Hexed Helium Balloon
Green Tornado Fire
Black Light Jell-O
Gonzo Pickle Batteries
Totally Tricky Thermometer
Ludicrous Lead-Pencil Lightbulb
The Electric Pickle is also sprinkled with mind-bending scientific facts and entertaining sidebars about historic experiments and less common, often dangerous, elements.
Hexed Helium Balloon
Green Tornado Fire
Black Light Jell-O
Gonzo Pickle Batteries
Totally Tricky Thermometer
Ludicrous Lead-Pencil Lightbulb
The Electric Pickle is also sprinkled with mind-bending scientific facts and entertaining sidebars about historic experiments and less common, often dangerous, elements.
The Electric Pickle: 50 Experiments from the Periodic Table, from Aluminum to Zinc
272
The Electric Pickle: 50 Experiments from the Periodic Table, from Aluminum to Zinc
272eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
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Overview
Hexed Helium Balloon
Green Tornado Fire
Black Light Jell-O
Gonzo Pickle Batteries
Totally Tricky Thermometer
Ludicrous Lead-Pencil Lightbulb
The Electric Pickle is also sprinkled with mind-bending scientific facts and entertaining sidebars about historic experiments and less common, often dangerous, elements.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781613739624 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Chicago Review Press, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2017 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
HYDROGEN
1. Exploding Hydrogen Bubbles
SAFETY FIRST
This experiment should be performed outside.
• Rubber gloves
• Safety goggles
• Respirator mask
• Earplugs
WHAT YOU NEED
• Plastic shoebox container
WHAT TO DO
1. Fill the plastic shoebox container halfway with water. Add 1 teaspoon dishwashing liquid and mix well, without creating many bubbles. Set aside for later.
2. Working outdoors, use the funnel to pour 2 cups of water into the wine bottle.
3. Make 20 small balls from the aluminum foil (about ½ inch in diameter) and set aside for the moment.
4. Wearing rubber gloves, safety goggles, and a respirator mask, carefully add 3 tablespoons Crystal Drano into the bottle. Carefully swirl the bottle to dissolve the Drano.
5. Drop the 20 small balls of aluminum foil into the bottle.
6. Stretch the balloon well and immediately place the neck of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle. Wait approximately 10 minutes to allow the balloon to inflate as large as it can get. (If the solution doesn't give off enough gas to fill the balloon, add more aluminum; if the glass gets too hot, you've used too much aluminum.)
7. When the balloon is full, place the earplugs in your ears.
8. Squeezing the neck of the balloon to prevent any gas from escaping from the balloon, remove the balloon from the mouth of the bottle. Do not breathe the vapors from the bottle.
9. Submerge the mouth of the balloon in the soapy solution in the plastic container, and carefully allow the gas in the balloon to empty into the solution, creating soap bubbles.
10. Using the butane barbecue lighter, light the flame and touch it to the soap bubbles.
11. Carefully dispose of the remaining solution in the bottle.
WHAT HAPPENS
The soap bubbles explode.
WHY IT WORKS
The sodium hydroxide in the lye (Drano) reacts with the aluminum to produce aluminum chloride and hydrogen. The chemical reaction produces heat, warming the glass bottle. Releasing the hydrogen into the soapy water creates soap bubbles filled with explosive hydrogen gas.
WACKY FACTS
• The Hindenburg, one of the largest airships ever built, burst into flames in 1937 over Lakehurst, New Jersey, when its hydrogen-filled bag exploded, killing 36 people. Today airships are filled with helium.
• Hydrogen is used as rocket fuel because the combustion reaction between hydrogen and oxygen propels the exhaust gas (primarily water vapor) out of the rocket's engine at 7,910 miles per hour — creating enormous thrust that can lift the 4.4-million-pound space shuttle into orbit.
• The first hydrogen bomb, detonated in Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific in 1952, used fission to cause the fusion of the nuclei of two hydrogen atoms — yielding an explosion equivalent to 10 million tons of TNT.
• If a hydrogen atom were the size of a golf ball, a golf ball would be the size of the Earth.
Without Hydrogen, We'd Be Drinking Oxygen
• Hydrogen is one of two elements found in water (HO2). Each molecule of water consists of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom.
• Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, making up more than 90 percent of all the atoms.
• Hydrogen was named after the Greek words hydro, meaning "water," and genes, meaning "creator."
• Scientists believe that hydrogen was one of three elements produced in the Big Bang. The other two are helium and lithium.
• Hydrogen reacts explosively with the elements oxygen, chlorine, and fluorine.
CHAPTER 2
HELIUM
2 Hexed Helium Balloon
WHAT YOU NEED
• Helium balloon with string
WHAT TO DO
1. Place the helium balloon in the backseat of your car, van, or truck. If possible, remove the backseats from the van and tie the end of the balloon's string to a bolt on the floor.
2. Drive to an empty road or parking lot.
3. Accelerate quickly (without breaking the speed limit).
4. As you feel the force pushing you backward during acceleration, observe the motion of the balloon.
5. Apply the brakes, and noting the force you feel pushing you forward, observe the motion of the balloon.
WHAT HAPPENS
When you accelerate the vehicle, the helium balloon moves forward in the direction of acceleration. When you apply the brakes, the helium balloon moves backward.
WHY IT WORKS
The helium, weighing less than air, causes the balloon to float upward.
An object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by another force. You are the object at rest inside the vehicle. When you accelerate the vehicle, you feel the force of the seat pushing you forward and accelerating along with the car. Similarly, when you accelerate, the air inside the vehicle wants to remain stationery, but without a seat to hold them in place, the molecules of air move toward the back of the car, creating more air pressure in the back of the car than the front of the car. This density gradient in the air causes the helium, being less dense than air, to move forward in the car, where the air molecules are less dense.
When you hit the brake, the air inside the vehicle continues moving forward, creating more air pressure in the front of the vehicle than in the back. This reversed density gradient causes the helium to move backward toward the less dense air.
WACKY FACTS
• A helium balloon floats in the air only if the weight of the helium combined with the weight of the balloon is lighter than the weight of the air it displaces.
• Helium weighs 0.1785 grams per liter. Air weighs approximately 1.25 grams per liter.
• On July 5, 2015, Daniel Boria of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, attached 110 helium balloons (each with diameter of six feet) to a lawn chair, rose into the sky above the clouds, and parachuted into an empty field. Police arrested Boria and charged him with one count of mischief causing danger to life, referring to the lawn chair, which police said could cause damage or hurt someone when the balloons pop and the chair falls to the ground.
Helium on the Rise
• French astronomer Pierre Janssen and English astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer discovered helium using spectral analysis of sunlight after a solar eclipse in 1868.
• Being lighter than air, helium is commonly used to fill airships, balloons, and blimps.
• Helium does not burn or react with other chemicals, making it relatively safe.
• Inhaling helium temporarily raises the pitch of a person's voice. Helium is nontoxic. However, inhaling too much helium can cause death by asphyxiation due to oxygen deprivation.
• The United States produces most of the world's helium (approximately 75 percent), followed by Qatar (roughly 14 percent).
• Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe.
• In 1895, Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay and Swedish chemists Nils Langlet and Per Theodor Cleve first found helium on Earth in the mineral clevite.
• English astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer named helium after the Greek god of the sun, Helios.
• The only element lighter than helium is hydrogen.
• Helium does not combine easily with other elements, and no known compounds contain helium.
CHAPTER 3
LITHIUM
3 Horrible Hot Dog
SAFETY FIRST
• Do not leave this experiment unattended.
• Keep this experiment away from animals.
WHAT YOU NEED
• Hot dog
WHAT TO DO
1. Place the hot dog on a plate, and carefully use the kitchen knife to slice a small slot in the center of the hot dog.
2. Insert the lithium battery in the slot.
3. Observe the hot dog after 1 hour.
4. After 12 hours, slice the hot dog in half on a diagonal at the spot where you inserted the lithium battery. Remove the battery and observe.
WHAT HAPPENS
In less than a minute, the hot dog begins sizzling and bubbling. Within an hour the battery burns the edges of the slot and the hot dog continues sizzling. After 2 hours, when you slice the hot dog in half and remove the battery, you'll see a hole starting to burn through the hot dog.
WHY IT WORKS
The fluids in the hot dog allow the electric current from the battery to pass to the tissues of the meat. The electrical current generates heat and kills the cells in the tissue. Similarly, if a child or pet swallows one of these batteries, the electrical current, flowing through saliva or other bodily fluids, can severely damage or perforate the pharynx, esophagus, stomach, or small intestine — within 15 to 30 minutes.
WACKY FACTS
• Electronic greeting cards, key fobs, wristwatches, remote controls, and garage door openers frequently contain tiny, shiny, button-shaped lithium batteries, which small children and pets can easily swallow.
• A disc-shaped battery inserted into a nostril or ear canal sends an electric current between the positive and negative poles of the battery, essentially electrocuting the lining inside the nose or ear canal, leading to tissue damage and ultimately necrosis (tissue death).
• Warnings on battery packaging state that swallowing a lithium battery can lead to serious injury or death in less than two hours due to chemical burns and potential perforation of the esophagus. However, this experiment illustrates that the battery can seriously damage the hot dog in roughly 20 minutes — far less than 2 hours.
• Keep battery-powered devices and spare batteries out of the reach of children and pets to prevent them from accidentally swallowing the batteries or inserting a battery into their nose or ear.
Getting Pithier with Lithium
• Lithium is the lightest metal, with a density about half that of water. If lithium did not react intensely with water (which it does, forming lithium hydroxide and highly flammable hydrogen), it would float.
• Lithium is a metal soft enough to cut with a knife.
• Swedish chemist Johan Arfvedson discovered lithium in 1817. The following year, Swedish chemist William Brande and English chemist Sir Humphry Davy, working independently, isolated the element.
• The name lithium is derived from Greek word lithos, meaning "stone."
• Lithium occurs in most igneous rocks, but it does not occur free in nature.
• The lithium used as a psychiatric medication is not pure lithium but rather a compound, most commonly lithium carbonate, lithium citrate, and lithium orotate.
CHAPTER 4
BORON
4. Green Tornado Fire
SAFETY FIRST
This experiment should be performed outside at night on a solid surface.
• Safety goggles
• Respirator mask
• Work gloves
WHAT YOU NEED
• Round wire-mesh wastebasket, 8-inch diameter
• Lazy Susan plastic turntable, 9-inch diameter
• Ceramic bowl, 5-inch diameter
• Boric acid (available at hardware stores)
• Measuring spoons
• Heet Gas-Line Antifreeze and Water Remover (available at automotive supply stores)
• Butane barbecue lighter
• Ceramic saucer or plate (optional)
WHAT TO DO
1. Set the wastebasket on the lazy Susan on level pavement outside at night.
2. Practice spinning the contraption to make sure you can do so without causing the wastebasket and lazy Susan to topple over.
3. Place the ceramic bowl inside on the bottom of the wastebasket.
4. Wearing safety goggles, a respirator mask, and work gloves, place a tablespoon of boric acid in the bottom of the ceramic bowl.
5. Without breathing the fumes, carefully pour a few teaspoons of the Heet solution on top of the boric acid in the ceramic bowl. Replace the cap on the Heet and place the bottle a safe distance from the experiment. Stir carefully with the measuring spoon for 15 seconds.
6. Using a butane barbecue lighter, carefully ignite the mixture in the bowl. Be aware that the methanol in the Heet solution is extremely flammable and produces intense heat.
7. Carefully spin the lazy Susan, without splattering any of the mixture.
8. When the flame extinguishes itself, allow the bowl to cool for 5 minutes before using the work gloves to pick up and handle the container.
WHAT HAPPENS
After roughly 10 seconds, green flames rise from the bowl in the shape of a tornado funnel. The flaming alcohol extinguishes itself, or you can put out the flame by covering the bowl with a ceramic saucer or plate.
WHY IT WORKS
When ignited by the methanol in the Heet to the proper temperature, the boron in the boric acid yields green flames. Spinning the lazy Susan forces the air column created by the wire basket into a vortex, sending the green flames upward into a tall cylindrical shape.
WACKY FACTS
• Drinking a single can of diet soda containing 200 milligrams of aspartame, an artificial sweetener made from aspartic acid and the methyl ester form of phenylalanine, produces 20 milligrams of methanol in the body. The gastrointestinal tract hydrolyzes aspartame into its components: methanol, phenylalanine, and aspartic acid. The amount of methanol produced during the digestion of aspartame is small compared to that which is obtained from everyday foods. For example, an eight-ounce glass of tomato juice provides more than three times as much methanol as an eight-ounce glass of a beverage sweetened with aspartame.
• Methanol is naturally found in many fruits, vegetables, and fruit juices in low levels. None provide enough methanol to cause toxicity.
• Fire jugglers and fire spinners frequently use boric acid dissolved in methanol to create a deep-green flame.
• Using isopropyl alcohol in this experiment rather than Heet Gas-Line Antifreeze and Water Remover produces flames that alternate from orange to blue to green.
• Pouring methanol into a hot container may cause spontaneous combustion. Do not store methanol near an open flame or possible ignition source.
Nothing Boring About Boron
• In 1808, French chemists Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jacques Thénard first isolated boron by combining boric acid with potassium. That same year English chemist Sir Humphry Davy did the same–independently. Today, scientists typically obtain boron by heating borax with carbon.
• Boron gets its name from the Arabic word buraq and the Persian word burah, words for the compound borax.
• Boron forms several commercially important compounds, including boric acid (used as a flame retardant and insecticide) and borax (utilized in laundry detergents and as a mild antiseptic).
• The compound boron nitrate is almost as hard as diamond.
5. Rubber Blubber Slime
WHAT YOU NEED
• 4-ounce bottle of Elmer's School Glue Gel
WHAT TO DO
1. Empty the bottle of Elmer's School Glue Gel into the first bowl.
2. Fill the empty glue bottle with water, and then pour it into the bowl of glue.
3. Add 10 drops of food coloring, and stir well.
4. In the second bowl, mix 1 teaspoon of 20 Mule Team Borax with 1 cup of water. Stir until the powder dissolves.
5. Slowly pour the colored glue into the bowl containing the borax solution, stirring as you do so.
6. Remove the thick glob that forms, and knead the glob with your hands until it feels smooth and dry.
7. Discard the excess water remaining in the bowl.
8. Store the Rubber Blubber Slime in the ziplock bag or airtight container.
WHAT HAPPENS
The resulting soft, pliable, rubbery, translucent glob snaps if pulled quickly, stretches if pulled slowly, and slowly oozes to the floor if placed over the edge of a table.
WHY IT WORKS
The polyvinyl acetate molecules in the glue act like invisible bicycle chains drifting around the water. The borax molecules (sodium borate, a compound of sodium and boron) act like little padlocks, locking the chain links together wherever they touch the chain. The locks and chains form an interconnected "fishnet," and the water molecules act like fish trapped in the net.
WACKY FACTS
• Rubber Blubber Slime is a non-Newtonian fluid — a liquid that does not abide by any of Sir Isaac Newton's laws on how liquids behave. Quicksand, gelatin, and ketchup are also non-Newtonian fluids.
• Increasing the amount of borax in the second bowl makes the slime thicker. Decreasing the amount of borax makes the slime slimier and oozier.
• A non-Newtonian fluid's ability to flow can be changed by applying a force. Pushing or pulling on the slime makes it temporarily thicker and less oozy.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Electric Pickle"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Joey Green.
Excerpted by permission of Chicago Review Press Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
HYDROGEN,
1 Exploding Hydrogen Bubbles,
HELIUM,
2 Hexed Helium Balloon,
LITHIUM,
3 Horrible Hot Dog,
BORON,
4 Green Tornado Fire,
5 Rubber Blubber Slime,
CARBON,
6 Bizarre Gummy Bears,
7 Flaming Black Snakes,
8 Psychedelic Paper,
NITROGEN,
9 Hilarious Hot-Air Balloon,
10 Smoky Cold Pack,
11 Homemade Ping-Pong Ball Smoke Bomb,
OXYGEN,
12 Freaky Soap Soufflé,
13 Daffy Dry Ice Monster Bubble,
14 Cornstarch-Powered Flamethrower,
15 Loony Lava Lamp,
FLUORINE,
16 Eggciting Eggsperiment,
NEON,
17 Surprising Static Bulb,
SODIUM,
18 Electric Pickle,
19 Hot Ice Insanity,
20 Perplexing Crystals,
21 Baffling Money Burn,
MAGNESIUM,
22 Mystifying Milk of Magnesia,
23 Crazy Colored Crystals,
ALUMINUM,
24 Incredible Shrinking Potato Chip Bag,
25 Kooky Can Crusher,
SILICON,
26 Magical Mystery Sand,
PHOSPHOROUS,
27 Radical Rust Remover,
28 Black Light Jell-O,
SULFUR,
29 Ghastly Green Eggs,
CHLORINE,
30 Wacky Woolly Wool,
POTASSIUM,
31 Daring Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket,
32 Preposterous Purple Blaze,
CALCIUM,
33 Silly Naked Eggs,
34 Weird Walk on Eggs,
TITANIUM,
35 Mysterious Memory Metal,
36 Cool Colors,
CHROMIUM,
37 Sizzling Sphere Smashup,
MANGANESE,
38 Groovy Genie in a Bottle,
IRON,
39 Bewildering Burning Steel,
NICKEL,
40 Gonzo Pickle Batteries,
COPPER,
41 Ketchup and Copper,
ZINC,
42 Shocking Silver Pennies,
SILVER,
43 Strange Silverware,
TIN,
44 Bonkers Bonko Cans,
IODINE,
45 Wicked Purple Plastic Eater,
NEODYMIUM,
46 Magnetic Cheerios,
TUNGSTEN,
47 Mad Microwaved Lightbulb,
MERCURY,
48 Totally Tricky Thermometer,
LEAD,
49 Ludicrous Lead-Pencil Lightbulb,
BISMUTH,
50 Crazy Crystals,
Acknowledgments,
Sources,
About the Author,