What kind of projects can I do at home?

[Sanzmatic]

Hello, i am a high school student who is interested in physics. Me and my friends want to build something cool. Can be anything related to science. Nothing too complicated but nothing too easy. Something interesting and safe. No dangerous suggestions please. I do not have any qualifications as i am still in high school. The budget is around $100 max. Any project suggestions related to science are welcome. Doing this just for fun and curiosity.

 

[berkeman]

Hello, i am a high school student who is interested in physics. Me and my friends want to build something cool. Can be anything related to science. Nothing too complicated but nothing too easy. Something interesting and safe. No dangerous suggestions please. I do not have any qualifications as i am still in high school. The budget is around $100 max. Any project suggestions related to science are welcome. Doing this just for fun and curiosity.

When you do a Google Images search of Science Fair projects, do you see any projects that look like they would be fun to do?

 

[Sanzmatic]

When you do a Google Images search of Science Fair projects, do you see any projects that look like they would be fun to do?

A lot of them seem a bit simple

 

[berkeman]

Have you looked through the Make Magazine projects? Some of them are pretty cool...

https://makezine.com/projects/

 

[Jehannum]

A kid at my school got some attention with a fake perpetual motion machine (lamp, bike wheel with spokes replaced by elastic bands) similar to the one on this page (2nd one down): https://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/themes/fake-pm.htm

If it was going to be used for any kind of serious demonstration you could add an explanation of how it works (e.g. a sign saying "to see how it works press this switch" on the lamp switch) and maybe more information about why perpetual motion is impossible.

 

[Deleted member 656102]

 

[Wrichik Basu]

@Sanzmatic One good field is electronics and Arduino. If you know some programming, you can have a look at the vast and interesting field of programming with Arduinos.

 

[dLouie]

Definitely check Arduinos along with Raspberry Pi projects.

 

[2milehi]

Do not make projectile launchers like a rail gun or a spud gun.

 

[Stephenk53]

You could also create a solar panel that tracks the sun without an arduino or something similar.

 

[jrmichler]

An old thread, but still relevant.

When I was in high school, I had a free hour at the same time as the physics teacher's free hour. He let us play in the physics classroom. One day, a friend and I took out all of the oscilloscopes and signal generators, stacked them in a big pyramid, hooked them up, and made a different Lissajous pattern on each scope. We were in the middle of some highly technical conversation ("OK, I got a 1X2 here, you go for a 2X2"), when the principal walked in. He watched us for a couple of minutes, said "Gosh, that looks very technical", then congratulated the teacher on doing a good job. There's nothing like getting brownie points for playing and having fun.