Bumpy Easter Eggs with Jordan Almonds

How did putting a purple Jordan almond in water turn it into a bumpy Easter egg?

Perhaps the bumpy spots resulted from bubbles sticking to the candy shell, preventing water from reaching and dissolving those particular spots.

A tub of soup (left) after the ski vacation. It was resealed at high altitude, with low air pressure, so that when it reached sea level again, the sides contracted inwards.

Try this yourself by opening and then sealing a bottle in a hot car, or sealing a marshmallow in a bottle at high altitude

Teapot Swirls

Here's something to notice when you're making tea on a cold day. If you pour cold and hot water together, you might notice swirls of light in the water. Not because the water is colored (it's not), but because the hot and cold water have different densities, and thus bend light in slightly different ways. Mix them, and you can see the fluid swirling as light bends at the boundaries between the hot and cold.

St. Patrick's Day Chromatography

Why is the color green such a fun candy color? Because you can separate it with chromatography.

Here’s how to see the dyes that make up the green color on an M&M or jelly bean.

1. Cut a rectangular strip of coffee filter paper.
   Dab a drop of water onto a plate, then put the candy on the water. This will dissolve a little bit of the color.
   Dab the color to make a spot of color near the bottom of the strip.
   
2. Place the strip in a small glass with about a 1/2 inch of water. The bottom of the paper should be in the water, with the spot above the water.
   
4. After a few minutes, look for new colors. Can you see any yellow near the bottom? Or blue on top?

And if you have leprechauns and rainbows on the brain, try the experiment with a brown or black piece of candy. You’ll see an array of colors.


Now, that’s a St. Patrick’s day rainbow!

Egg Drop

An object in motion tends to stay in motion, while an object at rest tends to stay at rest.

Such as an egg resting on a cardboard tube, even when the tube is batted away. Until it drops.

Pierced Hearts and Valentine Links

This heart looks like a normal conversation heart, but it’s really just a collection of bubbles. (After several hours in water, the sugar has dissolved away, leaving only colored gelatin and air bubbles). Piercing it with a pin is easier than poking a marshmallow.



For more fun Valentine's Day candy experiments, try these:

Peel the words off of Jelly Belly beans
Sinking Hearts with Cakemate candies
Hearts bobbing in soda and Hearts bobbing video
Hearts expanding after a soda bath
Hearts fading in sunlight

New Year's Resolution: get more done...with chocolate?

A New Year's Good Housekeeping Magazine tip:

“Feed your brain more chocolate. Break into a bar of chocolate, then take over the world. A nip of it boosts your short-term productivity by 12%, according to a study in the Journal of Labor Economics. 'Chocolate makes people happier, and happy people may be less distracted by worry, so they get more done,' theorizes lead researcher Andrew Oswald, Ph.D, professor of economics and behavioral science at the university of Warwick in England."

Of course, chocolate probably isn't the only thing that makes you happier and more productive. But I'm always inclined to believe the science that shows off the benefits of chocolate!

Good Housekeeping, Jan 2017, Pg 94