DIY science is the perfect way to use your creative skills and learn something new. With the right supplies, some determination, and a curious mind, you can create amazing experiments that open up a whole world of possibilities. At home-made laboratories or tech workshops, makers from all backgrounds can explore new ideas by finding ways to study their environment in novel ways – allowing them to make breathtaking discoveries!
With over 200,000 views, Hayden Parker’s YouTube channel has become a popular spot for watching home chemistry demonstrations. Hayden took his show on the road to Maker Faire Bay Area 2011, where he set up a basic chemistry lab, teaching the science of chemistry and wowing passerby with seemingly magic color-changing chemical reactions.
In this vid, “mathemusician” Vi Hart and Sal Khan (of the amazing Khanacademy) discuss the difference between linear and logarithmic scales and human perception. I like their joking idea of a liner scaled piano where the keys would get fatter and fatter as you moved up the scale.
To date, most of our Weekend Projects, by design, have been battery-powered, save our inaugural project, the USB Webcam Microscope, which uses a USB cable (5V) as its power supply. In our Floating Glow Display project, the battery clip even provided a sculptural element, doubling as the base for our display. Our latest project still uses batteries, only now, you’ll never need to swap them out for fresh power! The Solar TV Remote project will teach you first and foremost how to fabricate a solar power pack capable of supplying two rechargeable AA batteries with 3V of renewable energy goodness!
UK educational supply center centre Mindsets online sells variously-sized 3mm thick sample sheets of Eastman’s Spectar copolyester at not-completely-outlandish prices. Spectar supposedly looks and handles much like acrylic, but with the surprising property that it can be cold-formed without breaking or whitening, and exhibits a memory effect, holding a cold bend until reheated.
OK, so, it’s a level 3 approximation of a Menger Sponge, actually, incorporating 8,000 unit cubes, each of which starts as one-sixteenth of a “mini” size Post-It. Its creator, Nicholas Rougeux, likes Post-Its for this work because they “offer surprisingly [sic] structural durability and are easy to get in large quantities making them ideal for assembling structures like these.”
Plywood might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re designing a cargo bike, but for Michael Downes and Jeff Sayler it led to a uniquely elegant custom ride. Downes, an industrial designer, conceived the wooden Bakfiets-style cargo bike as an entry to the Oregon Manifest Design Challenge and enlisted his neighbor, Sayler, a master shipwright, as the other half of the duo know as Art & Industry. Together they designed and built the 51 pound hauler using CNC-cut plywood glued together with a custom epoxy resin. Additional refinements such as bamboo veneer, storage compartments, hatches, and a cargo bin are to be seen on the final version.
From Instructables user The Papier Boy. Complete with freaking-out R2 unit! “The spinning droid was constructed of Styrofoam and painted to look like R2-D2. I used one of my daughter’s old toys to create the motion. The toy had a gear on it that spun when a button was pushed. I cut the toy in half (it was too big) and mounted the toy to the underside of the body and glued the droid head onto the gear. To control the spinning I used an old NES controller. ..”
