Magic Matches!

Roll up! Roll up! Have any of you ever heard of jet powered matches? Well you have now!

YOU WILL NEED.

·        A container half filled of water. A washing up bowl is best.

·        Around six or seven matches.

·        Some dish washing liquid.

Instructions 

·        Put the matches in the container of water in a circle

·        Do not light the matches

·        Pour a little drop of dish washing liquid into the container in the centre of the matches.

·        Then boom! The matches fly off to the sides!

And now for the boring part:

The reason that the matches pull away is because the surface tension (top layer) of the water is tense and tight and when the detergent touches the top layer it breaks the surface tension and causes the matches to pull to the sides.

 

By Xavier Mohr.  

Egg-cellent Egg-speriments

Heard of ships in a bottle and ever wondered how they fit them? Well, have you ever heard of an egg in a bottle? With four simple steps you can conquer the egg in the bottle!

THINGS YOU NEED:

Bottle big enough to hold an egg on the top
An egg
Matches
Small piece of paper
Pan
Water
STEP 1: Put the water in the pan, put an egg in the water and wait until boiled. Peel the egg.
STEP 2: Get the paper, match, bottle and hard boiled egg out.
STEP 3: You need to do this fast so light the paper then put it in the bottle, blow the match out not the paper and put the boiled egg on the top of the rim.
STEP 4: Now watch and wait for the magic to happen.
And now for the boring part: The only reason this trick works is because the burning paper burns up all the oxygen inside the bottle making the air pressure outside the bottle much larger causing the egg to get sucked into the bottle.

By George Reddish

                                                                  Balloon Blowing

Do you go dizzy when you blow balloons up? Well if you do follow my simple steps and you will be on your way to be having a scientifically blown up balloon.

You will need
A balloon
A 600ml soft drink bottle
A tall round container
Warm nearly hot water

Instructions

1. Take the lid off the bottle.
2. Grab your balloon and place it over the top of the bottle.
3. Fill the container half way with the warm nearly hot water.
4. Place the bottle inside the container.
5. Hold the bottle near the top and wait.
6. Take  the balloon off, shutting the air in and tie up.

Now the science bit

Since the bottle has been placed in hot water, it makes the air inside warm which makes it expand. It then fills the balloon with the expanded air.

By Cheyann.

On Sunday 12th of May 32 runners from Fordell School were up before eight (how did I manage that?) and were at Kowhai Park at 9:30am for the five kilometre Round the Bridges Run. The race was due to start at 9:55 and everyone was frolicking around like lambs in a field. At 9:45am my friend Stephanie and I went around to a tent that had lots of free stuff. We each grabbed a handful of lollies, stuffed them in our pockets and ran to the start line. My goal was to beat my brother.

"5...4...3...2...1...GO!" The loudspeaker crackled and we were off!

I stayed with John for the first kilometre and a half but then, as I got more and more tired, he quickly disappeared from view. Suddenly Steph appeared and we got talking. We pulled the lollies out of our pockets and our stash quickly disappeared.

"Stuff this," Steph grumbled, "as long as we keep John in view we should be able to walk and then catch him up!" I was hot and bothered so I agreed to it. But as John got further and further away we still didn't start running. Out of the blue Mr. Walker (my principal) appeared behind us.

"Come on girls!" he cried. So we were back to running. We managed to keep going for a while but we were out of breath. Still we were able to find enough breath to talk to each other though. Finally we clip clopped off the bridge and were through the finish line. We had done it!

I didn't manage to beat John though but that is okay. We left before the prizes were drawn but Fordell School still managed to win a printer, ink cartridges and paper. But for the children who ran there was also a pass for 30 people to have a free swim and a pass for 30 people to have a free game of mini putt.

Although I didn't beat John I was still proud of my effort. Dad shouted everyone an ice cream on the way home. It was a great day and well done to Fordell School!