Unbelievable Egg Trick

That's 'unbelievable' as in, 'any claim to have done this successfully is unbelievable.' The trick is possible, but it takes months of dedicated practice. You think it's hard reaching your black belt in Karate?

You will need:

Two sherry glasses. The flared kind your Auntie has.
An egg. Hard-boiled if you're nervous. It's probably best to wash it, eggs being as they are.
Approximately infinite patience.

The Challenge:

Place the sherry glasses side-by-side. In theory they can be several centimetres apart, but let's not make this any harder than it already is: have them touching. Now place the egg in one of the glasses.
Your challenge is simple: blow the egg from one glass into the other. No, really.

What's going on?

You might think there's a knack, a secret that makes the trick easy. Perhaps you blow over the top of the egg, so the curved surface acts like a wing and the reduced pressure sucks it upwards? Go on, try it.
Doesn't work, does it?
Maybe you arrange the egg more-pointy-end-up, then blow straight down on it, hoping the airflow will... nope, that doesn't work, either.
No, you just have to blow ludicrously hard. Ah, but there is a bit of a technique. Look closely at the point where the egg touches the glass - that's where you're aiming to blow. Blow hard enough, and you'll tip the egg aside, just a little. That lets the air rush into the glass and get underneath the egg. That excess pressure will then neatly pop the egg out of the glass. Eggs are quite heavy and you wouldn't think you could blow one upwards, but applying enough air pressure in the right place, you can.
It seems to help a little if the egg is placed pointy-end down, and tilted towards you, very slightly. Then it seems more inclined to rock away from you, allowing the air into the glass.
It takes only a few hours' practice to be able to do the trick consistently, if by 'consistent' you mean 'about one time in twenty.' But then, you have to become sufficiently good at it that you can make the egg land in the other glass.
Good luck. If anyone can manage this on anything like a consistent basis, I'll be overwhelmingly impressed. But I'll need video evidence of your claim.
Oh, and if you're really good at it, you can make the egg somersault while it's in mid-air. There. That should keep you busy until next week.

Tiny fish sets new world record

The smallest fish in the world has been found lurking in the peat wetlands of Southeast Asia, say scientists. Click here to read more. I'm sure I saw something even smaller served last Friday for lunch.

Happy New Year

2006 is the Year of the Dog according to the Chinese zodiac. It runs from 29 January 2006 to 17 February 2007. The Chinese Zodiac consists of a 12-year cycle, each year of which is named after a different animal that imparts distinct characteristics to its year. Many Chinese believe that the year of a person's birth is the primary factor in determining that person's personality traits, physical and mental attributes and degree of success and happiness throughout his or her lifetime. The Chinese years run in cycles of 12 years so if you were born in 1994 then you are a Dog too! If you want to know what animal you are then look it up in the table. Apparently Dog people make good leaders.

Caveman challenge game

Find your place on this 'caveman-o-meter' by completing the seven evolutionary challenges. Each challenge allows you to move along the evolutionary scale from ape to man. Click here

The Straw Trombone

You will need:

a drinking straw
a tall glass of water or some other liquid

What to do:

Put the straw into the glass of water.
Hold the glass in one hand and the straw in your other hand.
Holding the straw flat against the side of the glass, bring it up to your lips, just as if you were going to drink.
Now instead of putting the straw into your mouth, blow across the top of it. As you blow, move the straw back and forth, up and down slightly. When you get the angle just right, you will hear a whistling sound. This may be very faint, but with practice, you can get a very loud, clear whistle.
Once you get the straw to whistle, the fun begins! As you are blowing, keep the straw still, but move the glass of water slowly downwards. As the glass moves down, the tone of the whistle changes. Move the glass upwards and the tone changes again.

What’s going on?

When you blow across the top of the straw, you cause the air inside the straw to vibrate. This vibration causes the sound that you hear. By changing the length of the column of vibrating air, you change the sound. The longer the column of air, the lower the pitch. The shorter the column of air, the higher the pitch.

Why would moving the glass up and down change the length of the column of air? The water inside the straw will move to the same level as the water outside the straw. As you move the glass downwards, more of the straw is above the water level, so the length of straw that contains air is longer. When you move the straw downwards, more water moves into the straw and the length of the straw that is filled with air is shorter. So what are you waiting for? A one, a two, a one two three four….

Magic Cotton! Try this at home

OK it is definitely getting warmer these days. It was so cold over the holiday I though they may have to add salt to the roads. Do you know why they do this when it is cold? Maybe this experiment you can try at home will make it a little clearer.........
You will need:
1 length of cotton thread (or a very thin piece of string)
Ice cube
Salt
What to do:
Lay the cotton flat across the top of the ice cube with the ends hanging off either side. Take a pinch of salt (not too much) and sprinkle it over the top of the ice cube. Wait for a minute or so. Take hold of the thread, one end with each hand, and gently raise the ice cube. PS: If it doesn’t seem to work, try making a loop in the middle of the cotton before placing it on the ice cube so that there is more cotton in contact with the ice.
What’s going on?
The cotton becomes attached to the ice cube because the salt lowers the freezing point of water and melts the ice. The top of the ice cube quickly re-freezes, trapping the cotton under a thin layer of ice - allowing you to pick it up. If you add too much salt, you just get a layer of water on top of your ice cube and your magic trick doesn’t work. In winter, salt is sprinkled on roads to melt the ice and make driving a little less dangerous. So now you know! There are many other experiments you can do at home on the practical of the week link on the right of this page.

Magic Ballon

What you need

a clear plastic bottle (like a 1.5 or 2 litre fizzy drink bottle)
a pen
a balloon (blow it up a few times beforehand)

What to do

Make a small hole in the bottom of the bottle with the pen.
Push the balloon inside the bottle through the neck of the bottle and stretch the neck of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle.
Blow up the balloon.
Notice air is coming out of the hole in the bottle.
Cover the hole with your finger and stop blowing.

What is happening

The balloon stays inflated! As the balloon expanded, it pushed air out of the bottle. That made the pressure inside the bottle lower than the pressure inside the balloon, so it wasn't strong enough to squeeze the air out.

Banana Face Mask

A new you for a new year? Time to get back on track after overdoing it during the holidays? A resolution to take better care of yourself? Whatever the reason, here is a lovely (and great smelling) way to relax and pamper yourself a little…


You will need:

* One egg yolk
* 10ml sweet almond oil
* 1 ripe banana


What to do:

1. Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and mash into a paste using a fork.

2. Apply the face pack to your face and wash your hands well.

3. Leave the face pack on for 10 minutes.

4. Carefully remove with clean water and gently dry your skin your skin with a soft towel

5. Go out and receive compliments from all your friends on your radiant complexion! The ingredients in this face pack are good for dry skin because they have a high lipid content.


What’s going on?

A lipid is a naturally occurring fat or oil, and all lipids have something in common - they are either completely or partly hydrophobic (they hate water). This aversion to water means that lipid molecules have a tendency to stick together in waterproof clumps or layers.

Our skin should have a protective barrier of lipids anyway, stopping water from getting out and nasty 'foreign' substances from getting in. But the top layer of our skin often gets damaged, and ends up feeling dry and flaky. Cold weather, hot weather, wind, air conditioning and central heating are some of the culprits.

When you smear the banana mixture over your face, the lipid molecules in the goo create a temporary waterproof layer over your face. This gives your face an opportunity to rebuild the moisture levels both in the skin cells and between them. So after this tasty treat your face should feel a lot softer.

You can make more face-packs with other kitchen ingredients. For example, oatmeal is good for skin prone to acne, as it is a gentle exfoliator. The oatmeal grains help to remove dead skins and dirt, preventing your pores from getting clogged. Strawberry face masks can also have an exfoliating effect because of the seeds. Cucumber is also meant to be cleansing and cooling, probably due to the high water content.

Shooting Penguins

The competition is over - thanks for all the emails - my inbox was full! The winner is Wit from 7R with a massive score of 224548 (the snack card is in your register). Keep checking this website for more competitions.

How to make a million dollars

This is one of those things you wish you'd thought of first. British student Alex Tew decided to create a home page on which you could advertise by buying 1 pixel for a $1. Of the 1 million pixels on his page he has sold 999,000 since April 2005 and he is now auctioning the last 1000 on Ebay (the bid for them as of 4/1/6 was $27,000). Jealous? Take a look at the site on this link.

Blowing over cars

Sometimes in the name of science experiments have to be performed. In this destructive test two different cars are driven across the backwash of a 747 at full throttle. Enjoy!