100's Day

What does 100 look like? Sound like? Feel like? In this video from Curious George, explore the many ways to measure 100 things.

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Acids and Bases: Cabbage Juice Indicator

In this video segment, the ZOOM cast demonstrates how to use cabbage juice to find out if a solution is an acid or a base.

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Acids and Bases: Kitchen Chemistry

In this interactive activity from the ZOOM Web site, search for chemistry clues and experiment with acids and bases in a virtual kitchen.

Acids and Bases: Making a Film Canister Rocket

In this video segment, ZOOM cast members mix different amounts of baking soda and vinegar to see which combination produces the most carbon dioxide for launching a film-canister rocket.

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Acids and Bases: Testing Rocket Cars

In this ZOOM video segment, cast members make bottle rocket cars using lemon juice and baking soda, and experiment with different ways of launching the cars.

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Acids and Bases: Testing Rockets

What happens when you mix baking soda and lemon juice? Watch the ZOOM cast launch a rocket using kitchen chemistry.

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Air Is Matter

This collection of still images presents different ways to visualize air, from billowing sails to windblown hair to tornadoes.

Air Is Matter

Students investigate air and how it is something that occupies space, has mass, and exerts pressure.

Air Power: Experimenting with Balloons

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members experiment with the amount of air expelled first from a balloon, then through a straw attached to it, and see how both affect a balloon's behavior.

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Air Power: Making a Hovercraft

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members make their own hovercraft and demonstrate how the air leaking out of a balloon can make a plastic plate hover above a table.

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Anatomy of a Firework

There's more to a fireworks display than meets the eye. This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site looks at the technology behind each burst of light.

Atmospheric Pressure

Did you know that air has weight? This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site explores conditions that affect air density and atmospheric pressure.

The Atom

In this interactive activity from ChemThink, take a closer look at atomic structure, properties, and behaviors.

Atom Builder

Build a carbon atom out of up quarks, down quarks, and electrons in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

Atomic Arrangements in Solids

This video/animation asks the question "So if the same molecules are in the solid, liquid, and vapor forms of water, why are their properties so different?" The properties of a material are affected not just by the kinds of atom in it, but also by how they are arranged, and how free they are to move around. Forms of carbon are introduced, from graphite to buckyballs.

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Atomic Structure of an Alloy

Learn about the atomic structure of bronze, a copper alloy, in this video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements."

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Atoms: The Space Between

This video segment adapted from A Science Odyssey takes a look at the scale of the atom and the tremendous amount of space between the electrons and the nucleus. If all this empty space exists in matter, how can any substance be solid?

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Balloon Brain: Designing a Helmet

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members are challenged to design protective headgear for a water balloon using what they know about the properties of the materials available.

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The Beginnings of the Telescope

This animated essay from the NOVA Web site examines the design of Galileo's refracting telescope and Sir Isaac Newton's reflecting telescope.

Bend, Twist and Break: Beyond the Laboratory

Dr. Chris Muhlstein explains that when scientists study fracture surfaces from controlled experiments to understand the resulting shapes and features, they can use their understanding to deduce what happened when they were not around to see the material fail or break. Further they can predict what will have to a larger or smaller piece of material under stress. This process is how scientists and engineers translate a lab experiment into a design for an airplane, bridge or even a bike frame.

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