GEEK DAY
20
HOW TO PLAN YOUR OWN EVENT
Transcript of GEEK DAY
How to Plan Your own
EvEnt
Feed the PeoPleIt’s not a party without party food, and there’s no better way to make your guests remember your GeekDad Day than with geeky eats. Skip the sit-down meal and go with snacky dishes that can be eaten with your hands. Make sure there are choices for kids, then throw in an adult optiona or two. For some cool, nerd-themed food solutions, visit ThinkGeek. The site has astronaut ice cream, bacon in a tube, Angry Birds pork rinds, Ninja cookie cutters, brain-shaped jello molds (perfect for zombies), lightsaber ice pops, and a lot more. Also check out the science-inspired cookie ideas (like a periodic table of cupcakes!) at Not So Humble Pie.
decorate!Etsy.com is a great place to get started with party paraphernalia. Just type “party” into their search engine and you’ll be presented with unique banners, flags, decorations, and trinkets. “Robot party” returns homemade robot-shaped chocolates, banners, decoration kits, invitations, stickers, bottle labels, and a clip-art set. Want to amp up the DIY factor and make decorations on your own? Craft Magazine is the digital sister publication of Make Magazine. Craft has a website filled with ideas for do-it-yourself party crafts. Plus, their designs trend toward the nerdy side of life.
InvIte Your GuestsSince the day’s activities will be do-it-yourself, be sure to invite parents and kids who like getting their hands dirty. You don’t want anyone throwing a wrench in the fun, sitting on the sideline while everybody else is busy building. Also, make sure your guest list isn’t so large that the projects are difficult to manage and the cost of supplies becomes prohibitive. Of course, you can always provide a shopping list and tell them to bring their own tools and materials!
There are lots of options for invitations. If you want to go the printed route, you can use the Zazzle website to design your invites, keeping your theme in mind. For the more digitally inclined, there’s always Evite, which lets you monitor RSVPs by iPhone or Android app. You might also check out alternatives like Punchbowl, Anyvite, Crusher, or PurpleTrail (which has digital and print options) and see which one best meets your needs.
Be sure your invitation clearly states your theme and lets guests know what to expect when they arrive. The basics:
• Date, start and end times, party location • Planned activities and a list of any tools or supplies they should bring • A note about National GeekDad Day so they know they’re getting in on an event that stretches coast to coast
WIRED GeekDad is taking over Father’s Day on June 17, and it’s time for a celebration. Gather your family or invite your favorite geeky dads, moms, and kids to a nerd extravaganza. All you need is a theme, the right food, and some engaging projects that everyone can work on together. Here’s how.
set the MoodEvery good party needs music, so crank up the volume on your favorite streaming radio service to create a playlist that fits your theme. Make it something you can set and forget—you don’t want to fiddle with the radio in the middle of the fun. In fact, we’ve already curated an hour of music for you. Just hop over to Spotify and queue up the National GeekDad Day Hiptrax Playlist.
Geek out!Once the party’s in full swing and everybody is enjoying their hafnium (Hf) element cupcakes, gather the troops and get them busy making, building, and tinkering. We’ve put together a list of projects excerpted from the books of the original GeekDad himself, Ken Denmead as well as 14 projects from the June issue guaranteed to make you the coolest Dad on the planet. Bonus: Many of these projects will let you send your guests home with toys and crafts they’ve made themselves.
choose a theMeHaving a special theme can inspire you and help guide decisions about putting the party together. Pick something your crew loves—and won’t get tired of seeing. The options are limitless: science, robots, space, DIY, even Hollywood (science fiction, superheroes, zombies, fantasy, vampires). Or mix and match themes for a party that’s all yours. (Zombie makers from space, anyone?) Remember: Your theme should find its way into every part of the event.
The WIReD guIDe To beIng The coolesT faTheR* on The planeT.
14 projects to jump-start a lifelong love of science, technology, and making your own fun.
* oR MoTheR oR uncle oR gRanDpaRenTPhotograPh by Dan Forbes
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What a difference a few decades
make: Geeks are no longer social out-
casts. Indeed, my obsessions have
seeped far enough into the main-
stream that even my kids share them.
My sons’ passion for exploring every
last detail of the role-playing video-
game Skyrim mimics my own love for
pen-and-paper D&D campaigns. They
race to the latest superhero movies at
the multiplex, just as I frequented the
comics shops for the source material.
And my tech skills now let me play
IT manager for their devices, which
when I was young existed only in
science fiction.
Yes, my kids actually think I’m
cool. Well, about some things. They
still recoil in horror when I wear my
Jedi robe. (It’s very comfy!) But rais-
ing geeks goes beyond teaching them
the difference between Darths Vader
and Maul. It means teaching them
an empowering worldview. It means
showing them how things work and
that with a little research, determina-
tion, and trial and error, they can bend
the world to their will. It means rais-
ing them with the maker call to arms
echoing in their ears: “If you can’t open
it, you don’t own it!” It means getting
them to approach problems techni-
cally and solve them with imagina-
tion, which makes anything possible.
It means encouraging them to tinker,
even if it means voiding warranties. It
means building a better world.
For five years, we at the GeekDad
blog have been coming up with proj-
ects that dads (and moms!) can do
with their families. We’ve published
a bunch of them in a series of books,
including—plug alert!—The Geek Dad
Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists. And
on the following pages we’ve culled
a bunch of tips, tricks, and projects
to help turn your offspring into Geek-
Kids. We’ve also asked übergeek and
awesome dad Adam Savage (of Myth-
Busters fame) to share some of his
family projects. Whatever your chil-
dren’s age, whatever your level of
technical expertise, you’ll find some-
thing here that will inspire you to
have fun with them, educate them
about geek values, and do your part to
build a better future.
Before I was a geek dad, I was a geeky
kid—with all the classic credentials. I played Dungeons &
Dragons, watched Star Trek reruns
every night, and had an awesome HO-scale train layout. But at
that stage of our cultural evolution,
geek was still an epithet. I didn’t want to identify
with such a blighted subclass.
by Ken Denmead editor and publisher of the GeekDad blog
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Build a TrebuchetAmazing as it may seem, I’d never actually built a trebuchet. I know, I know, I’m not sure how it happened either. But it wasn’t like I was totally in the dark. A trebuchet is a rela-tively simple medieval projectile weapon. Basically, a weight swings
an arm around and slings something outward. Except … I realized I’d never learned how a sling works. And that provided a unique opportunity for me and my son to do a little problem solving. I decided not to look it up. I told my son that we should just get building, and we’d figure it out together.
Working from drawings his teacher gave him (and inch-thick Trupan fiberboard from my workshop), my son put together the main structure in about an hour. Its arm, weighted with ball bearings, swung on a nice pivot. We cut a piece of leather into a cradle to hold the projectile. I figured that one end of the sling had to be attached to the swing arm while the other end had to come free as the arm reached the top of its arc. But how?
Drawing ideas at the whiteboard, my son had the same hunch I did: Attach one end of the sling to a hook that it could slide off of. We made a
small wooden hook and attached it to the arm. One end of the sling got tied to the arm, and we tied a loop in the other end to go around the hook. Time to test-fire: We put a 1-inch ball bearing into the sling, lifted the weighted end of the swing arm, released it, and …
Total, hilarious failure. The sling neatly whipped that sucker straight down onto the table. Made a little dent. It was awesome—loud, and with a lot of force. So at my son’s suggestion, we gentled the angle of the hook from 90 degrees to 45. Again we loaded the sling, lifted the weight, and …
Again, failure. Instead of smacking the table, the sling released too early. But we were getting somewhere. The right solution occurred to us at exactly the same moment—the proper hook wasn’t a hook at all, but just a little stick jutting out from the end of the swing arm. Hang the looped end of the sling on it and the loop will slip off at the peak of the arc, launching the projectile. We set it up, lifted the weight, and … SUCCESS!
My son had to build a trebuchet for a
school science proj-ect. It turned into a case of trial and
error—and error.
Adam SavageMaking Fun With
phOtOgraph by David Clugston
(dad and hOst OF discOvery netwOrk’s Mythbusters)
WIRED130 JuN 2012
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make a buckminster fuller
It’s one of the great pleasures of parenthood: strapping your kid to a bike and going for a ride. There are lots of ways to do it. Tons, in fact. Too many, actu-ally. Rear-mounted seats, front-mounted seats, trailers, cargo bikes, trailer bikes, duct tape—each with its own trade-offs and advantages. It’s enough to send you back inside for the car keys.
So let’s make this easy. If you have only one kid, go for a front-mounted seat. You don’t want a trailer, which puts your kid 3 to 4 feet behind you, leav-ing them bored; you’ll only know you’re engaged in a parent-child activity by the extra drag. Rear-mounted seats are slightly bet-ter; the tyke sits right behind you, but it’s still tough to inter-
In 1975 Buckminster Fuller first defined the term tensegrity, a port-manteau of “tensional integrity.” It refers to structural systems that derive their sta-bility from various ele-ments acting against each other with equal force, like the surface tension of a bubble. Tensegrity lies at the heart of giant projects like the Georgia Dome. But you can apply it to build the ultimate blan-ket fort, supported by finely balanced brooms that never touch one another.
You’ll need:• 3 brooms with holes at the end of the handle (tip: Swiffer mops with the heads removed work perfectly) • 1 ball of twine• 1 queen-size bed-sheet
As told to Patrick Di Justo by the Buckminster Fuller Institute
blanket fort
How to Bike
With Your Kids
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A Secret Page for Parents: Just Crack the CodeVisit wired.com/geekdad/????????. (The eight missing letters are somewhere in this package.)
Broomsticks should not touch.
Entrance
Drape sheet and play.
Hang third handle halfway up structure, parallel to floor.
Make taut loops.
Twine
Secure crossbeam to brooms.
iLLustratioNs by Joel Kimmel
WIRED 2JAN 2012
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Family vacations can be great—as long as they don’t involve endless lines at a brain-dead amusement park. Good thing there are plenty of less crowded, more enriching alternatives. —Corrina Lawson
Hoover dam, border of arizoNa aNd NevadaThe famous exterior is striking, but this dam’s insides are where the real magic happens. Check out the 30-foot-diameter pipes that carry 90,000 gallons of water a second to the hydroelectric power plant, then watch 17 generators turn all that rushing water into electricity.
tHomas edisoN NatioNaL HistoricaL Park, West oraNGe, NeW JerseyScrew Menlo Park! Edison’s West Orange lab contains the stuff of legends, including a tour intimate enough to put you within inches of the great man’s chair. Don’t miss the Black Maria, a replica of the first movie studio.
ford rouGe factory, dearborN, micHiGaNuS manufacturing may be strug-gling, but the Ford assembly line still pumps out 350,000 trucks a year. The factory tour will show kids what an industrial-size Erector set can do.
tHe orieNtaL iNstitute of tHe uNiversity of cHicaGoTravel back to the golden age of archaeology (i.e., before countries in the Middle East clamped down on such plundering). Treasures include a clay tablet from Mesopotamia and parchment from the Book of the Dead. (Pro tip: Don’t read it out loud. There are mummies nearby.)
LauNcH coNtroL ceNter at deLta-01, soutH dakotaTake an elevator 31 feet below the surface to an original launch con-trol center where Air Force offi-cers worked 24-hour shifts, ready to launch 10 Minuteman missiles. This relic of the Cold War (below) is run by the National Park Service. (Don’t touch the red button.)
Plan a Trip
act. With a front-mounted seat—like the WeeRide Kangaroo ($90)—the kid is almost sitting on your lap, taking in the oncom-ing world. You can tell jokes, sing songs, or kiss them on the head.
For two or more kids, things get tricky. You could add front- and rear-mounted seats, but you risk toppling. You can get a high-end cargo bike, which
allows you to strap kids into an open box in front of the handle-bars, but that will run you $3,000 or more. Our recommendation: an Xtracycle, the breed of elon-gated cargo bike that lets you mount multiple seats on a long, flat, stable platform in the rear. The downside: Your kids are once again stuck looking at your butt. But they’re close, and the ride
is both smooth and stable. Plus you can upgrade—infant seats when they’re small, footrests and handlebars when they get older. You can buy an entire bike for a little over $1,000, or an $825 kit to extend your current ride. In no time you’ll be flying down the street amid shrieks of delight—at least until your offspring ask you to be quiet. —Robert Capps
When it comes time to show your kids the
Star Wars movies (start at 6 years old),
you will face an existential conundrum: In
what order should they be viewed? If you
show them in the sequence they came out,
they see the defeat of the Empire in Return
of the Jedi … and then wade through all the
prequel crap. Or should they absorb them
in episode order, in which case they lose the
reveal that Darth Vader is Luke’s father? A
difficult problem, this is. How do you spot-
light the stuff that makes Star Wars great
while dodging narrative Sarlacc pits like Jar Jar Binks, the galaxy’s most alienating alien?
One option would be to hunt down fan remixes like The Phantom Edit, which streamlines
The Phantom Menace, reducing Jar Jar to a puff of pixels, or The Editor Strikes Back, an
85-minute cut of all three prequels created by the actor Topher Grace. But let’s say you want
to stick to the actual movies. We support the Machete Order, named for the blog that first
proposed it: A New Hope (IV), The Empire Strikes Back (V), Attack of the Clones (II), Revenge of
the Sith (III), Return of the Jedi (VI). Drop Phantom Menace (I) altogether: Every character in
it vanishes, dies (Darth Maul, we hardly knew either half of ye), or is transformed in Attack
of the Clones. The Vader reveal is preserved, his turn to the Dark Side becomes a flashback,
and the series climax is still full of yub- nubby goodness. To ensure complete assimilation,
parallel-track genuinely good extended- universe matter like Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone
Wars cartoon. It’s how Obi-Wan would have wanted it. —Adam Rogers
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*That’s right, no Phantom Menace.
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1. Lego bricks Buy lots of bricks at garage sales, toss them in a mesh bag, and run them through the dish-washer. Use them to build model car bodies and robots. Secure master-pieces with superglue.
Muppets Puzzle (ages 6–9)
Science in the BathExperiments make a bath fun (and messy). Plus, says Shar Levine, author of Bathtub Science, your kids “won’t be terrified” in Chem 101 later on. Start with this lab work. —Rachel Zurer
Colored ConcoctionsFill plastic cups with water and food coloring. Then give your kid empty containers and start mixing it up. be sure to mention: We see the colors we do because our eyes have special sensors to detect them. Some animals see more colors; others see no color at all.
Underwater SoundsClank two spoons together underwater. Have your little mermaid listen from above, then ask her to dunk her head
and listen again. The sound will be much louder the second time.explanation: Sound waves are good at swimming through water or wiggling through air, but not at moving from one medium to the other. So it’s hard to hear a noise that starts underwater when your ears are in the air.
Flotation DevicePlace a sheet of foil on the water. Note the float. Now ball it up. Sinker! wHat’s GoinG on: When the foil is flat, its weight is spread across a lot of water molecules, which team up to hold it up. When it’s in a ball, all the weight’s in one spot and it breaks through.
must-have hardwarethe geekdad toolbox
By 6, kids can associate pictures with words. (They may need help with instruc-tions, though.) Using these pictures, put the Muppet names in their numbered blanks. The highlighted column will spell out the name of another Muppet.
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2. LEDs and watch batteries Make anything light up with a bag of cheap LEDs and some CR2032 3-V lithium batteries. Just tape the leads of the LED to the battery (the short lead connects to the negative side) and attach to your model car or kite. Or add a neodymium magnet for an “LED throwie” that sticks to any metal surface.
4. 3-V motor and gears Add a motor to your Lego car and watch it zoom. Swap the gears to teach kids the relationship between speed and torque.
7. Plastic molding material Make custom parts using moldable plas-tics. Sugru starts like Play-Doh and cures into a tough rubber. ShapeLock comes as pellets that get moldable in hot water. Super Sculpey is like clay that hardens when you bake it. Cured ShapeLock and Sculpey can be drilled, carved, or sanded.
6. Rotary cutting tool A cord-less Dremel turns you into a cyborg capable of slicing, grinding, deburr-ing, or carving any wood or metal in your path.
8. Key to a hacker space For $50 to $100 a month you can get a mem-bership to a community-run maker shop with laser cutters, 3-D print-ers, CNC shop equipment, and more. Bonus: You’ll get access to experts.—Mark Frauenfelder
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5. 8X illuminated magnifying glass. Shed some light on the qual-ity of your solder joints and read part numbers on small components.
3. Hobby wheels Combine large- diameter hobby wheels with Legos and LEDs and you’ve got a cool grav-ity racer or the base of a rolling robot.
SOLUTION: wired.com/magazine/category/key
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Cut a 4-foot-diameter circle from the plywood. Put your leaf blower in the center and figure out where the nozzle ends up on the circle—trace around the nozzle and cut a hole to match so it will fit tightly.
Next make the skirt. Lay your shower curtain down flat and place the plywood circle on top. Fold the shower curtain up and around the edges of the plywood and use a staple gun to secure it all along the perimeter of the cir-cle. Cut off the excess curtain and seal the edge, all the way around, with duct tape. Make it airtight. Don’t skimp.
On the underside of the plywood circle, nail a gallon paint can lid in the center to hold down the shower cur-tain. Cut a ring of six 2-inch holes in the curtain, all a couple of inches from the lid. The air escaping from the
shower curtain “pillow” will be the cushion that puts the hover in your craft.
Next, secure the leaf blower with screws and connect its nozzle to the hole you cut. Use duct tape to hold it in and seal it up. We also stuck pipe insulation, which has its own adhesive, around the edge of the plywood to protect our hovercraft—and innocent bystanders.
Now you’re ready to fire it up. You can screw a chair onto the disc for seating, using wooden risers under the legs if the leaf blower needs more clearance. (That’ll depend on the leaf blower—and chair—you use.) in any case, keep your center of gravity as low as you can—the lack of friction can make the hovercaft slip out from under you quite fast. i know this from experience.
When Jamie Hyneman and I built hovercrafts for Mythbusters, I realized that these floating-on-air vehicles were easy to make, not too expensive, and fun. So I built one with my kids.
Build a HovercraftMaterIalS:• 1 sheet of 3⁄4-inch plywood (get the cheapest you can find; quality is not an issue)• 1 leaf blower (gas or electric)• 1 heavy-duty shower curtain• 2 rolls of duct tape• 1 lid from a gallon paint can• Foam pipe insulation• Assorted screws
Adam SavageMaking Fun With
pHotoGrapH by David Clugston
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When my dad was young, he loved a cartoon called The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show. It was about a kid who spoke in sound effects. Or something. I don’t know, because I was born in 1974, and my father couldn’t just pull an episode up on YouTube. My son enjoys no such freedom. At any minute, I can call up some dimly remembered jewel from my youth. “C is for Cookie.” Zoom. The opening credits from the short-lived Pac-Man cartoon. Small. Freaking. Wonder! I can, but I don’t. And neither should
you. Your children are not some excuse to relive your own misbegotten youth. They have to explore the world for themselves, and they have access to everything from Yo Gabba Gabba to some dude’s home video of his safari vacation. Don’t squander that by force-feeding your kids old G.I. Joe PSAs.—Jason Tanz
Keep YouTube to
Yourself
dissect it Nothing impresses a kid like brandishing a knife and saying, “Let’s cut that open and see what’s inside.” Here are three household objects that are fun to slice apart. And one you really shouldn’t. —Judy Dutton
Light StickIs It safe to open? Sure—if you’re smart about it.technIque: Cut with scissors near the end and pour the liquid into a glass jar. Remove the inner glass vial and put it in another container.What your kIds WIll learn: That two fluids (typically hydrogen peroxide and phenyl oxalate ester) rearrange themselves into phenol and peroxyacid ester when combined; the chemical reaction gives off energy in the form of light called chemiluminescence.
BaseballIs It safe to open? Yup.technIque: Put it in a vise, then go at it with a hacksaw.What your kIds WIll learn: That the material inside affects the ball’s behavior. Cores used to be made of rubber but were changed to cork in 1910. This made the ball more bouncy, ushering in the “live ball” era that allowed Babe Ruth to become a legend. But home runs shouldn’t be too easy, which is why the outer layers consist of yarn, deadening the ball.
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tSpeakerIs It safe to open? If it’s not hooked up.technIque: Use a utility knife to slice around the cone.What your kIds WIll learn: How electricity is turned into sound. When the audio signal courses through the wire coil, the coil turns into an electromagnet that subtly moves the paper cone, pushing air molecules in and out of the speaker. And since all sound is essentially the movement of air, this is how a speaker reproduces the strains of Taylor Swift.
134 WIRED JUN 2012
BatteryIs It safe to open? Absolutely not. technIque: Find a professional with a lab and a saw.What your kIds WIll learn: That when the battery is inserted into a flashlight or other device, a circuit connects the positive cathode and negative anode, sparking an electrochemical reaction between them. The anode starts spitting out electrons, which flow through a wire toward the cathode, producing an electric current.
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You can make extra-creepy candy crawlies by swapping a secret ingredient—tonic water—into a gummy worm recipe. This one is adapted from Modernist Cuisine,
and the quinine in the tonic causes the sweets to glow under a black light. Your kids (and your dentist) will totally freak out. —Christina Bonnington 1 Bloom the gelatin by combining it with 3 Tbsp. of water and sealing it in an airtight plastic container. Soak the con-tainer in a hot (140° F) bath for about half an hour.2 Combine the isomalt, honey, glucose syrup, and gum arabic with ½ cup of tonic water in a pot. Bring the mix-ture to a boil, then cut the heat. Stir in vanilla bean seeds and essential oil.3 Whisk in the bloomed gelatin. Use an immersion blender to fully emulsify the mixture. 4 Pour the warm mixture into the molds. Let them cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least four hours to set.5 The worms must be grimy and dirty. So remove the filling from the Oreos, and toss the cookies in the food processor. Pulse until you’ve got a dark-brown, soil-like consistency. Spread the crumbs on a plate.6 Remove the worms from their mold, arrange them in the “dirt,” and click on your black light. Behold the luminescence of your chewy snack!
You’ll need:• Fishing lure molds• Immersion blender• Food processor• Black light (a 390-nm LED UV flashlight won’t work; you need something that’s around 365 nm)• Tonic water• 9 sheets 200-bloom gelatin • ⅔ cup isomalt• ⅛ cup clear honey• 1 Tbsp. glucose syrup• 3 Tbsp. gum arabic • 1⁄4 tsp. vanilla bean seeds• Dash of thyme oil (or orange, rose, or any other flavor)• Several Oreos(Makes about 1 pound; try the Modernist Pantry or the Baker’s Kitchen websites for the more unusual items.)
SOLUTION: wired.com/magazine/category/key
Star Wars Puzzle (ages 10–12)By 10, kids can associate clues with answers. However, they may still be flummoxed by alternate possibilities, so clues must be carefully written to eliminate them. Fill the num-bered blanks with the Star Wars characters described below. Reading down the high-lighted column will be another character from the series. 1 princess of alderaan 2 little green guy 3 queen of naboo 4 anakin’s Jedi teacher 5 red-faced sith lord 6 evil emperor 7 swashbuckling mercenary 8 owner of cloud city 9 furry Wookiee 10 Jedi from tatooine 11 green-armored bounty hunter 12 anakin, later 13 droid pal of c-3po
mIlestones In scIence ($80)Most scientists stand on the shoulders of giants. With this kit, kids can walk in their shoes. Mile-stones re-creates 100 experiments, from the camera obscura to Principia Mathematica. (Ages 10+)
snap cIrcuIts extreme ($134)This kit packs enough parts for budding cir-cuit monkeys to build a voice recorder, an FM radio, a lie detector, and 750 other gizmos. (Ages 8+)
scIenceWIz chemIstry plus ($20)Don’t look for the colorful flasks or beakers shown on the box. Still, it provides the right stuff to test for pH level, change the color of flames with salts, and even generate a bit of hydrogen gas. (Ages 8+)
chem c3000 ($250)Short on gimmicks and high on versatility, with 75 well-picked parts, including an alcohol burner, electrochemistry supplies, and flam-mable and toxic chemicals. (Ages 12+)
Ah, the wonders of old-school chem-istry sets: a little explosive powder here, some radioactive material there, and acids strong enough to dissolve a corpse. Then came the lawsuits. Today’s kits can’t really compare, but a hand-ful do pack the proper equipment to get kids started. —Dave Mosher
Cook Up Some Glow Worms
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1. Turn the cup upside down and layer foam tape on the bottom (which is now the top). 2. Stick the motor onto the tape. 3. Tape
the batteries end to end, positive to negative, and stick them next to the motor. 4. Wrap a rubber band around the batteries so it covers the ter-minals—you’ll tuck the ends of the motor’s wires under the rubber band later. Make sure everything is secure. 5. Push a cork onto the rotating shaft of the motor. Off- center weight makes the bot shake, so hot-glue some craft supplies (beads, tongue depressor) onto the cork. 6. For the bot’s legs, tape at least three markers around the rim of the cup, points down. 7. Add googly eyes, pipe cleaners, bells—whatever pleases your small person. 8. Place your robot on its canvas, put the wire ends under the rubber band, and watch a masterpiece unfold. —Kathy Ceceri
Geeks come in all shapes, sizes, and gen-ders. So why do publishers assume that girls are just princesses-in- training? Here are a few books that can teach your daughter—or son—that girls can geek out too. —Rachel Swaby
princess- free stories
TOOLS/MATERIALS:• Paper or plastic cup• Foam tape• Low- voltage DC motor (4 inches of wire on contacts)• 2 AAA batteries• Wide rubber band • Electrical tape• Hot-glue gun• 3 or more thin washable markers
HOW TO BUILD AN ART BOT
as seen in Robotic s : D iscoveR the science anD technology of the futuRe, from nomad Press
Ship Breaker and The Drowned Cit-ies by Paolo BacigalupiTarget age: 14+Gist: Set in a post-apocalyptic future, these books tell the stories of chil-dren trying to elude rulers who would turn them into kill-ing machines. Ship Breaker follows Nailer, a teen who scavenges wiring from wrecked oil tankers. Cities chronicles kids caught in a civil war.
The 39 Clues by various authorsTarget age: 8–12Gist: When their grandmother dies, a brother and sister learn that she has given them a choice: Inherit $1 million each or compete against other family members in a great hunt. With just five minutes to decide, the kids choose the hunt (naturally). They end up chas-ing clues that take them around the world in 11 books.
Warriors by Erin HunterTarget age: 8–12Gist: Clans of thoroughly undo-mesticated cats stalk, scratch, and bite to defend their territory and hunt for prey. The books (and there are lots) have an elaborately constructed uni-verse including a clan of strays, a clan of spirit cats, a lengthy origin story, and inevi-table attempts to avoid contact with humans.
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v iolet the PilotWho needs a starter kit when you’ve got a family-owned junkyard? Violet engineers DIY flying machines using cast-off parts. Can an Arduino obsession be far behind?
akiko and the missinG misPThis sixth grader uses her formidable skill set—creating manga, piloting spaceships, solving puzzles—to defend the planet Smoo.
amuletEmily’s gadget attachment goes well beyond iPhone worship; she’s physically tied to a powerful amulet around her neck. It’s super- helpful in a bind, but data charges are severe.
secrets, lies, and alGeBraMath may get confusing, but it’s nothing com-pared to the routine humiliations of eighth grade. Tess uses her algebraic mastery to help her navigate some tougher-than-average pre-teen problems.
BreadcrumBsBeing a sci-fi geek has its benefits. When Hazel finds herself in a modern-day version of The Snow Queen, she relies on her detailed knowledge of The Golden Compass’s Lyra Belacqua and A Wrinkle in Time’s Meg Murry.
Captain Underpants by Dav PilkeyTarget Age: 7–10Gist: The eight-book series follows two fourth graders, George and Harold, who hypnotize their school principal and turn him into a superhero called Captain Underpants. The Captain then does battle with dia-bolical villains like Wedgie Woman and Bionic Booger Boy. DreamWorks pur-chased the rights to this series in 2011.
Despite what pop culture (and screaming tweens on Facebook) might have you think, there are tons of great kid-lit series beyond The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and Twilight. Start one with the kids tonight to get in on the next megafranchise before it hits the multiplex. —Erin Biba
Page Turners for Younglings
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ILLUSTrATIoN BY FIRST LASTnAME PHoToGrAPH BY FIRST LASTnAME WIRED 2
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Mold a Dino Fossil
Making plaster casts is a good exercise: You have to think upside down and back-ward. One of my sons made a “space remote”; the other made a fish.
PROceDURe: roll out a piece of clay—I like polymer-based Super-Sculpey—about 8 inches square and of roughly even thickness, about three- quarters of an inch. once it’s smooth, cut off the edges to make a square. Then carve what you want—or press something, like shells, into the clay.
once the negative space of your project is complete, it’s time to make it into a mold for the positive-space version: Take more clay and build a half-inch-tall wall around the edge of your piece. The best approach is to shape a long piece of clay into a cylinder, roll it flat, and then press it along the perimeter of your workpiece.
Next, mix the plaster. You can get it at the hardware store or, for a small amount that’s perfect for a project like this, from an art- supply store. Fill the mixing cup about a quarter of the way with water. Start sifting in the pow-der, letting it settle to the bottom. (Adding powder to water gives you a nice mix.) Keep going until a little island forms on the surface of the water. At first the water will soak it up. When you get to the point where the water can’t soak up the island, you’re very close to the ideal ratio. Add just a tiny bit more plaster (you have a lot of flexibility), then mix thoroughly (it’ll be thinner than you think) and pour it into your mold. It’ll set in about an hour.
Note: If you’re careful and will-ing to make another retaining wall, you can sometimes get two or three castings. How you finish the plaster piece—leaving it raw or painting it—is up to you.
Adam SavageMaking Fun With
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MATeRIALs:• Work surface, like a piece of plywood• Clay• rolling pin• 1-pint mixing cup• Plaster of paris
PhotoGraPh By David Clugston
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1 ) the PerPlexus Cooler- looking and more addictive than an Xbox, the Per-plexus is a colorful 3-D maze encased in a clear plastic sphere. The mission? Rotate that sphere to move a small metal ball through a series of obstacles (picking up some serious spatial and problem- solving skills along the way). Best part? No red ring of death. $25 fatbraintoys.com
2) mr. rootBeer home Brewing kit Home-brewing beer? Awesome. Giving junior a taste? Illegal! That’s where Mr. Rootbeer comes in. Using ingredients com-mon to domestic beer barons (yep, yeast is included), it’s a great toy to help jump-start an appreciation for hand-crafted microbrews. $27 mrrootbeer.com
3) Fuel cell 10 car and exPeriment kitThis build-it-yourself fuel-cell car will prepare your chil-dren for the day when pitch-hearted oil Once-lers suck the last drop of crude from the earth. It runs on water— electrolysis provides the gas that pushes this buggy along. $170 thamesandkosmos.com
4) gordian’s knotAlexander the Great “solved” the original knot with a swipe of his xiphos. But as tykes untangle this puzzle, they’ll be stimulating the abstract-thought and pattern- recognition portions of their brains. Don’t worry—a solution manual is included, so no cutting necessary. $12 thinkfun.com
It’s way too easy to build up a bunch of junk in your kid’s toy trunk. But if you invest in the right stuff, your youngsters will enjoy playthings that they can grow up with, not out of. —Daniel Dumas
Want to introduce your kids to electronics? Ditch the circuit boards and go with that sticky staple of early childhood: Play-Doh. The off-the-shelf variety isn’t conductive enough, but adding the right amount of salt and cream of tartar to your homemade version lets you create circuits, illuminate LEDs, and even make motors spin! —Christina Bonnington
1. Make the insulating doughMix 1½ cups flour, ½ cup sugar, 3 Tbsp. vege-table oil, ½ cup distilled water, and food dye in a medium-size bowl. Stir until doughy. Turn out onto a flour-coated sur-face and knead.
3. CoMplete the CirCuitSandwich a piece of insulating dough between two balls of conductive dough. Insert the terminals of a DC power supply (one that takes two AAs or four AAAs, available at electronics shops) into each conductive piece and join them with an LED. Let there be light!
2. Cook the Con-duCtive doughMix 1½ cups flour, ¼ cup salt, 1 Tbsp. vege table oil, 1 cup tap water, food dye, and 3 Tbsp. cream of tartar in a pot over medium heat. Stir con-stantly until the dough thickens. Lay out on a floured surface to cool. (Keep small fingers away—it’ll be hot.)
Refrigerate the dough in plastic bags for future experiments. Developed at the University of St. Thomas School of Engineering
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By 13, kids are able to handle anagramming, make logical inferences, and adapt when they receive conflicting information. Unscramble the words below to fill the numbered blanks with the names of comic book superheroes. The scrambled words are in random order, so you’ll need to figure out where they go. The highlighted column will contain the name of another comics character.weekhaY Broni dreamsPin inmanor wineloVer khlu giltBar maQuana Punmares roth matnaB sPYcloc namewordnow
Comic Book Puzzle (ages 13–17)
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SOLUTION: wired.com/magazine/category/key
Toys for Brainy ToTs
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ILLUSTRATION By fIRsT lasTnamE PHOTOGRAPH By fIRsT lasTnamE WIRED 2
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Celebrate GeekDad Day
ParticipateGet in on the fun by visit ing one of several museums across the country hosting GeekDad events. These include the California Acad-emy of Sciences in San Francisco, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Space Center Houston, and many more. For a complete list, go to the National GeekDad Day website: wired.com/geekdadday.
OrganizeHost your own GeekDad event with our help. Just go to the website and check out our planning guide, “How to Make your Own GeekDad Event.” It provides a slew of ideas, tips, and awesome proj-ects for creating a geek-arific good time. you can even share activities with others.
Get the KitIn honor of National Geek-Dad Day, wired is offering the littleBits electronics kit. For $89 you get a pack of 10 electronic modules that let you build all man-ner of blinking and pulsing gizmos, including a buzz-ing doorbell and a light-up pressure sensor (below). There’s even a step-by-step guide for creating a special wired-designed project. See the kit at the GeekDad Day website.
It’s official: We’re taking over father’s Day. On June 17, grab your safety glasses—and
your kids—and join us for wired-curated activities, projects, and experiments.
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1. WInduP-toY FInGer PaIntInG
(From Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share )
On a creative scale, this projects sits somewhere on the line between classic finger painting and Spirograph. The simple idea is to use whatever windup toys you have as the brushes for your painting.
age range: 2–8
Materials • Butcher paper • Paint • Cups or saucers • Bumpers (such as rulers or carpenter’s levels) • Self-powered toys
InstructIons
step 1: Prep Your canvasThe setup is easy. Butcher paper, available at your local craft store, is the easiest canvas. Lay it out on a floor or table to the size you want for your final artwork.
step 2: rein It InFirst, and this is key for this project, you need bumpers. Set up barriers to constrain the toys so they don’t go wandering off the canvas while they’re working. Carpenter’s levels, rulers, and lumber will all work, depending on the required size.
step 3: select Your toysToy choice is important. There are quite a lot of windup toys in fast food kids’ meals these days, so you probably have some of those lying around. But if you want to make this more of a techie project, consider looking for the various mini toy robots that have simple sensors on them so they can “see” and avoid walls. These will give you maximum painting bang for the buck.
step 4: unleash the Painting Fury!Unless you’re worried about the work of art lasting for all eternity, pick up the cheapest paints you can find at your art store in a variety of bright colors. Pour a bit of each color into low cups or saucers and dip the feet or treads of one of the toys into it. Wind it up, then set it down on the paper to start doing its stuff. Repeat with different toys and different colors. Hilarity will ensue.
Illustrations by Bradley L. Hill
2. never-endInG deMolItIon derbY
(From Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share )
The demolition derby holds a special place in our culture. Not unlike ultimate fighting, the premise is simple: Two cars enter, one car leaves. Problem is, once someone wins, someone else has to go looking for a new car. Actually, even the winner often has to look for a new car. Kind of a waste of materials, really.
So why not make your own Lego demolition derby with R/C cars covered in breakaway components, which can be reattached or easily replaced after each match? Now the competition is a matter of the strategic ablation (knocking pieces off) of your opponent’s vehicle, rather than a simple smash-and-bash.
age range: 4 and up (fun for all ages!)
Materials • 2 (or more) R/C cars (controllers must be on separate frequencies) • Lego bricks and plates • Peel-and-stick Velcro or foam tape or a hot-glue gun • Foam pieces (optional, as needed)
InstructIons
step 1: Prep Your carsUsing R/C cars that have flat surfaces so the Legos will attach easily, select a sticky option above and glue Lego plates to the roof, hood, trunk, and sides. The goal is to cover as much of the exterior surface as possible. Select Velcro or foam tape if you want the flexibility to remove and reaffix the plates mid-derby.
step 2: customize Your GameOnce the pre-plated cars are dry and ready to go, they can each be customized for maximum smashing. Give everyone their own car and some Lego bricks to build scoops, armor, battering rams, or any weapon they think will inflict maximum damage.
step 3: the arenaTo add to the derby sensibility, you can build an arena for all this model carnage. If you have some spare 2-by-4s, lay them out in a useful shape and use duct tape and a staple gun to temporarily connect the ends. For an easier and potentially cheaper approach, use pool noodles as the borders of your arena, and try duct tape and rubber bands to loosely tie the ends together.
step 4: Fight!Once your arena and wicked-looking combat cars are assembled, it’s time to smash! But there’s more you can do besides just bashing into each other. Why not turn it into a game? Decide what kind of game you want your demolition derby to be and build brick structures on the base plates accordingly. Here are some ideas:
• Each player gets a certain number of bricks to plug on their car. Hold a timed battle (say, two minutes), and the car with the most remaining bricks at the end wins the round. Hold multiple rounds with multiple challengers to create a tournament. • Each player has a group of specifically colored bricks that he plugs into the outside of his car. Build up structures around them to protect the special bricks. Then hold a timed battle. Each colored brick that’s knocked off earns the opponent a point. Score points to win games, win games to win a set, win sets to take the match! • Each player has a minifigure “driver.” The driver is attached on the roof, and then structures are built on the sides and around the minifig to protect it. Hold a battle, and the last minifig still attached wins.
step 3: Build a Better BlowgunOne thing to understand about fittings: The inside dimension of a fitting is just larger than the outside dimension of the pipe—meaning the pipe is meant to slip inside the fitting, but fittings won’t slide into each other.
• If you want to attach a series of fittings together, cut small pieces of pipe, about 1 inch in length or slightly more, to use as connectors between the fittings. • If you’re using fittings, you’ll need to secure them so they don’t flop around. A clear silicone caulk (the kind you might use to seal around bath or kitchen fixtures) will keep the pieces connected and pretty airtight. Just run a little bead of caulk around the end of the pipe, slip it into the fitting, and let it dry. (Drying can take a couple of hours—check the instructions on the product). If you want to take your creation apart again, it’s not that hard to break the seal. • Because of the versatility of the fittings, you can put together a series of pipe constructs that are interchangeable, depending upon need. Maybe you’ll have a mouthpiece and short pipe section that can be used as a simple single-shot device but also carry an elbow attached to another short length, which your Nerf warriors can slip on the end for an emergency corner shot.
step 4: Blowgun war!After you’ve built your arsenal, it’s time to play. Try some target practice and see what the accurate range of the blowguns is compared with traditional Nerf blasters. Or just go have a backyard firefight and see how well the custom blowgun stacks up.
3.nerF dart bloWGun(From The Geek Dad’s Guide to Weekend Fun )
If you take a Nerf blaster apart, you’ll learn that its propulsion system is based on a mechanical force applied to the dart, usually by a spring-loaded firing pin. A dart is loaded, the pin is cocked, trigger pulled, and the pin hits the dart and launches it down a barrel. This works pretty well. But it can work better.
Aside from mechanical force, another good way to propel something down a tube is by pneumatics. Indeed, if you think about it, that’s how real guns work: The explosion of gunpowder causes rapidly expanding gases to launch the bullet down a rifled barrel at high velocity. This project creates a blowgun that actually works better with Nerf darts than the mechanical version.
age range: 5+
Materials • 1/2-inch copper pipe in 20- to 24-inch sections • Various copper pipe fittings such as T-connectors, 90-degree elbows, and reducers • Silicone caulk • Nerf darts
InstructIons
step 1: the Basic BlowgunThe simplest part of this project involves very little work: Go to your local hardware store and pick up a 20- to 24-inch section of 1/2-inch copper pipe—the kind that’s commonly used for water in domestic plumbing. It’ll cost about a dollar. Take a Nerf dart and insert it into one end of the pipe, with the “business” end of the dart pointing up the length of the pipe. Hold the pipe up to your face and aim it at an unsuspecting target. Put your mouth on the pipe, take a deep breath, and blow out with a short, sharp puff. Without much practice, this design can hit targets more than 60 feet away.
step 2: choose Your customization optionsWhile you’re at the hardware store, browse through the fittings that go with the 1/2-inch copper pipe. You’ll find 90-degree elbows, 45-degree turns, T-connectors, and reducers. Use these extra parts to make your blowgun even cooler:
• Reducer: This is a fitting that’s used to connect one pipe size to another. A 3/4-to-1/2-inch reducer works nicely as a mouthpiece for the blowgun, allowing you to purse your lips and blow into the gun like a trumpet rather than wrapping your lips around the end of the pipe. It’s more sanitary and lets you build up air pressure more easily for a nice burst. • Elbow: Taking a shot from cover can’t be any easier if you can literally shoot around corners! Link two lengths of pipe with an elbow, load a dart into the end tube, stand at a corner with the end tube directed around the corner, and shoot! • T-connector: This allows you to branch off several barrels from one blowpipe, so you can rain down destruction with a multishot blowgun. Just keep in mind that lung capacity will be the ultimate arbiter of how many darts you can shoot and how far you can shoot them.
Illustrations by Bradley L. Hill
4. Measure the sPeed oF lIGht WIth chocolate
(From The Geek Dad’s Guide to Weekend Fun, adapted from an idea by Kathy Ceceri)
It sounds crazy, but you can indeed verify the speed of light by briefly heating some chocolate in a microwave. Now, there are many other materials that would work just as well, but chocolate makes an appropriate medium because the heating property of microwaves was first discovered by a scientist whose candy bar melted in his pocket when he got too close to the microwave device he was testing for use in radar. Plus, you can eat the results.
The experiment works because microwave ovens produce standing waves—waves that move “up” and “down” in place instead of rolling forward like waves in the ocean. Microwave radiation falls into the radio section of the electromagnetic spectrum. Most microwave ovens produce waves with a frequency of 2,450 megahertz (millions of cycles per second). The oven is designed to be just the right size to cause the microwaves to reflect off the walls so the peaks and valleys line up perfectly, creating “hot spots” (actual lines of heat).
When you put the chocolate in a microwave for a short time, the peaks and valleys of the microwave will form hot spots on the chocolate, which will then cause localized melting. First, find the hot spots and measure the distance between them. From that information, you can determine the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves. We already know the frequency (the 2,450 MHz mentioned earlier—though you may want to check the sticker inside your microwave to make sure), and when you multiply the wavelength by the frequency, you get the speed!
age range: 8+
Materials • Chocolate (truffles, liquid-filled bonbons, or bars of solid chocolate—darker is better; you need enough to cover an area at least 8 inches square) • Microwave-safe pan • Microwave oven • Ruler
InstructIons
step 1: arrange the chocolatesPlace the chocolate in a microwave-safe dish. If you’re using bonbons or truffles, arrange them in a tight grid so there’s no space between them. Or lay two chocolate bars side by side to create a square.
step 2: Bombard them with Electromagnetic radiationRemove the turntable from the microwave. (The turntable is there to keep your food moving so it cooks evenly, but we want the chocolate to remain stationary.) You may need to put an upside-down plate over the center pillar that rotates the turntable, and then you can place your dish of chocolate on top. Close the door and heat the chocolate on high for 20 seconds.
step 3: Inspect the Irradiated candyOpen the door, and using a flashlight to increase glare, look for hot spots. Depending on the candy you use, you may have to feel the candy to see where it has softened. With liquid-filled cordials you may see several shiny spots and even spots where the chocolate shell melted through, releasing the sweet syrup inside. Chocolate bars may just show a series of small shiny dots. If you see none of these, close the door and run for another 10 seconds. Check and repeat if needed until you see the spots. Take the pan out of the microwave.
step 4: Measure and calculateUsing your ruler, measure the distance between two adjacent spots (geeks like to use metric, so that’s what we’ll do here). The space between two spots should be the distance between the peak and the valley (crest and trough) of the wave. Since the wavelength is the distance between two crests, multiply by 2. Finally, multiply that result by the frequency expressed in hertz—i.e., 2,450,000,000 (2.45 x 109 for those learning scientific notation). Remember: If your microwave uses a different frequency, use that instead.
• If you want to use some proper scientific protocol, you can perform a series of tests and do some simple statistics to refine the answer by establishing your standard deviation and determining your results within a specific degree of certainty. This will require you to eat quite a lot of chocolate so it doesn’t go to waste after each test. The things we do in the name of science!
Illustrations by Bradley L. Hill
step 2: Make a spigotCut yourself a 2-inch length of PVC pipe. Take the cap from a soda bottle and drill a 3/4-inch hole dead-center in the top. This may be the most challenging part. You might want to make a starter hole with a smaller bit and then finish it with the larger one.
Using Gorilla Glue or a similar adhesive, attach the top of the soda bottle cap to one end of your PVC. Prepare the pieces per the instructions, apply the glue, and use a clamp to keep the pieces attached for the recommended drying time. You need a good seal that will hold up under pressure.
Take a 3/4-inch PVC end cap and drill a hole in the end. Glue it to the other end of your PVC using standard PVC glue or a silicone adhesive (Gorilla Glue will not be quite right for this). About 1/4 inch up from the soda cap, drill a 1/16-inch-diameter hole directly through one side of the PVC and out the other. Straighten out a large paperclip, then put a little loop in one end and tie some string to it so you can trigger the candy drop from a safe distance.
step 3: Basic Procedure for a soda FountainHold your spigot upside down and put three to five Mentos candies inside the tube. Insert the paperclip through the tiny hole on one side and back out the other, so it keeps the candy in place.
Open a 2-liter bottle of diet soda (Coke, Pepsi, RC Cola, or otherwise) and replace the cap with your spigot, tightening it enough to make sure there will be no leakage, but not so much that you break the seal between the spigot cap and the PVC. Set the bottle carefully on the ground. Take the string from the trigger and walk back as far as you can.
Give the countdown, and pull. You should hear and see the candy fall in. There will be a brief pause, then the soda will erupt in a geyser up to 20 feet high.
Illustrations by Bradley L. Hill
5. exPlorInG FluId dYnaMIcs: the MaGIc oF Mentos and soda
(From The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists, based on an original idea from Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe of Eepybird.com)
Soda is an interesting material. Most sodas are basically flavored water that has been carbonated. What does that mean? Well, you know what carbon dioxide is, right? It’s the gas we exhale when we breathe out. It also happens to be soluble in water (though not very soluble).
When CO2 is dissolved in water under pressure, it
forms a very tenuous relationship with the H2O.
It doesn’t take much encouragement for the CO2 to go from being
dissolved back to being a gas again. Letting an open soda sit and get warm will do the trick. Eventually, most of the CO
2 just turns into
little bubbles of gas, floats to the top, and makes its escape into the German countryside on a stolen army motorcycle. Or it just blows away. Same difference.
Certain candies and sodas interact in almost explosive ways. This project will explore what you can learn by playing with the variables in the reaction, including the materials and the release mechanism.
age range: 6+ (an adult may want to do the gluing)
Materials • 2-liter bottle of diet soda (you can also experiment with other varieties) • Mentos (and maybe some other candy) • PVC irrigation pipe and fittings (schedule 40 pipe, 3/4-inch diameter) • Glue (Gorilla Glue or a strong silicone sealant) • Large paperclips or heavy wire • Power drill • String
InstructIons
step 1: select Your Materials Diet cola and Mentos are the classic choices for this project, but it’s fun to experiment with different materials. Like a real scientist, you can set up hypotheses and then test them to see what works and what doesn’t.
• What type of soda will provide the strongest reaction? Diet or sugared? Do colas work better, or can fruit-flavored varieties spout just as well? If you have a home carbonation system like Soda Stream, you can also set up a control using distilled water. • How does the amount of soda affect the reaction? Will a 12-ounce bottle spout just as high as a 2-liter bottle? (Since they both have the same standard mouth size, you can use the same spigot, which we’ll build below.) • Why do Mentos work well? Try experimenting with other candies and see if you can figure out the properties necessary to set off a really big geyser. • Is there an optimal number of Mentos to drop in? Does altering the candies in some way (breaking into pieces, grinding into powder, roughing up the outer surface) strengthen or weaken the reaction? • Since we can make our own spigot, why not try varying the diameter of the release hole and see if there’s an optimal size for generating the maximum vertical spout?
step 4: combine!Punch a hole in either side of your can about halfway from the top, allowing enough space so that the coil of tubing sits above the candle where it crosses the inside of the can. (When lit, the flame will heat the coil.) You may be able to use a paper hole-punch for this, as the aluminum is not very thick. Slip each end of the copper tubing through one of the holes, from inside to out, pointing each of them downward. Make sure there’s enough copper pipe poking through on each side to hang below the bottom of the can by at least an inch.
step 5: create the Jets Bend the extra tubing to a 90-degree angle tangent to the can, but in opposite directions. (Picture in your mind that jets of water are coming out of these tubes; if you hung the whole construct by a string tied through the coil, the jets would cause it to spin—which is exactly what it’s going to do!) The bent jets need to be at the bottom of the can or lower, to ensure that they’re completely submerged when the can is floated in water.
step 6: Make It FloatWater time! Fill up your basin or bowl. And prime your pump. What does this mean? Well, you need to get water into the copper tube. There are a few ways to do this. You could hold one end under a faucet until water comes out the other, then quickly cover both ends and float the can to keep the water in. Or you could use an eyedropper. The important thing is to get the water in the coil, and the can into the basin with the jet ends submerged, so the priming water doesn’t escape.
step 7: Ignite Light the candle (this can be tricky, what with it sitting in water and all) using long matches or a long candle lighter. Make sure the flame is directly under the copper coil.
step 8: wait and watch You’ll notice a few bubbles at first, which is a good sign. As the copper heats up, the water inside will get warmer and warmer. As it turns into steam it will expand violently, eventually popping and sending the little vessel in circles.
Illustrations by Bradley L. Hill
6. hoMeMade steaM enGIne(From The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists, adapted from an idea by Natania Barron)
The steam engine has been around for hundreds of years. It works by heating water until it turns to vapor and expands—creating pressure that, when released, can be transformed into mechanical energy. In this project, you’ll build your own steam engine, which you can use to test some properties of steam power.
As projects involving fire go, this one is pretty tame, but please use caution. Older kids should be fine with adult supervision. And remember, even the most careful geek parents can get singed by steam as well.
age range: 11+ (with adult supervision)
Materials • 2 feet of 1/8-inch copper tubing (available at Amazon—get some extra to practice with) • 1 tea light candle • 1 aluminum beverage can • Sturdy scissors • Hole punch (optional) • Aluminum tape (optional) • Long-stemmed matches or a candle lighter • Basin or bucket of water (6+ inches deep) • Protective gloves
InstructIons
step 1: Prep the canUse the scissors to cut a soda can horizontally about 1/3 of the way up, then fold down the cut edge. Careful: That edge is sharp. You might want to wear gloves. You can also put some aluminum tape over the edge for added protection.
step 2: secure the candleMelt some candle wax in the center of the bottom of the can. While the wax is still warm, press a tea light down on top of it, anchoring it in place. Make sure it’s well centered, as balance is important for the engine.
step 3: Bend the tubingMeasure out about 1 foot of copper tubing and bend it in the middle into two small circles, leaving the extra on either side. Try to keep the ends as even as possible. (It should look a little like those hand exercisers you can buy to strengthen your grip, which use a V-shaped spring.) This takes some finesse—the tubing is prone to crimping and breaking. Try warming it a bit in your hands before starting. Rolling it around a hard surface like the neck of a wine bottle will help get the shape right. The faster you work, the less likely it is to break. Trim any excess using needle-nose pliers, or simply bend it off (making sure not to crimp too much).
