This hands-on activity walks through paper chromatography, a technique used by chemists to separate mixtures or in forensic crime analysis to investigate evidence. Paper chromatography can be applied outside of the lab too! Here, we use the method to show what types of dyes make up different colored markers. Is purple truly made of red and blue?
Liquid is the material state whose shape depends on the container; on the other hand, solid material has a specific shape that resists the external force-induced deformation. Most of the time, we can tell if the material is liquid or solid by examining its response to external force. However, can you think of a material that can be both liquid and solid at the same time depending on how you interact with the material? In this hands-on activity, we will guide you to make a material that is between liquid and solid. When you gently and slowly poke the material, it is fluid like water but when you poke it hard and fast, it is elastic like a solid material. This material is categorized as a non-Newtonian fluid. In this activity, you will learn how non-Newtonian fluid behaves differently from conventional Newtonian fluid.
In this activity, we will demonstrate the essence of mixing through an activity of blending a couple of colored dough balls. You will learn how blending these balls can be accomplished by simply following the fundamental actions of mixing processes: repeated stretching and folding.
Turning on the faucet, you receive water for washing your hands or taking a shower. How convenient! Modern technology allows for transporting water to your home from a reservoir far away from your home through pipes. Do you know how water is transported through pipe? Do you know how the geometries of the pipes affect the efficiency of water transport? In this activity, you will learn about the principle of pipe flow through a water gun activity. We will guide you to build a water gun with different gun lengths and experience the effect of gun lengths (or more specifically, pipe lengths) on shooting the water to the target.
Follow along as Jessica builds a wearable exoskeleton hand from straws, string and paper! The hand will be a model of the bones and tendons in your phalanges and will move as you pull on the strings!
Simulate the 3D food printing process through a simple activity, and compare your results to a real 3D food printer!
Large oil spills have been a common environmental problem for decades affecting wildlife, beaches and water sources. Environmental engineers have come up with many creative solutions to clean up these spills. WPI Engineering Ambassadors will tell you about some of these solutions and then you can try to clean up your own oil spill at home
WPI’s High Power Rocketry Club leads students through a fun hands-on egg drop activity as well as an introductory discussion on momentum in rocketry!
Want to learn more about physics from the comfort of your own home? All you need is a ruler and your thinking cap! Watch Professor Kafle demonstrate this interesting phenomenon that seems like magic but is actually just physics. All you need to participate is a ruler with a smooth surface.
From airplanes and spaceships to balloons and frisbees, flight is an important part of today’s society. This activity builds and experiments with bottle rockets, the perfect model for investigating what aerospace engineering is all about. After reviewing how to build the bottle rocket, this video details a setup you can use to test what forces, materials, and designs maximize airtime. So at the end of the day, here’s the question: how high can you fly?
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