Popular about science for children. Science and experiments for children: what are chemical reactions

There is nothing worse than the unsatisfied curiosity of a child. The desire to know the world is so great that children are simply irresistibly drawn to various experiences and experiments, many of which, alas, end tragically. But parents can direct the cognitive activity of the children in a "peaceful direction." Help them do it science for kids.

What might be of real interest? For example, an interesting experience that mom or dad will demonstrate. Many do not even realize that from the simplest materials, which are in abundance in every apartment, you can create real magic. Here are examples of such simple but exciting experiments with answers to questions that a child is sure to ask.

Amazing package

Even toddlers know that there is nothing surprising in the package. It is transparent and very thin. It is worth hurting him with a careless movement - and here is a hole! Ask your child if he wants to make sure that if the bag is filled with water and then pierced several times, the water will not leak out of it?

Most likely, the baby will not believe you. Then prepare a plastic bag and some well-sharpened pencils. Fill the bag with water and carefully pierce in several places with pencils so that they remain partly in the water, partly outside. To the surprise of the child, the water in the punctured bag will remain in place and will not leak anywhere.

Explain to the child the meaning of the experiment: the bag is made of elastic material. Filled with water, it stretches, and when pierced with a sharp pencil, it fits so tightly on all sides that it leaves no room for water to flow out.

Newtonian fluid

It is a bridge that leads to great science, which was created by great scientists. One of them was I. Newton, who made many discoveries in physics. Many phenomena and inventions described by him are named after him. So substances that can simultaneously be in a fluid and solid state are called Newtonian fluids. One of them can be obtained at home.

What do you need to prepare for the experience? A container of water, paint, a bag of starch, a spoon for mixing. It is better to experiment with gloves.

Lightly tint the water and pour an equal part of the starch (1: 1) into it. Mix everything thoroughly.

The water in the bowl will look normal, but if you hit it or “tear” it with your hand, it will behave like a solid.

If there is no paint, do not despair, the experience will be no less spectacular. You will get a white liquid similar to milk. Try to dip your fingers into it, and then squeeze them sharply. You will immediately feel a hard lump instead of a solution. Invite the child to repeat the same. You will see how delighted he will be.

And if you sharply roll the liquid between the palms, you get a real little “snowball”.

Artificial snow from ... diapers

Don't know where to get snow to decorate the Christmas tree for the New Year? It's not a problem if you have a dozen diapers and some water. invites you to get snow out of them, very similar to the real one.

To do this, carefully cut the diapers and remove the absorbent from them (usually there is not much of it, so you have to shake the diaper slightly). We remove large fractions, and put the powder in a container, where we pour a small amount of water and wait for it to be absorbed. Snow is ready! They can play without fear of freezing. And it will look great on the tree.

Explanation of the New Year's "miracle": diapers contain superabsorbent - a substance that can absorb liquid four hundred times its volume! Saturated with moisture, the particles of this powder become like small lumps of snow.

Like this science for kids brings new discoveries to future researchers and their parents!

Some parents say to the baby: "You are the light of my life." But did you know that if you were light, you would circle the entire globe 7.5 times per second! If you became sound, you could fly around the Earth in 4 hours! If we lived on Jupiter, our day would consist of only 9 hours. It’s good that on Earth a day lasts 24 hours, because we need to do so much during the day! These are just a few entertaining scientific facts that can interest both an inquisitive child and an adult.

What is science?

Science is an organized and consistent study that includes observation, collection of scientific facts, experiments, verification of results and explanation of natural and man-made phenomena. This is an area that gives us the opportunity to better understand the world around us and create good things for the benefit of man and all living beings.

Ordinary scientific facts

Now that you know what we are talking about, here are some interesting scientific facts:

• If you stretch the chain of human DNA, its length will be the distance from Pluto to the Sun and back.
• When a person sneezes, the speed of the air they exhale is about 160 km/h.
• A flea can jump to a height that is 130 times its own height. If the flea were a 1.80 m tall human, it could jump 230 m.
• An electric eel generates an electric current of 650 volts. Touching him is the most powerful shock that a person can experience.
• It takes light particles photons 40,000 years to travel from the core of the Sun to its surface, and only 8 minutes to reach the Earth.

Scientific facts about the earth

Earth is our home. To take care of her, we need to know important information about her:

• The age of the Earth is from 5 to 6 billion years. The Moon and the Sun are about the same age.
• Our planet is made up primarily of iron, silicon, and a relatively small amount of magnesium.
• Earth is the only planet in the solar system that has water on its surface, and the atmosphere is 21% oxygen.
• The surface of the Earth is made up of tectonic plates placed on the mantle - a layer located between the Earth's core and the surface. This structure of the earth's surface explains earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
• About 8.7 million species of living organisms live on Earth. Of these, 2.2 million species live in the ocean, while the rest live on land.
• ¾ of the Earth's surface is covered with water. When astronauts first saw Earth from space, they saw mostly water. Hence the name "blue planet".

Facts about the environment

Why do the seasons change? What happens to trash after we throw it away? What causes the weather to be hot or cold? This and much more children learn in the lessons of natural history at school. Consider some of the facts that convince us of what a beautiful planet we live on.

• Plastic completely decomposes in the ground in 450 years, and glass in 4,000 years.
• Every day, 27,000 trees in the world are used just to make toilet paper.
• 97% of all water on Earth is salty and unusable. 2% of water is in glaciers. Therefore, only 1% of water is usable.
• The meat processing industry contributes the most to global warming. In second place among global problems is deforestation. About 68% of existing plant species are likely to become extinct in the near future.
• The population of the Earth is more than 7 billion people. This figure is expected to reach 8 billion by 2025.
• Unfortunately, 99% of the existing species of living organisms, according to scientists, will become extinct.

Interesting facts about animals

The animal kingdom is beautiful and amazing. It has tame otters, powerful eels, singing whales, giggling rats, sex-changing oysters, and many other equally amazing representatives. Here are some facts about animals that your child will surely enjoy:

• Octopuses have three hearts. An even stranger fact: lobsters have their urinary tracts on their faces, while turtles breathe through their anus.
• In seahorses, males produce offspring, not females.
• The kakapo parrot has a strong, pungent odor that attracts predators. That is why kakapo are under the threat of extinction.
• A squirrel plants more trees than the average person in a lifetime. How can this be? The fact is that squirrels hide acorns and nuts underground, and then forget exactly where they hid them.
• Lions are hunted mainly by lionesses. Lions intervene only when necessary.

Interesting Plant Facts

Plants green our planet, produce oxygen, make the Earth habitable. Trees and plants are probably the most useful among the living inhabitants of the Earth. Here are some interesting facts about plants:

• Like humans, plants recognize other plants of their species.
• In total, there are more than 80,000 edible plants on Earth. Of these, we eat about 30.
• Humanity is rapidly destroying forests. About 80% of all forests have already been destroyed.
• The oldest tree in the world (sequoia) is located in the USA, in the state of California. His age is 4843 years.
• The height of the tallest tree in the world is 113 m. It is also located in California.
• The largest tree in the world is an aspen growing in the USA, in the state of Utah. Its weight is 6,000 tons.

Facts about space

The sun, stars, planets, the Milky Way, constellations, and everything in the universe is located in vacuum space. We call it space. Here are some interesting facts about him:

• The Earth is tiny compared to the Sun, which is 300,000 times larger.
• The entire cosmos is absolutely silent, because sound does not propagate in a vacuum.
• Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system. The temperature on the surface of Venus is 450°C.
• The force of gravity changes the weight of a person on different planets. For example, the force of gravity on Mars is lower than on Earth, so an 80 kg person on Mars would only weigh 31 kg.
• Since there is no atmosphere or water on the Moon, nothing can erase the traces of the astronauts who set foot on its surface. Therefore, traces will probably remain here for another hundred million years.
• The temperature of the core of the Sun - the closest star to the Earth - is 15 million degrees Celsius.

Facts about famous scientists

For a long time, people thought that the Earth was flat, that the change of seasons depended on the mood of the gods, and that evil spirits caused illness. This continued until the great scientists proved otherwise. Without them, we would still be living in ignorance.

• Albert Einstein was a genius, but his talents were revealed rather late. After the death of the scientist, his brain was the object of numerous studies.
• Nicolaus Copernicus refuted the theory that the Earth is the center of the universe. He developed a model of the solar system, in the center of which is the Sun.
• Leonardo da Vinci was not only an artist. He was also an outstanding mathematician, scientist, writer and even a musician.
• Archimedes invented the law of fluid displacement while taking a bath. It's funny that, according to legend, he jumped out of the bath with a cry of "Eureka!" He was so excited that he forgot that he had no clothes on.
• Marie Curie, the woman chemist who discovered radium, was the first person in the world to win the Nobel Prize twice.

Scientific facts from the world of technology

Technology is the engine of progress. We are so dependent on technology in everyday life that it is even scary. We offer some interesting facts about the technical devices that we encounter on a daily basis:

• The first computer game appeared in 1967. It was called "brown box" (translated from English - "brown box"), because that's what it looked like.
• The world's first computer, ENIAC, weighed over 27 tons and occupied an entire room.
• The Internet and the World Wide Web are not the same thing.
• Robotics is one of the most relevant scientific fields today. However, back in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci drew the world's first diagram of a robot.
• The Camera Obscura is a prototype camera that influenced the development of photography. It was used in Ancient Greece and China for projecting images onto a screen.
• There is an interesting technology in which plant waste is used to generate methane, which, in turn, can be used to generate electricity.

Scientific facts from the engineering industry

Engineering helps create beautiful things - from houses and cars to electronic gadgets.

• The highest bridge in the world is the Millau Viaduct in France. It is located at an altitude of 245 m, supported by beams suspended on cables.
• The Palm Islands in Dubai can be called a modern wonder of the world. These are man-made islands floating on the water.
• The world's largest particle accelerator is located in Geneva. It was built to assist the research of more than 10,000 scientists and is located in an underground tunnel.
• The Chandra Space Observatory is the world's largest X-ray telescope. It is also the largest satellite launched into space.
• Today, the most ambitious project in the world is the New Valley in Egypt. Engineers are trying to turn millions of hectares of desert into farmland. Imagine what would happen if we could green the Earth in the same way! Our planet would return to its original purity!

Science is a wonderful field of study that inspires many people. All you need to do is get your child interested in it. And who knows, maybe your child will grow up to be a second Einstein.

Rate the post

Vkontakte

PART ONE - NECESSARY AND THEORETICAL

Chemical reaction is a process in which substances undergo a chemical change in order to form brand new stuff.

Where do chemical reactions take place?

You might think that chemical reactions occur only in scientific laboratories, but in fact they take place all the time in the world around us. Every time we eat, our body uses chemical reactions to turn food into energy. Metal rusts, wood burns, batteries produce energy, photosynthesis in plants is all chemical reactions.

What is a reagent, reactant and final product?

Reactants and reagents are substances that take part in a chemical reaction. reactant is any substance that is used in a reaction. The substance that results from a chemical reaction is called final product.

Speed ​​reaction

Not all chemical reactions proceed at the same rate. Some happen very quickly, like explosions, while others can take a long time, like the process of rusting metal. The rate at which the reactants are converted into the final product is called reaction rate. The rate of a reaction can be greatly increased by adding energy such as heat, sunlight, or electricity. Increasing the concentration or pressure of the reactants also increases the rate of the reaction.

Reaction types

There are many types of chemical reactions. Here are some examples:

• Synthesis reaction. A fusion reaction is the process of combining two substances to form a new substance. This can be shown by the example A + B → A-B.

• Decay reaction. A decomposition reaction is a reaction in which a complex substance breaks down into two separate substances. This can be shown by the example A-B → A + B.

• Combustion. A combustion reaction occurs when oxygen combines with another component, resulting in water and carbon dioxide. The combustion reaction produces energy in the form of heat.
• Single substitution reaction. This is a reaction in which one reactant takes an element from another reactant. It looks like this: A + BC → AC + B.
• Double substitution reaction. Also called reaction metathesis. Imagine two reactants exchanging elements. It looks like this: AB + CD → AD + CB.
• photochemical reaction. In this reaction, photons are absorbed from light. One example of such a reaction is photosynthesis.

Catalysts and inhibitors

Sometimes a third substance is involved in a chemical reaction in order to speed up or slow down the reaction. Catalysts help speed up the reaction inhibitors on the contrary, it is reduced.

Interesting facts about chemical reactions:

• When ice melts physical transformation of a solid into a liquid occurs. However, this is not a chemical reaction, as it is still the same substance (H2O is water).
• Mixtures and solutions are not chemical reactions, since the molecular composition of the substance remains unchanged.
• Majority cars receive energy from the motor in which the combustion reaction occurs.
• rockets set in motion by the fusion reaction of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
• When one reaction causes other reactions to form, this is sometimes called chain reaction.

PART TWO - FUN AND VISUAL

And now we offer you experiments, thanks to which the child will see for himself that a chemical reaction is great!

SODA VOLCANO

A simple experiment, for the organization of which you need the most common objects and substances that are available in almost every home.

You will need:

• Baking soda;
• Vinegar;
• Large enough container to avoid leaks;
• Paper or cloth towels (just in case)

Instruction:

• Put the baking soda in a container.
• Pour in some vinegar.
• Watch for the reaction!

What's happening?

A solution of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is an alkaline medium, and vinegar is an acid. When these two substances react, a carbonic acid, which is very unstable and instantly decomposes into water and carbon dioxide. It is he, evaporating, and creates hiss.

Additionally, you can make a volcano that looks like a real one. This will require some creativity and skill on your part, but it will make the vinegar and baking soda experience even more impressive!

FOUNTAIN FROM DIET COLAS AND MENTOS DRAGEES

A very famous experiment that is interesting to do the first time, and the second, and the third ...

A cola and Mentos geyser made popular by Steve Spangler and is sure to amuse and surprise your kids, friends and family (of course, if you spend it in the yard and not in the living room).

You will need:

• Large bottle of Diet Coke;
• Approximately half a pack of Mentos;
• Geyser Tube toy (optional, but it's much easier to experiment with this device).

Instruction:

1. Find a place to experiment where nothing gets hurt when everything is covered in Diet Coke. An ideal place would be a playground on the grass, a yard. Please don't even try to make a geyser in the living room!
2. Stand the Coke bottle upright and unscrew the cap. Position the funnel or tube on top so that you can pour in the right amount of Mentos at the same time (about half a package is just right). This is quite difficult to do if you do not have a specially designed Geyser Tube toy (you can buy it on the Internet or search in stores), but it is quite possible.
3. Now for the fun part: Throw a Mentos into a Diet Coke and run as fast as you can! If you did everything right, a huge geyser should fly out of the bottle - this is a very impressive sight. The height record for such a fountain was about 9 meters!

What's happening?

There are several theories as to why this reaction occurs, but the most plausible is a combination of carbon dioxide in Diet Coke and the small pits found on Mentos.

The fact is that carbonated drinks foam due to carbon dioxide, which is added to the drink bottles during manufacture. Carbon dioxide is not released from the liquid until you pour it into a glass and drink it. A certain amount of gas also comes out when you open the cap (by the way, quite a lot if you shake the bottle beforehand). So a lot of the carbon dioxide in the soda bottle is just waiting to be bubbled out of the liquid.

When you toss something into a Diet Coke, you are speeding up the process, as your action reduces the surface tension of the liquid and also allows bubbles to form on the surface of the Mentos. Mentos candies are covered with small pits (resembles a golf ball), which significantly increase their surface area and allow a huge number of bubbles to form.

The experiment is best done with Diet Coke, and not with other carbonated drinks - it has a special, suitable composition, and besides, it is not so sticky. Also, the experience works better with cola, which was made not so long ago. A bottle that has been sitting on the store shelf for a long time is losing some of its "bubbly", so check the date of manufacture before buying.

We hope that both you and your children were interested - there is still a lot of exciting things ahead!

Much of what we learn in school will never come in handy. Most of this large part we will never even remember. And yet, some crumbs of "useless" information will remain in memory. Paradoxically, it is thanks to them that we feel like educated people. The luxury of keeping in mind not only vital information, but also “information surplus” increases self-esteem and gives a sense of intellectual consistency.

And “unnecessary information” surprisingly turns out to be the most interesting. This interest can become for children a magical key to the vast world of science, which is often hidden behind boring formulas and incomprehensible definitions.

In this article, we have collected nine scientific facts that can be used in the lessons of mathematics, physics, geography, chemistry and biology to clearly show that science is not something abstract from real life, but situations that we face every day.

Fact number 1. On average, an ordinary person travels a distance equal to three equators of the Earth in his life

The equator is approximately 40,075 km long. Multiplying this figure by three, we get 120,225 km. With an average life expectancy of 70 years, we get about 1717 km per year, which is a little more than five kilometers per day. Not so much, but it runs for life.

On the one hand, this information has no practical application. On the other hand, it is much more interesting to measure the distance traveled not in meters, steps or calories, but in equators. And calculating the percentage of the length of the equator will draw attention not only to geography, but also to mathematics.

The following two facts may come in handy in mathematics lessons. Using the first, you can calculate the number of children in parallel or even in the entire school who were born on the same day.

Fact #2: If there are 23 random people in a room, there is over a 50% chance that two of them will have the same birthday.

And if you put together 75 people, then this probability reaches 99%. A 100% chance of a match can be in a group of 367 people. The probability of a match is determined by the number of pairs that can be made from all the people in the group. Since the order of people in pairs does not matter, the total number of such pairs is equal to the number of combinations of 23 by 2, that is, (23 × 22) / 2 = 253 pairs. Thus, the number of pairs exceeds the number of days in a year. The same formula calculates the probability of matches for any number of people. So you can estimate the number of children born on the same day in parallel or even in the entire school.

Fact number 3. The number of living organisms in a teaspoon of soil is greater than the entire population of our planet

One square centimeter of soil contains billions of bacteria, fungi, algae and other organisms. About 60 million bacteria live in just one gram of dry soil. Nematodes, or roundworms (the most famous of which are roundworms and pinworms) in the same amount of soil are much smaller - only 10 thousand. A figure that is incommensurable with the human population, but no less unpleasant for that.

Practical application of the information: Wash your hands thoroughly after taking care of your houseplants and after working in the garden. A zone of increased bacterial danger is a sandbox on any playground.

Fact #4: The average toilet seat is much cleaner than the average toothbrush

The bacteria on your teeth live at a density of about 10 million per square centimeter. The number of bacteria on the skin varies depending on the part of the body, but in any case it is much less than in the mouth.

But there are no bacteria on the skin of frogs at all. The reason for this is the mucus secreted by the frog and contains the strongest antibiotics. This is how frogs protect themselves from the aggressive bacterial environment of the swamps in which they live.

A person in this regard is much less adapted, so toothbrushes are advised to be changed every couple of months.

Fact number 5. In the evening, a person becomes 1% lower compared to his "day" height

Under the influence of loads, our joints tend to shrink. With a normal lifestyle, by the evening a person's height decreases by 1-2 cm, which is approximately 1%. The decrease is not permanent.

The maximum decrease in height occurs after weightlifting. Changes in growth can be three or more centimeters. This is due to the compaction of the vertebrae.

Fact #6: Using very high pressure, diamonds can be made from peanut butter.

Scientists from the Bavarian Research Institute of Geophysics and Geochemistry tried to simulate in the laboratory the conditions of the Earth's lower mantle, where at a depth of 2,900 kilometers the pressure is 1.3 million times higher than atmospheric pressure. During the experiment, some innovative ways of producing diamonds were discovered. According to one hypothesis, diamonds are formed from carbon under very high pressure. Carbon is found in almost all foods. And since the researchers had only peanut butter on hand, they tried it out. Unfortunately, the hydrogen, which is bonded to carbon in peanut butter, slows the process down considerably: even a small diamond takes weeks to produce. Thus scientific thought proves that the most incredible transformations are quite possible.

Fact number 7. The height of the Eiffel Tower can change by 12 centimeters depending on the air temperature

An iron rod 300 meters long expands by 3 mm when the ambient temperature rises by one degree.

This is exactly what is happening with the Eiffel Tower, which is approximately 324 meters high.

In hot sunny weather, the iron material of the tower can heat up to +40 degrees, and in winter in Paris it cools down to about 0 degrees (great frosts are rare there).

Thus, the height of the Eiffel Tower can fluctuate by 12 centimeters (3 mm * 40 = 120 mm).

Fact #8: A conventional microwave oven uses much more energy to keep the built-in clock running than when reheating food.

While in standby mode, a modern microwave consumes approximately 3 watts per hour. Already 72 watts come out per day, and if we multiply this number by thirty days, we get an energy consumption of 2160 watts per month.

If we assume that we use the microwave every day for 5 minutes, we get 150 minutes or 2.5 hours per month. Modern stoves consume about 0.8 kW / h in heating mode. It turns out that with this use, the energy consumption directly for heating food is 2000 watts. If you buy a more economical model that consumes only 0.7 kWh, we get only 1.75 kW per month.

Fact #9. The first computer mouse was made of wood.

Sometimes it's just curious to know the fate of the items that we use every day.

The computer mouse in the design familiar to us was introduced to the world in 1984 by Apple. Largely thanks to her, Macintosh computers have become incredibly popular. But this small, but such a necessary device begins its true history 20 years earlier.

In 1964, Stanford engineer Douglas Engelbart designed a manipulator to work with the oN-Line System (NLS) operating system. Initially, the device was a handmade wooden box with two wheels inside and a button on the case. After a while, the device has a third button, and a couple of years later Engelbart receives a patent for his invention.

Next, Xerox enters the business, but its modification of a computer mouse costs about $ 700, which by no means contributes to its mass distribution. And only the company of Steve Jobs is able to develop a similar device with a cost of $ 20-30, which has become part of the daily lives of billions of people.