My Science School

What you need:

A lighter or a matchbox, a piece of plain paper, water, rubbing alcohol (70% strength), a glass, a measuring cup, a pair of tongs, adult supervision.

What to do:

In the glass, mix 30 ml of water and 90 ml of rubbing alcohol. Stir the mixture well.

Using the tongs, dip the paper into the mixture. Soak it completely.

Lift the paper out of the liquid and shake off any extra droplets. Stow the glass with the mixture away from your experiment table.

Now, using the lighter or a matchstick, set the bottom part of the paper on fire while still holding it with the tongs.

What happens:

If all goes well, the paper should catch fire but it doesn't bum to ash. In fact, the flame goes out, leaving your paper intact.

 Why?

The key is water. If you had dipped the paper into a pure alcohol solution, the paper would have burnt to a crisp.

But when you ignite the paper that is soaked in a water-alcohol mixture, the water absorbs most of the heat generated by the flame and starts to evaporate. This absorption and evaporation of water does not allow the temperature to rise to the point where the paper starts to burn. Needless to say that if the ratio of the alcohol and water is altered, the paper will burn!

Picture Credit : Google 

What you need:

Three small balloons, three packets of yeast, sugar, warm water, three one-litre plastic bottles

What to do:

• Fill up each bottle with about one inch of very warm water.
• Put one packet of yeast into each bottle.
• Now, in the first bottle, put one teaspoon of sugar; in the second one, put two teaspoons, and three teaspoons in the third. Cap all the bottles and shake them well.
• Open the caps and put the three balloons on the bottles' necks. Leave the bottles undisturbed for a couple of hours.

 What happens:

The balloons begin to inflate in a while. The bottle with the maximum amount of sugar has the most inflated balloon.

 Why?

Yeasts are nothing but a kind of microorganism. They like to feed on sugar. Which is why they are used mostly in baking.

Yeasts require warmth and moisture to become active.

When yeasts begin to feed on sugar, carbon dioxide gas is released. This gas fills the bottle and then inflates the balloon. The more sugar the yeasts get to eat, the more gas they release and the more the balloon inflates.

Picture Credit : Google

What you need:

A small ball, a jar with a mouth larger than the ball

• What to do:
• Keep the ball on a flat surface, like the floor or a table.
• Invert the jar over it.
• Try to pick up the ball with the jar. Can you?
• Now, start to move the jar in a circle around the ball. Gradually, increase the speed.

What happens:

You can't lift the ball with a stationary jar. But when the jar is moving in a circular motion, the ball also starts to move along the rim until it gradually moves up into the jar. If you continue the circular movement, you can lift the jar right off the table without dropping the ball! This takes a little practice though.

Why?

When the circular motion of the jar is smooth, the ball also begins to move in a circle inside the jar. This happens due to a force called 'centripetal force’.

Centripetal force is the force that acts on a body that is moving in a curved path. While the speed of the ball (and the jars shape) makes it move in a circle, it is centripetal force that keeps it going.

You can lift up the jar when the centripetal force on the ball becomes more than the gravitational force acting on it. Once you slow down or stop rotating the jar, the centripetal force decreases and gravity takes over once more, causing the ball to drop out.

Picture Credit : Google 

Scientists find that minerals from the asteroid were produced more than 4.5 billion years ago, even closer to the beginnings of the solar system

The age of our solar system is estimated to be around 4.57 billion years. While previous studies of ancient meteorites have revealed minerals created 4.5 billion years ago, a new study has pushed that even closer to the beginnings of the solar system.

Using mineral samples from the Ryugu asteroid collected by Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, researchers from the University of California - Los Angeles are trying to better understand the chemical composition of the early solar system, closer to its infancy. Their results were published in January in Nature Astronomy.

Within 1.8 million years

 With the help of isotopic analysis, scientists discovered that carbonate minerals in the samples were crystallised through reactions with water. According to their estimates, these carbonates were formed within the first 1.8 million years after the solar system came into existence. They thus preserve a record of the temperature and composition of the asteroid as it was at that time.

Apart from being rocky and carbon-rich, Ryugu is the first C-type (carbonaceous) asteroid from which samples have been collected and studied. Unlike meteorites, which might have been chemically contaminated during their contact with Earth, these samples plucked off the asteroid are untouched.

Formed rather rapidly

Based on their research, the scientists were able to tell that Ryugu's carbonates were formed several million years earlier than previously believed.

Additionally, it also indicates that Ryugu, or the parent asteroid from which it broke off, was a relatively small object- less than 20 km in diameter. This came as a surprise as most existing models predicted the formation of bodies at least 50 km in diameter.

In essence, the study helped the researchers suggest that the Ryugu asteroid and similar objects formed in the outer solar system. They must have formed relatively rapidly and probably as small bodies.

Understanding the mineral structure of asteroids provides insights into various questions on astrobiology. Current and future research on the Ryugu samples and other materials will thus continue to help our understanding about the formation of the solar system's planets, including our own Earth.

Picture Credit : Google