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 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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Amplitude

This interactive activity adapted from the University of Utah's ASPIRE Lab shows how a pendulum's amplitude changes as you set it swinging from different distances from its axis, and how the amplitude of a sound wave changes as you adjust the volume.

Arch Bridge

This video segment adapted from Building Big illustrates the strength of the arch in bridge design and construction.

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Bandwidth and Data Conversion

This interactive activity adapted from the Wisconsin Online Resource Center describes the factors that affect the speed of data transfer in computer networking systems and some of the techniques used to increase the data capacity of these systems.

Beyond Einstein

NASA scientists describe some of the ways current science is addressing several of Einstein's fundamental questions and theories in this video adapted from NASA.

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Booming Sands

This video segment, adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, presents basic concepts of physics behind "booming" sand dunes. See how surface tension affects potential and kinetic energy and how it all works together to create sound.

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Building Curiosity: Rover Rocks Rocker-Bogie

NASA engineers test Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, and demonstrate its material properties, its handling and mobility, and its design features in this NASA video.

Building Simple Machines: A Glass of Milk, Please

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast shows how the 34 steps in their Rube Goldberg invention use everything from gravity to carbon dioxide gas in order to accomplish one simple task: pouring a glass of milk.

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Building Simple Machines: Plant Quencher

In this video segment from ZOOM, Jillian explains how her simple machine uses marbles, levers, flowing sand, and a spinning wheel to water a plant.

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Building the Channel Tunnel

How do you build a tunnel 32 miles long -- under water? This video segment adapted from Building Big, follows the construction of the Channel Tunnel (nicknamed "Chunnel"), the engineering wonder that connects England to France.

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Carbon-Fiber Car of the Future

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, find out how cars made of a material stronger than steel and half the weight can help combat climate change.

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Center of Gravity: Pencil Balance

Watch the ZOOM cast learn about center of gravity by trying to balance a pencil on their fingers and noses.

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Centripetal Force

In this animation a ball bounces off the sides of the circle, and the number of sides double, until the circle appears to exert force on a ball that is constant in size and always directed towards the center.

Circular Motion

In this interactive activity featuring videos adapted from the Rutgers PAER Group, observe examples of circular motion. Can you find a common reason why the objects and people presented move in a circle?

Collisions on an Air Track

In this interactive activity adapted from the University of Toronto, observe the effect of mass on momentum in elastic and inelastic collisions.

Columns: Experimenting with Paper Cups

In this video segment from ZOOM, the cast experiments to see if a bunch of paper cups covered by a piece of cardboard can support the weight of a cast member.

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Columns: Hillary's Neighborhood

In this video segment from ZOOM, Hillary, from Randolph, MA, takes us on a tour of the columns in her neighborhood.

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