Let’s see how you did! If you didn’t get a few of these, don’t let it stress you out – it just means you need to play with more experiments in this area. We’re all works in progress, and we have our entire lifetime to puzzle together the mysteries of the universe!
Here’s printer-friendly versions of the exercises and answers for you to print out: Simply click here for printable questions and answers.
Answers:
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1. Yes, the longer lead is positive, and the side of the LED plastic housing that has a straight edge is negative.
2. No batteries required. The neon lamp requires very little amps, but high voltage to illuminate, which you can get by charging yourself up. Simply hold one lead and scuff along the carpet and touch the other lead to your cat’s nose. Or hold one lead and slide down a non-metal slide. Poof!
3. Switch the wires on the back of the motor at the terminals.
4. Take the two wires (one from the battery and the other from the motor) and touch them together – ON – OFF – ON – OFF. Simplest switch in the world! But you can also use index cards, paper clips, and brass fasteners. Clothespins work great, too.
5. Soda cans, quarters, paper clips, braces, unpainted eyeglasses, and your tongue.
6. A light bulb works both ways when you connect it into a circuit, an LED is polarized (only works one way).
7. Blow up a balloon. If you rub a balloon on your head, the balloon is now filled up with extra electrons, and now has a negative charge. The balloon is negatively charged.
8. There’s an imbalance of charges when you hook up a battery, causing the electrons to zip around the circuit.
9. There’s an imbalance of charge when lightning strikes. It’s the same thing a when you scuffed along the carpet, gathering up electrons in your body, only the lightning has a lot more charge.
10. Negative.
11. Nothing – an electron is as small as you can get. At least, as far as we know now.
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They’re not “mine”, but you can find a complete list of them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_science I also made my own version that is easier to understand – find it in the Resources section.
What are your 18 scientific principles?
Haha… that’s cute! The only problem is… we can’t split an electron (at least, today).
In #11 the electron becomes 2 1/2’s, and 1/2 an electron is now the smallest thing. 😀