what science projects have you done as a adult just to satisfy your natural curiosity ? what did you discover? is it what you thought you would have discovered ?
Just want to say that I have done quite a few.
and further want to say I can’t remember a dam one right now.
Anything I bring home in a “doggy bag” becomes a science project. Hitherto unknown forms of life have sprung forth in my refrigerator.
But I suppose you meant planned science projects.
I suppose the amount and combination of drugs I ingested in my 20’s made ME a kind of science project.
Recently, I noticed a strange phenomenon at the swimming pool/hottob of my apartment complex. The observation that led to the experiment was that then I waded into the pool (walked down the stairs) the air flowed freely through my swim trunks. A little later, I would walk down the stairs to wade into the hottub, but the air was trapped under my trunks, and they ballooned out. What was different, I wondered, between the pool and the hottub that would cause this?
[Semi-hijack?]
I have discovered the answer to this question, but maybe someone will want to make a logical deduction as to the answer. All the needed information is in the paragraph above.
It’s obvious: temperature. A hot tub is (I should think) significantly warmer than a swimming pool. When most any substance becomes hotter, its ability as a solvent increases. Therefore, the water (a damn good solvent in any case) in the hot tub is better able to dissolve air than that in the pool. Therefore, since both are exposed to air, the water in the hot tub will reach its saturation limit (the point at which it can accept no more dissolved air) much sooner than the swimming pool. Thus, the air trapped under the trunks was able to (once pushed down by the force of gravity as yojimboguy descended) dissolve into the swimming pool water. However, the air trapped under the trunks as yoji entered the hot tub was not able to dissolve into the saturated water.
[sub]Is it just me, or was that needlessly complicated?[/sub]
I nuke AOL CD-ROMS in the microwave. First learned it from this site and practice with different power levels, different types of disks, etc.
What I’ve discovered so far are these earth-shattering results:
- Melting polycarbonate smells really bad and creates really interesting smoke.
- Doing this at the office makes you popular with engineers, very UN-popular with administrators and sales people…
- The pattern of sparks that travels through the metal layers of the disc is reminiscent of lightning on a lazy summer’s eve.
A for Effort! Wrong answer, though.
The true answer, however, is Nothing, because I asked myself the wrong question. The issue was not what was different about the water, but what was different about the suit. When I waded into the pool, the suit was dry and the air easily escaped up through the veave of the fabric. When I later waded into te hottub, the suit was completely soaked, and the air could not escape though a wter barrier. I figured this out by reversing the order of things I waded into. When I got into the hottub first, and then into the pool, the suit ballooned in the pool.
I guess I should post mine, the one I am doing now is there are these fruit flies that are always swarming around the bananas I buy but when I put the bananas on top of the refrigerator they do not bother the bananas why? i do not know
Perhaps the hot air rising up from the back of your fridge carries the scent out of their reach.
[sub]There I go with temperature again . . . [/sub]
Did I ever tell you about the time I put a personal cd player and a small computer speaker in the microwave oven, with Electric Light Orchestra’s Time playing “The Diary Of Horace Whimp” at full blast?
Thomas Dolby and $500,000 worth of equipment couldn’t reproduce that sound in a thousand years! 
Uh, I made a Jacob’s ladder.
Developed a few unorthodox techniques for creating anaglyphic stereograms, from life and artificially.
I’ve tried, (and failed) to make a daguerreotype image.
Done a few hobby experiments in organic chemistry, the details of which I won’t go into here.
Uh, when I was a kid I used to like to make explosives “from scratch.” I still have a couple of small scars, from before I learned the joy of electronic ignition and long wires. (I never did anything destructive with them, I’m take them out to an open field and set them off. Kept the neighborhood kids amused.)
Slight hijack: TVGuy reminded me of a friend of mine who makes AOL CD sculpture. He’s pretty much just made candle-holders and coasters up until now. Currently he’s working on a floor lamp. He’s getting boxes of AOL CDs and welding them together. Eventually he plans to put the wiring through the hole in the center. It sounds like it’ll be pretty cool.
I like to make origami sailboats and test the strength of the currents in shallow brooks and small waterfalls.
I have done potato cannons. Lots and lots of fun!
I made a crystal radio from a kit.
I had never heard about chewing wintergreen lifesavers in the dark when I was a kid, so I did that when I was in my 30s.
I put a fluorescent tube into a microwave and saw it light up when the oven was turned on. I saw Mr. Wizard do it on Nickelodeon.
I did an experiment with my dog to see what was the determining size/quality of a treat that made him eat it on the spot vs. take it into another room.
Most hilarious find?
The half of the oreo without the creme was consistently eaten on the spot while the half with the creme was taken into the other room.
I mixed hot Sulphuric acid and sugar together in a small beaker. makes a long black and smelly cylinder. fun!!!
Lee
I bought some ant farms and connected them together and then stocked them with local ants.
Mine all seemed to involve how much alcohol was needed to make me unable to walk.
Ahh biology.
Mostly, I like to build stuff.
You can NEVER have to many flashing LED’s or shiny toggle switches.
I’m currently working on a die with lighted pips. You push the button and randomly get between 1-6.
I’m always trying new ways of distressing things. I tried, and failed, to create a patina on a brass rod using vinegar and salt. At the moment, I’m distressing a book. NOTE-These are for personal projects. I do NOT distress items and then sell them as antiques. It’s just that the Cthulhu statue you make looks even cooler when it’s pitted and worn, as though it spent centuries in the ocean.
One of these days, I will overcome my depression and fears and build a theremin!
I’m also compiling science projects to try with my neice when she’s old enough.
I built a carbon dioxide generator to facilitate plant growth within my 25 gallon aquarium. Worked nicely, but it also make the algae grow out of control.