Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Experiments you can actually do

There are a lot of great science experiment videos on the web, but many show reactions that require very expensive (or very unsafe) chemicals, or that are otherwise unsuitable for home or classroom imitation. (For examples, see the Top 10 Chemistry Videos Online from the March 5th post.) At least one site, however, specializes in very, very simple experiments (occasionally underwhelmingly so) that anyone can do. It's Robert Krampf's Science Videos, and it's experiments, while geared toward the elementary and middle-school crowds, are often the kind that you can watch, think "I've got that stuff in my kitchen", and immediately do for yourself. Even though as adults we might already know the information he presents, many of the experiments show practical (or at least fun) applications of things that we've only learned in principle. I'm still catching up on them, but so far my favorites are the Bouncing Balls (complete with slow-mo replay) and Orange Segments. Each video has a complete text description with it in case you missed anything.