Monday – A Summer Challenge

Fancy winning yourself £1000 over the summer holidays? You could do just that in this ice cool challenge from the Royal Society of Chemistry:

You only have to solve a puzzle that’s been bothering some brilliant scientists for thousands of years – Why does hot water freeze faster than cold water? A problem known as the Mpemba effect.

Tuesday – Back to normality(ish)

After the brilliant week that was Science and Engineering Week, we’re now back to normal(ish) and I’m missing all the action and excitement already. Just to satisfy my sense of adventure though…

Film director James Cameron (Avatar, Titanic, etc) has taken on a rather different challenge: He’s racing a bunch of other brave souls (including Sir Richard Branson) to the very bottom of the oceans – The 7 mile deep Mariana Trench. Click on the image to find out about his mission from Nature and click here to find out more about the Deepsea Challenge itself.

Monday – Are you up for another challenge?

What’s happening?

1. Stir a cup of hot chocolate and then tap the bottom of the cup. The sound changes as you tap. Why?
2. Now make a different hot drink e.g. tea or coffee or just water. Stir and tap. What difference does it make? Why?
3. Now add 2 spoonfuls of sugar to one of the drinks. What difference does it make? Why?

Challenge courtesy of Miss Monk – Try it out yourself and put your answers on a postcard… or more simply just post them as a comment right here!

Sunday – A fiendish challenge!

But first an interesting fact: Apparently if you took all of the electrons that are currently transferring data on the internet and put them together, they’d weigh the same as…

A medium (free-range) egg

Which is amazing! But can you use that fact to calculate how many electrons are in the internet right now?

The best answer – with a full explanation of the working out and any assumptions used might just get a prize!