Everything Kids' Magical Science Experiments Book Read Online Free PDF Page A

will tend to be the most successful.
    Find the Iron

    It might take a bit of magic to find the one time that the word IRON is spelled correctly in this bowl of cereal! Look up and down, and side-to-side.
Procedure
Pour the cereal into the blender or your bowl.
Add enough water to cover the cereal.
Either blend the mixture until the cereal is completely ground up, or mash the cereal for several minutes with the spoon.
If you are using a blender, pour the contents of the pitcher into the non-metallic bowl. Rinse the bottom of the pitcher with water in order to capture all of the iron particles.
Stir your magnet through the cereal mixture. Iron is heavier than water, so the filings will tend to sink to the bottom. Be patient and thorough with your stirring.
Remove the magnet from the cereal and look for tiny black iron filings stuck to the magnet. They will look like pieces of stubble that you might find on a man's face if he hasn't shaved.
To see the iron pieces more clearly, rub the magnet against a sheet of white paper, such as what you might find in a computer printer.
Questions for the Scientist
Why should you use iron-fortified cereal to perform this experiment?
What purpose do you think the water served in this experiment?
Do you think your results would have been different had you used milk instead of water?
How do you feel about eating cereal with pieces of iron in it? Are you more likely to eat cereal like this, less likely, or just as likely?
Follow-Up
    The brand of cereal you chose to test is not the only brand that has iron in it. Visit a grocery store and find other cereals that contain iron. Look to see if any of them provide “100% of the Recommended Daily Allowance” of iron. You can buy these cereals and do a comparison at home by repeating the experiment with different brands to see which have more iron than others.
    You may also wish to compare the cereals that have iron in them with those that do not to see if there is anything these cereals have in common. For example, would you consider these iron-fortified cereals to be “healthy” cereals? Would you like to eat them yourself? Do you think they appeal more to adults or to kids? Part of the fun of doing science experiments is making up new questions and then finding ways to answer them.
Try This: Blowing Out Candles
    Nearly everyone has had the chance to blow out a candle before. Whether it was on a birthday cake or lighting the room on a dark night, the candle probably went out rather easily as long as you blew directly on the flame. But imagine “blowing out” a candle without actually blowing directly on the flame. It can be done. And it's not magic, just good science.
    Question: Can you “blow out” a candle without blowing on the flame?
Materials
Small votive candle
Short drinking glass with a flat base
Large drinking glass
½ cup vinegar
Baking soda
Spoon
3″ × 5″ note card
Adult helper
    Science Quote

    â€œNature and Nature's laws lay hid in night, God said: ‘Let Newton be!,’and all was light.”
— Alexander Pope, English poet
Procedure
Ask your helper to light the candle and carefully place it in the short glass so it sits flat on the bottom.
Pour one heaping spoonful of baking soda into the large glass.
Add the vinegar to the large glass. You should see a reaction almost immediately.
Hold the large glass over the small one with the note card placed over its top so the foam doesn't spill out.
Gently tip the large glass as if you were going to pour the vinegar into the smaller glass, but stop just as the liquid reaches the rim.
Watch what happens to the candle.
    Poof!
    To learn the answer to this silly science question, drop the letters into their proper place in the puzzle grid. The letters in each column fit in the spaces directly underneath that column, but in a different order! Black boxes are the spaces between the words.
The Science Behind the Magic
    It looks like the candle