Doing Science Is Fun PDF
Doing Science Is Fun PDF
Doing Science Is Fun PDF
SCIENCE
IS FUN
V.G. KULKARNI
R.M. BHAGWAT
V.G. GAMBHIR
Doing Science Is Fun
Chairman
Atomic Energy Commission
The Authors
V.G. Kulkarni (1932-)
Began his research career in 1953 as a physicist at the Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). His interest in
science education led in 1974 to the establishment of the
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education at the TIFR. As
the Founder Director he has nurtured this institution to a status
of considerable reputqtion. His interests include, education
of the underprivileged, role of language in science educa-
tion and use of mass media. Was awarded the G.D. Parikh
Memorial Award in 1985 for his contributions to the education
of the underprivileged.
R.M. Bhagwat(1931 -)
Holds Masters degrees in mathematics and education.
Joined the Homi Bhabha Centre in 1975 with considerable
experience and reputation as a successful teacher. Clear
and lucid writing and a deep understanding of children's
difficulties are his fortes.
V.G. Gambhir (1948 -)
Holds a degree in geology and a Masters degree in
education. Joined the Homi Bhabha Centre in 1976 after a
brief but successful career as a teacher. His interests in
science cut across disciplines. A skilled experimenter he is
equally at ease in animal dissections, rock collections,
photography, printing technology and model building. Has
a wonderful rapport with children.
Preface
V.G. Kulkarni would like to thank his wife, Vijaya, whose silent
support has contributed in no small measure to this en-
deavour.
VGK
RMB
VGG
Contents
Endpoint ... 1
Matchmaker ... 8
Natural gates ... 15
No noise is good noise ... 24
Short circuit ... 31
Your own spiderman ... 33
Sound's fun ... 45
Safety first ... 51
Not by hands alone ... 57
Floods and flows ... 63
A silver lining ... 74
Strings of music ... 83
Universal currency ... 88
Friend or foe ... 95
A lightning flash in your room ...101
Silence is golden ...107
Ready reference ...112
ENDPOINT
the two cakes and assume that their weights are the
same.
Now in two different clean dishes let us dissolve the
pieces separately. To each dish we will add equal
amounts of water, 5-7 teaspoons should be enough. This
means that we have two soap solutions with about the
same quantity of soap in them, We have to be very
careful at this stage and label the dishes, so that we
know which dish contains bathing soap and which one
the washing soap, Now we will add a pinch of turmeric
powder to each of the solution and see what happens!
The colour changes, doesn't it? Have you paid attention
to the delicate tints of the changed colour in both
solutions? If not, do it again, Which solution shows a
deeper tint?
For the next bit of the experiment, we will need lemon
juice so let's squeeze the lemon and filter the juice
through the strainer so that we get clear juice, This is the
juice that we will add drop by drop to the solution of
bathing soap,
There are many interesting details to observe in this
experiment. If you have been following the colour chan-
ges keenly you must have noticed that as soon as you
added a drop of lemon juice, the soap solution
changed colour locally. The solution around the drop
changed from red to yellow but the rest of the solution
remained red. When you stirred the solution, the yellow
colour readily disappeared. But as you went on adding
the lemon juice, drop by drop, it took longer and longer
for the yellow colour to disappear. Finally, the entire
solution turned yellow. It is a really colourful experiment
isn't it? So let, us do it again, this time with the dish
containing washing soap solution. What is your guess?
Will it require the same number of drops or a few more
to reach the yellow colour stage? Well, let's do it and
find out.
Beginning the colourful experiment
Drop by drop
^Wt-
Meet hydrogen peroxide. It is a colourless, odourless
liquid and looks like water. Hydrogen peroxide is stored
in coloured bottles which have tight caps. It does not
evaporate rapidly, nor is it flammable. Yet the bottles
are kept tightly corked. Why should this be so?
Doctors often use hydrogen peroxide to clean
wounds, people use it to bleach hair and it is also used
in rockets. You must be wondering about its versatility
and special properties that make it indispensable in so
many varied fiel.ds.
Shall we try to find out something about its properties?
Well then, we will need hydrogen peroxide of course. A
chemist or a beauty parlour will be able to provide it.
We will also need some test tubes or small bottles, and
a little bit of manganese dioxide for the first experiment.
Let's take some hydrogen peroxide in a clean test
tube or bottle. About two or three teaspoons should be
MATCHMAKER 9
Hot or not?
The doors that man has designed are simple. They are
opened when we wish to enter or leave a room. While
open, they allow other people to enter or leave at will.
They will also allow animals and dust to enter. They
cannot distinguish between the desirable elements and
the undesirable ones.
Nature, on the other hand, has sensitive doors. These
doors are selective. They may allow certain chemicals
to enter but not leave. With other chemicals they may
exercise the restriction in reverse. This means that the
doors will allow a chemical to leave but not allow it to
re-enter. Still other chemicals may be strictly forbidden
to enter into the cell. Sounds fun, doesn't it? But how do
these doors work? Can we see them?
Of course, these incredibly efficient doors are too tiny,
microscopic really, to be seen with the unaided eye. But
we can study the way they work. To do so, let's raid the
kitchen for a couple of raw potatoes, some sugar,
NATURAL GATES 17
In all the cases, The tiny pores in the walls of the potato
worked as efficient doors. They allowed water to move
in or out depending on the location of the con-
centrated sugar solution.
Radio telescope
bulb with its holder on the other. Let us then linkup the
wires with crocodile clips at both ends. We then con-
nect up all these. When we press the switch , the bulb
glows and when we switch it off, the bulb does not light
up. Thus for the bulb to glow, the electric current must
flow round and round continuously in the circuit. This is
a closed circuit. When the current path is broken at any
point, as when the switch is off, we have an open circuit.
When we switch off the circuit, no current is allowed to
flow.
What if we create some obstruction to the flow of
electric current in the circuit? A pencil refill made of
graphite will do. Let us connect it in the circuit. All we
have to do is link up the graphite refill in the circuit with
the help of wires and crocodile clips. Let us now put the
switch on. Do you think the bulb will glow more brightly,
less brightly or not glow at all?
Supposing we connect a wire across the circuit? Do
you think the bulb would still glow?
We realize now that the amount of current through
the circuit is not decided by the battery alone. It is the
components in the circuit which determine how much
current they will draw from a given battery. Some
materials allow larger current to flow through them. But
other materials do not. In other words, certain materials
offer more resistance to current than other. A substance
that has extremely high resistance will not allow
electricity to flow through. It is called an insulator.
Electric current takes the path of least resistance.
Thus, when we connected the graphite refill in the cir-
cuit, the current could have gone directly through the
wire or through the high resistance of the graphite. It
took the usual wire route and hence there was no
change in the gJowing of the bulb. This wire had ex-
tremely low resistance and the current took that path,
34 DOING SCIENCE IS FUN
Cotton
Silk
Wool
Measuring thickn'ess
YOUR OWN SPIDERMAN 43
Tick-tock
Safety first
SAFETY FIRST 53
Magnetic shield
M - Magnet
S - Switch
S'-Strip
B - Battery
T,
>>
•n
\ 1
Green
M
Red
M~ Magnet
S - Switch
S' - Strip
B - Batten
Drop by drop
liquids, All liquids flow, but not at the same speed, Some,
like water, flow readily, Others, like honey, flow ever so
slowly, This property of flowing is called fluidity, Liquids
that do not flow well, or flow slowly and sluggishly, are
called viscous. Viscosity is the technical term for this
condition. It is the opposite of fluidity.
Viscous liquids offer considerable resistance to flow
and so their rate of movement is slow.
Dazzling shine
such as water and oil. Not all surfaces will give reflections
of similar brightness and the comparison of the bright-
ness of reflection in each case will allow us to grade the
materials according to their brightness. Of all rhe
materials tested, it is obvious isn't it, that the metals are
the best reflectors.
But what about the surface used? We can have a
variety of surfaces. For example we can use very smooth
surfaces of different colours or else we can use all types
of white surfaces. If we grade the materials according
to their toughness and also their reflectivity, we have a
surprising finding. Do.you think these qualities are corre-
lated? Let's repeat the experiments just to make sure.
So why does a rough surface make a poor mirror and
why does a good mirror always have a smooth surface.
All we have to do to find out, is to follow some clues and
arrive at an answer.
Let's take a piece of ordinary white paper and a
piece of glossy art paper and put a white screen near
a wall. Then we will shine sunlight on both the pieces of
paper and try to get two reflected areas side by side on
the screen. The reflection from the art paper appears as
a bright spot on the screen. The reflection from the
ordinary paper forms a dull spot on the screen, though
it illuminates a large area.
Now let's take three pieces of white art paper. We will
crumple one of the pieces, make corrugations on the
other by folding it several times and keep the third as it
is. Then we will try to find out which of them forms a bright
spot. You now tell the difference between a smooth and
a rough surfaces. Can you tell why we can see our face
better in a new stainless steel dish than in a used one?
What makes the used dish rough?
For any surface to be useful as-a plane mirror, all the
rays of light falling at a given angle on different parts of
A SILVER LINING 79
Bright cresent
Stringed Instruments
iliOj-TOPA^
V- 1 "-THE BEARER
> "<
' U " Th& Sum or
• • » ' TEM WAITS
54*7601•^^M^OAM
Demonstrating friction
Hold fast
Overcoming friction
with the rim reduces the speed. The ball of paper on the
other hand is worn out by friction.
The brakes of the bicycle are made of hard rubber
and this rubber does not wear out easily when it rubs
against the rim of the wheel. But prolonged use of the
bicycle does wear out the rubber pads.
Ancient men used to start fires by rubbing dry sticks of
wood together. Nowadays we make a flame by striking
a match. Does that mean, heat is produced due to
friction? Quite right. The ancient method of making fire
was to produce enough heat to produce a flame.
Similarly, rubbing the match on a rough surface gives
enough heat to set fire to the chemicals at the end of
the match. We rub our hands together on cold winter
evenings, and the hands begin to get comfortably
warm.
Sometimes, the heat generated by friction can be
inconvenient. When a spacecraft re-enters the earth's
atmosphere there is friction between the air and the
surface of the spacecraft. This produces a lot of heat. A
special heat shield has to be fitted around the craft to
protect the astronauts.
When a motor car engine is running there are many
moving metal surfaces, These would cause a lot of
friction if they are rubbed together. So, oil is used in the
engine. The oil forms a film between the metal surfaces
so that they do not rub together. This prevents the
engine from getting too hot. Do you know that the bone
joints in our body have some arrangement to protect
them from rubbing against surrounding parts and to
prevent the wearing caused by this?
Be it, our friend or foe, next time we take the first step
to walk, we must remember that if there were no friction
••
' between the soles of our shoes and the ground, we
would" soon as we tried to walk.
A LIGHTNING FLASH
IN YOUR ROOM
Can you try and get a plastic tube about a metre long
from somewhere? Even an old pipe, lying around the
house will do. We will drill some holes into this tube. Tiny
ones, not more than half a centimetre wide. If you can
find a screw, just heat it up and pierce the tube with it,
Let us place this tube in a cardboard box, about 30
cm long.
110 DOING SCIENCE IS FUN
A car silencer
ISBN : 81-7236-082-7