Junk Drawer Physics

There's not need for expensive, high-tech lab equipment to perform physics experiments-you probably have all you need in your home junk drawer. Turn a plastic cup into a pinhole camera using waxed paper, a rubber band, and a thumbtack. Build a swinging wave machine using a series of washers suspended on strings from a yardstick. Use a cork, string, and water-filled plastic bottle to create a simple accelerometer. Or construct your own planetarium from an empty potato chip canister, construction paper, scissors, and a pin. Physics teacher Bobby Mercer provides readers with more than 50 great hands-on experiments that can be performed for just pennies . . . or less. Each project has a materials list, detailed step-by-step instructions with illustrations, and a brief explanation of the scientific principle being demonstrated. Junk Drawer Physics also includes sidebars of fascinating physics facts: did you know the Eiffel Tower is six inches taller in summer than in winter because its steel structure expands in the heat? Educators and parents will find this title a handy resource to teach children about physics topics that include magnetism, electricity, force, motion, light, energy, sound, and more, and have fun at the same time. Bobby Mercer has been a high school physics teacher for over two decades. He is the author of The Flying Machine Book, The Racecar Book, and Smash It! Crash It! Launch It! and lives with his family outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

A children's instructional book on how to use readily available materials to turn the house into a science lab Science teacher Bobby Mercer provides readers with more than 50 great hands-on experiments that can be performed for just pennies, or less. Each project has a materials list, detailed step-by-step instructions with illustrations, and a brief explanation of the scientific principle being demonstrated. From turning three pennies and two galvanized washers into a simple battery to crushing a soda can using atmospheric pressure, the experiments in this book call for materials that are recycled or repurposed—crayons, plastic drink bottles, balloons, ice cubes, and other basic items found around the house. Junk Drawer Chemistry also includes sidebars of fascinating chemistry facts. Educators and parents will find this title a handy resource to teach children about chemistry topics that include atoms, compounds, solutions, mixtures, reactions, thermodynamics, acids and bases, and more, while having fun at the same time.

Geometry is a hands-on subject. What better way to explore the concepts of area, perimeter, and volume than actually measuring area, perimeter, and volume? With this helpful resource, you will build polygons out of pipe cleaners and flexible drinking straws, explore Mobius strips made from index cards, model the Pythagorean theorem using cheese crackers, and much more. Junk Drawer Geometry proves that you don't need high-tech equipment to comprehend math concepts—just what you can find around the house or in your recycling bin. Each of this book's 50 creative geometry projects includes a materials list and detailed, step-by-step instructions with illustrations. The projects also include ideas on how to modify the lessons for different age and skill levels, allowing anyone teaching children to use this to excite students. Educators and parents will find this title a handy guide to teach problem-solving skills and applied geometry, all while having a lot of fun.

Kids of all ages can use recycled and repurposed household items to complete exciting and green ecology experiments Junk Drawer Ecology is a hands-on guide to saving the planet. Fun, free science activities help kids of all ages learn about the science of our planet's ecology. The environment is changing every day, and we can help slow that change. Using free or low-cost things children already have around their homes, these activities are perfect to stimulate young brains. Readers will learn about the importance of the polar regions without leaving their communities, about new ways to cut our dependence on fossil fuels, about all forms of pollution, and how they can make a difference. Junk Drawer Ecology will give inquisitive kids many hours of fun and help them learn at the same time.

"Children love challenges, especially ones that involve hands-on experimentation and friendly competition. Can they build a bridge using only pasta and glue, one that a toy car can drive both under and over, and is sturdy enough to carry a considerable weight? Can they construct a "roller coaster" from recycled cardboard tubes in which the marble "car" jumps a track to land safely at its final destination? And can they create a device to safely catch a freefalling egg? These projects and more can be found in Junk Drawer Engineering, which demonstrates that you don't need high-tech equipment to make learning fun--just what you can find in your recycling bin and around the house. At its heart, engineering is the application of science to solve a design problem. Science teacher Bobby Mercer provides readers with 25 open-ended design challenges for children of all ages. The projects can be modified to meet the skill levels of the children doing them, from elementary school kids to teenagers. Though each challenge includes suggested materials and one step-by-step, illustrated solution, children are encouraged to modify and improve on the basic design, and come up with new and more complicated design parameters. Educators and parents will find this title a handy resource to teach children problem-solving skills and applied physics, all while having a lot of fun."--

Fatal Forces is packed with the most amazing things about physics. Readers can find out how gravity can make them lose their heads, how they can get walloped by a lamppost, what can make fillings explode and how to reach terminal velocity. Eeek! Redesigned in a bold, funky new look for the next generation of HORRIBLE SCIENCE fans.

Why is there eight times more ice in Antarctica than in the Arctic? Why can you warm your hands by blowing gently, and cool your hands by blowing hard? Why would a pitcher scuff a baseball?Which weighs more-a pound of feathers or a pound of iron? Let science experts Christopher Jargodzki and Franklin Potter guide you through the curiosities of physics and you'll find the answers to these and hundreds of other quirky conundrums. You'll discover why sounds carry well over water (especially in the summer), how a mouse can be levitated in a magnetic field, why backspin is so important when shooting a basketball, and whether women are indeed as strong as men. With nearly 400 questions and answers on everything from race cars to jumping fleas to vanishing elephants, Mad about Physics presents a comprehensive collection of braintwisters and paradoxes that will challenge and entertain even the brainiest of science lovers. Whether you're a physicist by trade or just want to give your brain a power workout, this collection of intriguing and unusual physics challenges will send you on a highly entertaining ride that reveals the relevance of physics in our everyday lives.

Algebra as a hands-on subject? With this helpful resource, you can create coordinate graphs with candy, simplify algebraic equations with pennies and nickels, use aluminum foil to multiply polynomials (perfect for the FOIL method), examine exponential decay functions with a bouncy ball, and much more. Junk Drawer Algebra proves that you don't need high-tech equipment to comprehend math concepts—just what you can find around the house or in your recycling bin. Each of this book's 50 creative algebra projects includes a materials list and detailed, step-by-step instructions with illustrations. The projects also include ideas on how to modify the lessons for different age and skill levels, allowing anyone teaching children to use this book to excite students. Educators and parents will find this title a handy guide to teach problem-solving skills and algebraic equations, all while having a lot of fun.