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All Physics

Physics experiments

An Arabic proverb says: “One experiment is worth a thousand words”. Taking that very just saying as our starting point, we offer a wide variety of physics experiments for children up to the age of 12. The experiments we propose will help you to see, to remember and, most important of all, to understand the substance of the physical laws and principles by which our world is built. Theory, as everyone knows, is dead without practice, and without practical confirmation all the formulas and theorems of physics belong to the realm of supposition, conjecture and theoretical speculation. Theory gives knowledge; practice gives confidence in that knowledge, and that confidence is in its turn the foundation on which a view of the world rests.
 
From infancy a person comes to know the reality around him only through direct dealings with it. In time words take the place of practical experience. And so, relying more and more on words, a person draws away from reality.
 
Physics experiments are a chance to look more thoroughly into how one's own world is made.
Read it first! Before starting an experiment, read carefully how it is to be done.
Gather all the materials you need!
Experiment!
Observe!
Working on their own or with friends, and sometimes with a parent's help, children can take their first steps in physics through these simple but absorbing experiments. Clear instructions with drawings come with each of them. All the physics experiments presented here are safe and call for no special equipment or materials.

Material in this section

Flick!

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: To show how force affects inertia.

By inertia

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: To show how friction affects inertia.

The water plug

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: To find out how large an opening has to be for water to pour out of a can.

The helicopter

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: To find out how the weight of a paper helicopter affects its speed of rotation.

Right or left

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: To determine how the position of the wings decides which way the helicopter turns.

Polarised light

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: To find out how polarised light travels.

The hot rubber band

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: To see that energy can pass from one form into another.

Hippity-hop

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: To find out whether temperature affects how well a rubber ball bounces.

The sounding cup

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: To compare the speed of sound in solids and in air.