Science experiments to do at home during shutdown

Has the impending quarantine gotten you bored beyond imagination? Try science! Although science can be a little intimidating at times, spending your time doing experiments can be a fun pass time activity. But you will not have to go through eight years of science school or work in a high-tech lab to do some basic science experiments. 

There are plenty of experiments you can do at home. You might even have a few of the materials just lying around the house.

Here are a few easy experiments to see science in action.

Microwave Ivory soap

This funny physics display requires nothing more than a bar of Ivory-brand soap and a microwave oven. The high air content of Ivory soap causes it to expand into a big fluffy cloud of sorts when put into the microwave for a couple of minutes. Once microwaved, you can let the kids play with it - although this may result in a crumbly mess - or use it to make laundry detergent.

Lava lamp

Get a wide bottle, food coloring, vegetable oil, water, an Alka-Seltzer tablet, and then get groovy. Fill the bottle with oil, then water - leaving two to three inches at the top, then add 10 or so drops of color, and finally, drop in the tablet. The resulting DIY lava lamp-like visual is both pretty and a lesson about the density of water, oil and carbon dioxide gas bubbles.

Water xylophone

Here is a way to make music without investing in a pricey instrument. Fill as many mason jars as you would like with varying levels of water and food coloring to create a liquid rainbow. And then, have fun making sounds by tapping them with wooden sticks. Bamboo skewers work well. Keep one jar empty as a constant.

Tornado in a bottle

You can create your own tornado in a bottle. All you need are two bottles, a tube to connect the bottles, and some water.

When you whirl the liquid inside the top bottle, it creates a vortex as it drains into the bottom bottle. That is because as the water flows down, air must flow up, creating a spiraling tornado.
You can even add glitter, food dye, or lamp oil to the bottle to make the tornado even cooler.

Rainbow in a glass

This experiment takes advantage of density to create a rainbow in a glass. When you add sugar to a liquid, it causes the solution to become denser. The more sugar you add, the denser the solution is.

If you have four different solutions that are all different colors and densities, the colors will layer on top of each other - the denser, more sugary solutions will sit on the bottom and the lightest will sit on the top.

Gooey slime

When you mix glue, water, and a little bit of food coloring, then add some borax, a gooey slime forms. That's because the glue has something called polyvinyl acetate in it, which is a liquid polymer. The borax links the polyvinyl acetate molecules to each other, creating one large, flexible polymer: slime.

Pasta rocket

Believe it or not, you can create a very simple hybrid rocket engine using nothing but some yeast, hydrogen peroxide, a jar, fire and a piece of uncooked pasta.

When you mix the yeast and hydrogen peroxide together, they react and create pure oxygen gas. When this gas is funneled through a piece of pasta, all you need is a little bit of fire and you've got yourself a pasta rocket.

Homemade lava lamp

Alka-seltzer is great if you are suffering from heartburn or an upset stomach. But you probably did not know that it is also great if you are looking to create your own homemade lava lamp.

Because oil and water have different densities and polarities, when you mix them together, the water sinks to the bottom. When you add food coloring, which is water based, it will sink to the bottom as well.

If you crumble in an Alka-Seltzer tablet, it reacts with the water, causing colored droplets of water to rise to the top where they then pop, release air, and sink back to the bottom.

This creates a similar show to what you would see in a lava lamp.

Instant ice

In order for water to become ice, it needs a nucleus in order for solid crystals to form. Usually, water is loaded with particles and impurities that enable ice to form. But purified water is not. Because of this, purified water can reach an even colder temperature before becoming solid.

If you throw an unopened bottle of purified water into the freezer for a little less than three hours, the bottle will be chilled well below the temperature at which regular water freezes.

When you pour this super-cooled water onto a piece of ice, it provides the water with nuclei, causing it to freeze instantly.

Ferromagnetic fluid

This experiment makes it easy to see magnetic fields in action. All you need is some iron oxide, some water, and a jar.

When you place an extremely powerful magnet along the outside of the jar, the iron filings are attracted to it, piling up, and following the magnet as you move it around.

Baking soda volcano

In this experiment, a chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar creates "lava" bursting out of a model volcano.

As the reaction produces carbon dioxide gas, pressure builds up inside a plastic bottle hidden inside the volcano until the gas bubbles and erupts.

Invisible Ink

Simply dab a Q-tip or brush into a bowl of lemon juice and write away. Just make sure you don't use too much. To see the message, simply heat the paper after it dries. Another way to see the message is put salt on the drying ink. Give it a minute and then wipe the salt off. Use a wax crayon to color over the message.

Why it works: Both lemon juice and milk are mildly acidic and acid weakens paper. The acid remains in the paper after the juice or milk has dried. When the paper is held near heat the acidic parts of the paper burn or turn brown before the rest of the paper does.