• Question: What was the first experiment you ever did?

    Asked by anon-227005 to William, Thibaut "Tibo", Harry, Georgia, Emily, Aimee on 9 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Harry Wilkinson

      Harry Wilkinson answered on 9 Nov 2019:

      It probably would be something I did in secondary school, like testing the pH of tap water or something like that.

    • Photo: Georgia Orton

      Georgia Orton answered on 9 Nov 2019: last edited 9 Nov 2019 5:02 pm

      Putting white flowers in blue food colouring and seeing the flowers going blue aged 5 ish

    • Photo: Aimee Egglestone

      Aimee Egglestone answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      I did a lot of “What will happen if…?” things as a child – and generally the outcome was “I’ll make a mess”. I’d say that was all a form of experimentation.

      If we’re looking at proper scientific experiments, then I’d say making “Non newtonian fluids” out of cornstarch and water – in this case a “non-newtonian fluid” was a material which was solid if you punch it or step on it, but liquid if you touch it gently or swirl it. I also did not call it a “Non-Newtonian Fluid” at 7!

    • Photo: William Wiseman

      William Wiseman answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      Back in primary school, we were given a mixture of paper clips, rice, sand and salt and asked to separate the mixture into 4 piles. We were given some equipment to help us.

      First we used a magnet to remove the paperclips from the mixture since they were magnetic.
      Secondly, we used a colander to separate the big rice grains from the smaller salt and sand grains.
      Next we were supposed to add water to the salt and sand mixture. By adding water, the salt dissolves and you can filter the liquid to separate the sand from salt, leaving the salty water to evaporate over time. Instead, we noticed a small hand sieve that was just small enough to sieve the sand and salt, letting the smaller sand pass through. The teacher was amazed when we gave her 4 dry piles of materials whilst everyone else was busy filtering liquids. We even got a gold star!

    • Photo: Thibaut Deviese

      Thibaut Deviese answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      My parents said that I liked to put my food in water glass when I was a baby. Maybe I was already studying solubility in water! 😀

Comments