The Big Book of Boy Stuff Read online

  I Am the Strongest Man in the World (Part I)

  Amaze your friends with your strength! Baffle your enemies with your putty!

  You Need:

  Silly Putty

  a hammer, rubber mallet, or any heavy, flat object

  Roll your Silly Putty into a ball. Put it on something that can take a good blow like a cutting board or a smooth concrete surface. Now hand the hammer or mallet to one of your friends. Tell him to hit the Silly Putty and try to flatten it in one stroke! Your friend will hit it. Nothing. Try it again! Nothing. (Even just using the palm of your hand will do as long as the Silly Putty is hit with a fast, sharp blow.)

  Call your friend a wimp. Push down on the Silly Putty with your finger and squish it. Easy!

  The reason this happens is because Silly Putty is actually not a solid, it’s a liquid. It reacts differently to slow pressure than it does to hard, sudden pressure. This is the same reason why water feels differently when you do a belly flop off of the high dive than it does when you take a bath.

  I Really Am the Strongest Man in the World (Part II)

  You won’t believe that this will work. It will!

  You Need:

  10 people

  1 wall

  Okay, there don’t have to be 10 people, but that’s a good number to use. Have your volunteers get in a row by height, with the shortest volunteer at the end of the line, facing you. (This person must be tall enough to reach your shoulders without jumping around to do it.) Make sure that the people are all spaced correctly and aren’t cheating.

  Tell these people to place their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. On your signal, they are to all push on the shoulders of the person in front of them. But even their combined strength will not be enough to push you against the wall!

  Now you turn around and face the wall, extend your arms, and put them in front of you on the wall, palms against the wall, fingers pointing straight up. The shortest person then places his hands on your shoulders.

  Now tell them to push with all their power. They will huff and puff, but they shouldn’t be able to move you! They may fall, but you will stand!

  (This is because all the energy they push with only gets as far as the person in front of them. This is called “inertia.” As long as you can hold off the person right behind you, you’ll be all right.)

  Rice Jar Driver

  The golf ball will rise! I command it to rise!

  You Need:

  1 golf ball (or other round object about that size)

  a jar with lid

  uncooked rice

  Put the golf ball at the bottom of the jar and then fill the jar with rice. Leave about 1-1/2 inches at the top. Screw on the lid of the jar and shake the jar from side to side. Shake it some more (not up and down, but side to side) while saying your magic words. Now watch the golf ball rise to the surface!

  Some people say the rice is heavier, which moves the golf ball up. This is not true; a golf ball weighs more than a container of rice the same size. But the rice likes to settle together, and until the golf ball is out of the way, it can’t do that, so it pushes the ball up!

  The Yolk’s in You

  If you’ve ever wanted to see an egg get sucked into a bottle with a bizarre “slurp,” this is your experiment!

  You Need:

  a funnel

  an empty bottle with a semi-wide mouth (salad dressing bottles are perfect)

  1 hard-boiled egg, peeled

  water

  a tea kettle

  a potholder

  This experiment happens very quickly! Put the funnel in the mouth of the salad dressing bottle. Put the egg next to the bottle.

  Now, boil enough water to fill the bottle. When the water is ready, carefully pour it into the bottle. Take out the funnel and swirl the bottle around a bit. Now, pour the water out and place the egg on the top of the bottle. SLURP!

  Now that the egg is in the bottle, what made it go in? Well, hot things expand and cool things contract. The bottle’s air was hot, but it was rapidly cooling down and contracting when you put the egg over its only entrance. The bottle had no choice but to suck the egg in.

  Now try getting the egg out! Hold the bottle upside down and blow into it for a while, covering the neck with your mouth. When you remove your mouth, it might come out! (But only if you blow hard enough to create enough pressure inside the bottle to pop the egg back out!)

  Hard, Sweet, and Sticky

  Although some science teachers use this one in the classroom, it’s too good to pass up!

  You Need:

  a pencil

  a nail

  some string

  hot water

  an empty jar

  2 cups of sugar

  a spoon

  Tie the pencil and nail to opposite ends of the piece of string. You want the string to be long enough for the pencil to go across the top of the jar with the nail dangling just above the bottom of the jar. Once you have that set up, put it aside.

  Put a quarter-cup of hot water in the jar and mix in your sugar. Stir it well with a spoon. Now put the pencil across the top of the jar and hang the nail into the sugar water. Leave the jar alone for a few days and see what happens.

  As the water dries up, the sugar will form crystals on the nail.

  *For a twist, add food coloring to your mix so that the crystals are blue or green.

  Grape Lightning

  Who knew that grapes have a bunch of electricity?

  You Need:

  seedless green grapes

  a knife

  a microwave oven that you can see into

  Take a grape. Remove the stem and cut it in half, but not all the way. Leave a skin attachment between the two halves. Put the grape on a plate facing either up or down. Put them in the center of the microwave.

  Put the microwave on “high” power and set it for 10 to 40 seconds. Now turn it on and watch! You should see sparks, and maybe even electric arcs between the grape parts! At some point, the grape will split all the way apart. When that happens, stop the microwave, because nothing else will happen after that. (For another cool grape/microwave activity, see “Grape Racing!” in the “Indoor Games!” chapter.)

  *If you prefer your lightning without fruit, try this. Blow up two balloons and knot them at the mouth. Rub one of them against some wool (like a sweater or a sheep) and the other balloon against a wall. Turn off the lights and bring the balloons together. Zap!

  Rubber Bones

  Nothing is funnier than a rubber chicken...bone!

  You Need:

  any chicken bone that hasn’t been cooked yet

  a jar with lid

  white vinegar

  Clean and dry off the bone and leave it alone for a day or two. Then put the chicken bone in the jar and pour enough vinegar into the jar to cover the bone. Screw the lid back on the jar and leave it alone for a week.

  After a week, unscrew the lid, pour the vinegar out, and grab the bone. It’s rubbery! You may even be able to tie it into a knot. That’s because the vinegar dissolved all the calcium from the bone, leaving it soft. A good trick is to do this with a wishbone, and then ask someone to break it with you. This won’t work, of course, but you can act amazed!

  You can also do this with an egg instead of a chicken bone. Place the egg in the jar and pour enough vinegar into the jar to cover the egg. Screw the lid back on and watch the eggshell slowly dissolve! The shell will be eaten away after a week, leaving only a squishy egg membrane.

  Ooblick’s Test of Courage

  If you needed a good excuse to waste some perfectly good cornstarch, here it is!

  You Need:

  1 cup of cornstarch

  a bowl

  some water

  Silly Putty is actually a liquid. But what about cornstarch? Put your cornstarch in a bowl or large pan. It’s a solid. Add a little water. Stir it in. It will probably get clumpy. Still a solid. Add a little more water. Stir it in. What h
appened?

  As you add and stir in water, you can get the cornstarch to the point where you’re not sure what it is. If it feels sort of like mayonnaise, you have just made ooblick! Ooblick is awesome. Pick up some ooblick in your hand and squeeze it in a ball. Solid! Put it back in the bowl and watch it ooze back like a liquid! Now when you stick your fingers in it, it will squish right through them.

  You can keep goofing around with the ooblick, or you can move on to the Test of Courage. If you have a few baking pans, make enough ooblick to cover the bottoms of two or three of them. Take the baking pans holding ooblick outside. Set them a couple of feet apart. Take your shoes off. (You can do this with your shoes on if you prefer.) Now walk through the pans! If you make each step quickly and with force, the ooblick will note your courage and leave you alone. If you chicken out and start gently putting your feet into the pans, the ooblick will stick to you!

  *Because cornstarch is so fine, it can also be mixed with white glue to make a homemade version of Silly Putty!

  Do Robot Sheep Make Steel Wool?

  This is a good way to put some sparkle in your life!

  You Need:

  steel wool

  1 “D” battery

  Get a piece of steel wool about the size of your fist. Put it on a baking pan or other metal surface and touch the ends of your battery to the steel wool. The iron in the steel wool should sparkle and light up; this is because iron can burn as long as there is enough oxygen around!

  Monster in a Box

  A good experiment to run over several days.

  You Need:

  a shoebox

  a small flower pot with soil

  tape

  cardboard pieces

  an uncooked potato, sprouted

  Take your shoebox and cut a hole a couple of inches wide at one end. Set your flowerpot at the opposite end of the shoebox to measure how much room to leave for it. Then use your pieces of cardboard to make a simple maze between the flowerpot and the hole.

  The maze doesn’t have to be fancy; just tape the cardboard pieces to the sides of the box in a simple pattern. Put three or four walls with 3-inch openings in different spots.

  Now plant the potato in the soil. This experiment will work faster if you use a sprouted potato. You can then cut off a section with the sprout and plant it, but it doesn’t matter if you just use a regular tater.

  Water your spud, put the lid back on the box, and leave it in a window with some sunlight for several days. If it is hot and you think the plant is getting dry, take the lid off and water it. Otherwise, leave it alone until you see something coming out the hole at the end of the box! Then lift the lid...spooky!

  Diaper Tricks

  You used to wear them; now it’s time to tear them!

  You Need:

  an extra-absorbent disposable diaper

  three disposable cups

  newspaper

  Take a disposable diaper and start tearing it apart over the newspaper. When you peel back the lining, you may discover its “magic crystals” which are scientifically designed to absorb the pee and poop...or “moisture!” Pull the crystals out of the lining onto the newspaper, and then pour them into a disposable cup.

  Now line up your cups. (Have the cup with the crystals in the middle.) Call in an audience. Pour some water into the first cup, until it’s about 1/4 full. Then pour the water from the first cup into the second cup, the one with the crystals. (The crystals will now absorb the water and stick to the sides of the cup.) Finally, pretend to pour water from the second cup (now empty) to the third cup. Then look down and pretend you’re confused.

  “Where’d the water go?” you ask, as you begin turning the second and third cups upside-down, peering into them. But there is no water to be found! Shrug your shoulders and say the magician’s favorite words: “Wa-wa go bye-bye!”

  Flaming Greenbacks!

  Warning: Only do this experiment when a responsible adult is present!

  This money could burn a hole in your pocket!

  You Need:

  a responsible adult

  a dollar bill

  salad tongs

  rubbing alcohol

  dish or bowl

  a bigger dish or bowl full of water

  matches or a lighter

  Perform this experiment near a sink or outside on a concrete surface.

  Take a dish or bowl and pour some rubbing alcohol into it. Now mix the alcohol in the bowl with an equal amount of water.

  Take your dollar bill and hold it with the salad tongs. Dip the bill into the dish and soak it for a moment in your mixture. Pull it out and hold it away from yourself. Have the responsible adult hold a flame next to the bill.

  This is the great part. The dollar bill will catch on fire, but it won’t burn! You will see a blue-colored flame surround the dollar, but the water will keep the dollar wet and safe, as the alcohol burns off. In other words, the water will put out the flame that the alcohol begins! (If anyone starts to “freak out” when the bill is surrounded by flame, you can always put the dollar in the big bowl of water or the sink.)

  To be sure the bill is “out,” put it in the bigger dish full of water before hanging it up to dry.

  Follow-Up Activities

  1. Rig the roof of your house with a lightning rod. Wire the electricity to go to your bedroom, where you can use it to reanimate dead bodies and also to make toast. Adult supervision is required.

  2. Research time travel and then make your own time machine. Use it to travel back in time to answer the most important question that has ever faced the human race: Where did I lose my pocketknife on September 14, 2002?

  Fireworks and Explosions!

  One of the greatest pleasures of life is blowing up an old model of an airplane or a car with some firecrackers! So I’m not going to pretend that fireworks aren’t fun, but the fact is that every day some kid blows off his fingers by not following proper safety procedures with fireworks. SO READ THIS NOW:

  Important Information

  Nine of the 50 states don’t allow people to use any fireworks at all, so if you live in one of these states, congratulations. You’re safe from fireworks! Another nine states allow some fireworks, but do not allow fire crackers. Many cities and counties also have their own fireworks laws, so here’s what you must do: Know and obey the fireworks laws in your area. For information on the laws in your area, visit the National Council on Fireworks Safety website at www.fireworksafety.com.

  Speaking of safety, when I was 12, my friends and I were waiting at the bus stop. An older kid started messing around with firecrackers. He would light the firecrackers and throw them in the street. Bang! Bang! The rest of us watched.

  One of the firecrackers that he lit didn’t go off. It just sat in the street, looking innocent. “That one’s a dud,” I said helpfully.

  This kid looked at me and went and got the dud. After he picked it up, the “dud” went off with a nice “bang!” in his hand. He screamed (“Yeow!”) and started running around like a chicken with its head cut off. “I guess it wasn’t a dud after all,” I said helpfully.

  That kid was lucky. He didn’t blow his hand off, but he did get a nasty explosion burn on his hand, and his example taught us all a lesson that day. There’s no such thing as a dud. Firecrackers and other fireworks are unpredictable. Once a firework has been lit, do not pick it up again unless it has been soaked with water for a long time.

  Here are some other safety measures that will save you from injury. Make sure there are adults around when you set off fireworks. Make sure you are well away from any buildings or plants that could catch fire. Make sure there are no dogs or other animals around. Make sure you always have buckets of water ready to throw on any spark. Douse sparks immediately and ask questions later. I don’t care if that spark landed on your Aunt Matilda’s wig. Get it wet!

  So let’s say you have some legal fireworks, you’re with some responsible adults, and you are in a safe area to set them
off. (A cinder block in the middle of an empty parking lot or street would be perfect.) Now, move your fireworks supply 50 feet away from that spot. You don’t want all your fireworks going off at once if a spark lands in there. The screams would be incredible!

  What now? Do you have protective eyewear on? You should. Heck, I wear long sleeves, a hat, and gloves too. You can’t be too careful! Anyway, now you’re ready to light the fuse to some fireworks. Whenever you are lighting a fuse, keep your body away from the firework. Use a long-handled lighter or long match and reach out to light the fuse. (I turn my face away from it, too, just in case.) If this seems like overdoing it, just think: a regular little sparkler burns at a heat of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit!

  That’s it. Light one item at a time, and have fun!

  Your Safety Test

  Okay, let’s see if you can handle fireworks. Do this: Get a lemon. Cut off a piece of its rind. Now light a candle. Holding the outside of the rind with your fingers, get close to the flame and squeeze the inner parts together. Cool sparks, huh?

  Did you burn your fingers? Explode your pancreas? Either way, read the next paragraph carefully.

  What Happens if You Don’t Follow Safety Rules?

  Every year, there are more than 8,000 fireworks injuries brought into hospital emergency rooms. Almost half of those thousands of people will be kids under the age of 15. Don’t let this happen to you! The parts of the body usually injured are the eyes, hands, head, and face. You will want to use all of those body parts in the future, so be careful! Finally, 1/3 of these injuries will come from illegal fireworks, so buy the legal kind. They’re safer!