Scientrics

Magical adventures just wouldn't be the same without mysterious messages appearing from nowhere. Now you can try some invisible writing of your own. Mix a teaspoonful of baking soda in two teaspoonfuls of water. Use a paintbrush to write your secret message with this magic ink. Leave the paper to dry. When you want to read the writing, check there are no spies around, and then hold the paper close to a light bulb... your invisible message should slowly appear.

you don't have to be a real magician to make magic. Practice this trick until you can do it perfectly,then show your friends. Number Prediction You will need: a pen,paper and an envelope. Secret Preparation: write a four figure number on piece of paper that is twice this years date, for example 2001 x 2 would be 4002. Seal the paper into the envelope. This is your prediction. Performance: with great showmanship ask a volunteer to write the following numbers onto another piece of paper. Firstly, the year of their birth. Secondly, the year of an important event in his/her life. Thirdly, the age he/she is or will be on year's birthday. Fourthly, the number of years that have passed since the year of the important event. Finally they need to write down the total of the previous four numbers. Then comes the dramatic part. Show the audience that last number your volunteer wrote down. Now open your sealed envelope. The numbers will match - magic!

Float a breadclip in milk, add a drop of detergent and believe it or not, you’ve got yourself a groovy little speedboat that really moo-o-o-ves! 1. Pour some full cream milk into a shallow plate (be a bit sparing - depth isn’t critical). 2. Carefully float a bread clip near the edge of the plate. 3. Squeeze a drop of detergent into the little hole and watch what happens. Your bread clip goes zooming around the plate! Note: When your boat stops, just add more detergent – use a toothpick or match to turn your breadclip if it gets stuck. 4. If you like, use nail clippers to modify your breadclip into a little speedboat shape. 5. Pretty snazzy breadclip eh? 6. And for a very cool effect, add a drop or two of food colouring to the little hole before adding the detergent. 7. You’ll notice that the food colour doesn’t make the boat move like detergent does. 8. When you add a drop of detergent, the food colour comes spurting out o...

Here’s a great way to waste a dishwashing glove... fill it with coloured water and make a freaky frozen hand to wreak havoc with. 1. Trim the glove so that the fingertips hang just above the bottom of the jug / container. 2. Push two shish kebab skewers through the wrist of the glove and at right angles to each other. 3. Hang the glove in the jug / container. Note: if you want to be able to hold your frozen hand like an ice block, secure a stick to the skewers 4. Pour coloured water into the glove. Note: food colour tends to concentrate in the centre of ice blocks as they freeze so I used about 15 big drops – be careful not to put stains all over the place! 5. Place the jug / container in the freezer (you may need to remove the shelf for it to fit) and wait for at least 8 hours. 6. Nearly finished! Carefully cut and remove the glove – do this in the sink or over a bucket. Note: the fingers break off very easily so be extra careful – if yo...

Don’t give up on this trick! It works best on very dry days and probably not at all on warm humid days. You’ll also need very clean dry hair and a clean plastic comb (ie no styling products in your hair or on the comb). Try it when the conditions are right and you will be amazed! 1. Set up a system to catch the running water from a tap so that you don’t waste it (use it to water plants later, for example). 2. You’ll need to experiment with the tap until you get a smooth stream of water that does not break up. You might need to elevate your cup if it’s not tall enough. 3. Once you have your smooth stream working, comb your clean hair vigorously to charge the comb. 4. Now carefully bring the comb as near as you can but without touching the stream of water and watch what happens. what's going on? If you were lucky, the stream would have bent when you brought the comb nearby. Combing your hair generates a static electric charge on...