High School, Physics Science Experiments (Page 16)

Motion Mania: Applying Physics to Hula-Hooping

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Practice makes you better at most things, and knowledge makes practice so much easier! Can you swirl a circular toy called a hula hoop around your waist or arm? Is it hard? What knowledge can you apply to find ways that make hula-hooping easier? Physics! Yes, physics will help you determine what makes one hula hoop a winner and another a flop. In this project, you will create your own hula hoops, spin them, and draw conclusions. The road will then be open to your becoming a hula hoop expert. If… Read more

Phone Book Friction

STEM Activity

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A popular science demonstration shows that when you overlap the pages of two phone books, they are nearly impossible to pull apart. Since most people do not have two phone books sitting around, we will show you how you can do the same experiment with sticky notes. Sticky notes are much smaller than phone books, so they should be easy to pull apart, right? Try this activity to find out! Read more

Pop Goes the Metal: How Temperature Affects Snap Time of a Jumping Disc

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Jumping discs can be a fun toy to play with, and with their sudden POP!, they can even be a good way to startle people who have never heard them before. Jumping discs use a neat trick to jump. They are made of two different types of metal, and these metals expand when they heat up (or shrink when they cool down), but not by exactly the same amount. In this science project you will explore how temperature affects the reactions of your jumping discs— and how to get the timing right if you… Read more

Science with a Smartphone: Lux Meter

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Did you know that you can use a smartphone as a scientific instrument to explore the world around you? Smartphones contain many built-in electronic sensors that can measure phenomena such as sound, light, motion and more! In this activity, you’ll use your phone’s light sensor to examine the brightness of light from different light sources and locations. How bright is the reading lamp in your living room compared to direct sunlight? Try this activity to find out! Read more

Serve Illuminated Water

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Light is fascinating! It can look like a wave or a particle; it can be red, blue or any color of the rainbow; you can even mix all the colors together to get white! It travels in straight lines and still appears to bend around objects. It can travel through air, but it does not need the air. Unlike sound, light can travel from distant stars through a vacuum and reach us years later, or it can be sent through fiber optic cables and go around the world in less than a second! Does that sound… Read more

Showing Science: Watch Objects in Free-Fall

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Have you ever wondered how fast a heavy object falls compared to a lighter one? Imagine if you dropped both of them at the same time. Which would hit the ground first? Would it be the heavier one because it weighs more? Or would they hit the ground at the same time? In the late 1500s C.E. in Italy, Galileo was actually asking some of these same questions and did some tests to answer them. In this activity, you’ll do some of your own tests to determine… Read more

Slip Sliding Away: Experimenting with Friction

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Have you ever driven up a mountain, seen a sign reading "Hazard! Icy Roads Ahead," and wondered why ice makes roads dangerous to drive on? The answer has to do with friction—specifically, the lack of it. Specifically, in the case of driving a car down the road, the friction that allows the car to move occurs between the tires and the road. This friction normally allows the car to "grip" the road—keeping the tires in contact with the relatively rough road… Read more

Spare-Change Circus: Walking Coins on a (Vertical!) 'High Wire'

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Here is a project that is almost like a magic trick: with a strong magnet and a simple apparatus you can build yourself, you can make a coin "walk" up and down a wire coat hanger! This project is an interesting way to learn about the distance over which magnetic forces act on magnetic materials. Read more

Speedy Science: How Does Constant Acceleration Affect Distances Traveled?

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Have you ever dropped something and wondered how fast it was moving while falling? If it was something fragile, like a cell phone, you might not have been thinking about this at the time – you were likely too busy trying to grab the phone! But you probably wanted to find out how hard it hit the ground afterwards. We all know that gravity forces an object to fall, but how does this affect how quickly something falls and its impact? For example, did the phone move faster right after leaving… Read more

Strength in Numbers: Spaghetti Beams

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Have you ever helped your parents cook a pot of spaghetti? Strands of spaghetti are pretty long, so sometimes people break them in half so they fit into the pot more easily. How exactly does the spaghetti break? And what does this have to do with science? It turns out engineers and materials scientists study how materials break when they are bent. While professional engineers might be more concerned with steel beams in a bridge, you can still do a fun experiment with some pasta in your kitchen. Read more

High School, Physics Science Experiments (223 results)

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