Physics...
Below are our articles on the subject of Physics. If you can't see what you are looking for our other categories are displayed on the left under 'Our Quick Links'...
Action and Reaction: Balloons in Flight
Sir Isaac Newton was born in 1643 and died in 1727. He was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer, biologist and chemist. Newton developed three...
Bending Light: Disappearing Glass Bowl and Bending Pencil
As light passes through transparent objects, it bends. This can create optical illusions like disappearing bowls, bending pencils and mirages....
Detecting Fake Silver: Conductivity of Metal
Heat travels in three different ways – conduction (heat travelling through a solid), convection (heat travelling through liquids and gases) and...
Floating and Sinking: Looking at Density
Density describes how much something weighs relating to its size. For example, a cubic centimetre of cork weighs less (is less dense) than a...
Friction: Keeping Warm and Keeping Rolling
Friction is the force that acts between two moving surfaces and tries to stop them moving. Friction can be between two solids, a solid and a...
Growing Stalactites and Stalagmites
Stalactites and stalagmites are formations of rock in underground caves. They are formed when calcium carbonate and other minerals dissolve in water running through...
Keeping Warm or Cold: Insulation and Conduction
Heat travels through solids by conduction (see also ‘Detecting Fake Silver: Conductivity of Metal’). Insulation can keep things warm and keep...
Make a Vacuum Cleaner
Originally, carpets and rugs were cleaned by lifting them, taking them outside, hanging them over a line and beating them with a carpet beater (a very dusty job), or...
Melting Points for Different Solids
Different solids turn into liquids (melt) at different temperatures. This temperature is described as the melting point. Some solids are made up of molecules that...
Pulling and Pushing: Magnetic Attraction
Magnets are attracted to some metals, and can attract and repel each other. The earth has a magnetic field, and so magnets can be used to find...
Seeing Ultraviolet Light: Tonic Water in Sunlight
Ultraviolet (UV) light is an invisible part of light. It has a shorter wavelength than violet light (see ‘Making a Rainbow: Breaking Light Into...
Solids, Liquids and Gases: Ice, Water and Steam
Water exists in three states – solid ice, liquid water and gaseous steam. Solids have a fixed shape and size. Liquids can change in shape, but...
Static Electricity: Making Things Stick
Atoms (the tiny building blocks that make everything) contain protons, which have a positive charge, and electrons, which have a negative charge....
Surface Tension: Keeping Bubbles Round and Insects Up
Water molecules at the surface of a glass of water are more strongly attracted to each other than to water molecules in the rest of the water....
The Physics of Bubbles
Whether they are in a bubble bath or drifting on the wind, bubbles are beautiful and fun things. Try making your own to examine the amazing properties of the simple...
Vibrations: Seeing and Feeling Sound
Sounds are created from vibrations, whether it’s a tuning fork, the reed of a musical instrument, or sound coming from someone’s voice box.
The vibrations make...
Warm and Cold: Expanding Air
As air gets warm, the air molecules have more energy and move around more, taking up more space. As the warm air expands, it becomes less dense (see ‘Floating and...
Warm and Cold: Heavy Water
Hot water has more energy than cold water. This makes the water molecules move around more. Molecules that move more take up more space, but still weigh the same, so...
