silicone sealer.

•  Instant ageing for new mortar

If you think that new mortar joints are going to stand out like a sore thumb against the old cement, you can try 'ageing' them to match by dabbing the wet mortar with a damp black tea bag. (You may need to experiment a bit to obtain the right shade.)

•  Pour your own stepping-stones

If you want to put leftover cement to good use, why not make a few concrete stepping-stones? Use a couple of plastic garbage bin lids as your moulds. Coat the inside of the lids with a thin, even layer of motor oil so that the cured concrete will slide out. You can even add your own decorative touches by etching shapes in the wet cement using leaves or other objects.

•  Cover fresh concrete with hay to prevent frost damage while it sets

Any builder who works outdoors has probably had the frustrating experience of working with concrete when the temperature falls. To minimize problems, keep the area covered with hay before the pour, then after the concrete is placed and smoothed; cover it with plastic sheeting followed by hay.

•  Touch up a scratched washer or drier

Metal buckles, zips and clasps can leave marks and scratches on both washing machines and clothes driers — marks that will undoubtedly rust when exposed to moisture and wet clothing. Don't wait to repair the damage or you may regret it. First, clean the area with a cotton wool ball dipped in surgical spirit. When the surgical spirit has dried (a few seconds at most), cover the scratch with a thin coat of clear nail polish or like-coloured car body touch-up paint, available from car supply shops.

•  Clean your washing machine

An easy way to periodically clean out soap scum and disinfect your washing machine is to pour in 2 cups of white vinegar, then run the machine through a full cycle without any clothes or detergent. If your machine is particularly dirty, fill it with very hot water, add 8 litres vinegar and let the agitator run for 8-10 minutes. Turn off the machine and let the solution stand overnight. Next day, empty the drum and run the machine through a full cycle.

•  Catch the ripper

If your clothes come out of the wash with small rips or snags, it’s likely that something inside the washer is the guilty party. Rub a wad of old, clean pantihose over the agitator and tub to detect any coarse edges that snag. Then smooth over the rough spots with a piece of very fine-grade sandpaper.

•  Cleaner floor

Concrete garage floors can get very dusty, which can make painting jobs a nightmare. It really is worth investing in some garage floor paint, which not only looks smart, but also holds the concrete surface together and makes sweeping the floor much easier.

•  A great stand-up routine

Why go through a balancing act every time you need to stand up a mop, duster or broom? Cut off the finger sections from some old latex gloves and slip them over the ends of all those long wooden handles. The rubber provides enough traction to stop a pole from sliding whenever you lean it against a wall.

•  Mould and mildew treatments

Garages and cellars generally suffer from a lack of ventilation so even the driest of these rooms can have mouldy walls or corners. Wearing rubber gloves and a disposable face mask, brush or scrape the worst of the mould from all surfaces, then scrub the affected areas with a brush dipped in a solution of water, disinfectant and soda crystals. Blot the damp walls with a cloth to minimize moisture, and keep a fan running to recirculate the air and to help dry the walls thoroughly.

•  Air out a cellar or garage

You don't have to live with a musty cellar or garage. Once you've taken care of the source of mildew, combat any lingering odours by mixing 2 parts cat litter with 1 part bicarbonate of soda in a large container. Then fill several clean, empty large tins to the brim and place them around your cellar or garage. Replace with fresh mixture as needed. If the moisture affects the upper corners of the cellar, fill cotton bags or old pillow cases with the mix and hang them close to the damp areas.

•  Hang up insulation

If you have an attached garage with a flat roof and exposed rafters, warm it up by insulating the roof from below. Buy some rolls of batt insulation plus rolls of garden netting. Push the insulating material up between the exposed rafters and use a staple gun to secure the netting to the underside of the rafters to hold the insulation in place.