science fair project ideas

The Green Giant

Hi, I'm doing this project for my science fair...

http://www.amasci.com/electrom/statbotl.html

It's soooo easy!

There are other good science experiments there too but I settled for this one. Would have built a Mono-Rail, but there was no places, the fair was just for marks hehe. (and mono rails arent cheap )

Rplanas

One science project you can do is to design an engine that runs on water.

misskitty

That would be very cool...especially if you brough some aerodynamics into the design.

Just for fun, how about designing a hybrid race car or something that runs on water while throwing in some aerodynamic elements. That would be cool.

Loren Booda

How about hydrodynamics?

misskitty

How about something to do with string theory?

misskitty

For kicks and giggels...why not look into how insturments are made with certain materials over others and why changing the material would alter the sound quality and tone of the insturment.

Francis M

Perhaps as a next step up you could modify the magnetic field experiment to show elecromagnetic fields, or save it as a separate experiment for another fair? You know, show how electromagnetic fields develope in conducting wires, etc... ? Maybe even a branch off from that would be to show how electronic devices can possibly interfere with each other and how/what shielding an electronic device is? That may be getting a little complicated though.

misskitty

What a cool idea! It seems a little complicated, but it's still an excellent suggestion. I'll have to keep that in mind for my AP physics project.

npgreat

In the experiment to determine % of oxygen in air use 2 or more candles instead of of 1 and see the effect

Am kuls

check out this site found a lot of contents on physics projects, and all animation very less texts, kinda good for concepts

http://www.goalfinder.com
go to the sitemap to get full list, njoy

minase

can u esplain that a litttle bit.

minase

I would say build a Robot. Last time I tried to do a project on growing plants and animals with cloning. And the project involves cloning plants. By cutting it from it's bruches and planting it . Not very interesing idea but I got fair prize for it.

bigbasherboy

if u want a sure fire way to win and become rich just invent a 2. perpetual motion machine. :)

slackr007

I did a project in 8th grade that I wasn't quite prepared for. It's a good project idea, all the judges loved it, but I started a bit late and didn't have quite enough data because I had to build all my test equipment and it would break and I'd have to start over and stuff. Anyway, I did "Does solar activity affect radio propagation?". You just go to the same spot w/ the same weather at different times of day(for different solar activity) and measure signal on a radio. I used a $10-15 DIY radio kit from radio shack and an osciliscope or multimeter or something to measure signal on it. Ask an electrical engineer. Anyway, it had great potential, it just wasn't done by someone who is good w/ projects. I did get to regionals with it though.

RDev

Hey, I just recently had a school physics bowl competition. One of the categories was demonstration (basically a science fair project). A great idea is the michelson/focault speed of light experiment. We worked on this for a while, but it wasn't hard to aquire the materials and was very well received. The only thing that is really important to know about it, is that the rotating mirror needs to be enclosed because it is spinning fast enough to cause serious damage if it came off. I think we spent around $20 on lasers, wood, and motors. Very worthwhile.

bijanv

does anyone know any cool small explosion or projectile (missile) type experiemnts?

plusaf

"Watch Mr. Wizard," with Don Herbert, a tv program from probably 50 years ago, did a neat one.... as with any and all explosive items, extreme care must be taken or you'll damage your body. i will accept no responsibility for any damage done to anybody by citing the following experiment......

take a dry, empty one-gallon paint can.
drill a hole, about 3/4" in the bottom, off-center, about 1/3 of the way across the diameter.
drop a small funnel, about 3" diameter into the hole.
attach a small rubber/plastic hose to the bottom of the funnel. you'll need to support the can so that the funnel can seat fully against the hole in the bottom and the bottom of the funnel and the hose are not in contact with anything under them.
put a few teaspoons of regular cooking flour into the top of the funnel.
cut a candle to about 2" long, straight across the bottom.
light the candle and put it into the can.
tap the top onto the paint can. firmly, but try to not hit the can in such a way to knock over the candle.
without inhaling first... blow into the tube attached to the funnel.

this will blow a cloud of flour into the can above the candle flame, the flame will ignite the combustible mixture, and the resulting heat and expansion will blow the top of the can at least 10-20 feet into the air.

it will probably not go straight up, so use a 10-20' long length of rubber/plastic tubing so that you're not too close to the can when it goes off, and you can duck and cover if it comes down towards you.

safety glasses and a bicycle helmet are probably some good things to use, here!

enjoy!