Science

Mercury is the densest liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure (STP). Also called quicksilver, mercury has been known for more than 3,500 years. It is an important metal in...

Pressure is defined as the force with which the liquid contained in a tank presses on a unit area of the wall. The air pressure on the outside of the tank presses inward on the sidewall. Inside...

A siphon moves liquid from a higher container to a lower container. This doesn't sound impressive, except that it gets around a height barrier that prevents the liquid from traveling to the lower...

Zeolite is a complicated supplement, surrounded by a large amount of criticism and hopeful claims. It comes in both powder and liquid form, although the liquid is generally more popular. The idea...

Cryopreservation is, simply put, flash freezing a biological tissue or organism in liquid nitrogen (N2). The tissue may be a nonliving sample, or a living sample for purposes of revivification....

While temperature has little direct effect on wooden beams, it does have a great effect on the moisture both outside and within the beams. By increasing and decreasing the levels of moisture in...

Just behind the protective layer of the lens, there is an infrared/ultraviolet light filter that blocks all incoming light that is not in the visible spectrum. This includes the IR-A, -B and -C...

Pressure is defined as force applied per unit area. For a tank, the air pressure on the outside presses inward on the wall. Inside the tank, the air pressure presses down on the liquid. If the...

The compressor is one of the most important parts of the air conditioning system. Air conditioners work using the laws of thermal energy and heat transfer. The medium by which heat is moved around...

Agar is the gelatinous substance that sits inside the petri dishes used by scientists and students alike. Agar is the perfect substance for biological experiments as it holds up to bacteria and...

Liquid oxygen is a man-made fluid derived from pure oxygen gas. While liquid oxygen has some applications, mostly as an ingredient in certain types of fuel, it is often converted to a liquid state...

Foam structures consist of a solid material that is filled with voids, or bubbles. Foams are used for a variety of insulation and cushioning applications. Two of the primary categories of foam...

Liquid smoke is a bottled substance designed to give foods a smoky flavoring without actually going through the smoking process. It is added to barbecued foods like fish or meat, and provides a...

The reaction that produces hydrogen gas was discovered by Robert Boyle in 1671. French chemist Antoine Lavoisier derived the name hydrogen from the Greek words for "water former." The atmosphere...

Distillation is one way to separate the substances in a solution. Perhaps one of the most romantic examples of simple distillation is the manufacture of "corn whiskey" in Depression era...

Air is a mixture of various elements, mainly nitrogen and oxygen, in a gas state. With a few tricks in a science lab, you can make it cold enough to become a liquid!

Fog machines can be found in many places, including dance clubs, theaters and haunted houses. Most people who have fog machines typically only use them for Halloween. The liquid solution that...

A steam turbine uses steam, produced by the heating of water or other liquids, to generate rotational motion and energy. Most turbines have a sort of liquid tank, or boiler, with a heat source to...

All atomizers work on the principle of air flow and suction. When horizontal air passes over a vertical tube, it causes the air and liquid inside the vertical tube to be pulled upward. Classic...

Making a homemade liquid thermometer is fun and very easy. This will teach you and your kids about how mercury works in a store-bought thermometer, and will be a fun home science project. This...

Liquid nitrogen is great for all kinds of physics demonstrations, and for just having some fun with. But be careful: If you are't trained to work with this stuff it is very easy to injure...

Liquid evaporating from a surface has a cooling effect. And different liquids have this effect to different degrees. For example, rubbing alcohol has more of an evaporative cooling effect than...

Liquid oxygen is a product created from the air we breathe. It is extremely cold and will boil away in the coldest environments. It is used in the medical and commercial industry to deliver...

Filtration is mechanical screening process. A filtration media (metal screens, cloth, membrane) has a source gas or liquid passed through it under pressure. Particles larger than the gaps in the...

Distillation columns are used to separate components by heating them until they become a vapor. It is based off the fact that different particles in a mixed liquid have different boiling points....

A siphon is a tube that pulls fluid up out of one container and transfers it to another without a pump. There can be no air in the tubing used as a siphon or the fluid will stop transferring....

Liquid oxygen, also known as LOX, is created from oxygen atoms that have been forced to assume a liquid state due to compression and manipulations of temperature. Naturally, oxygen prefers to be a...

Liquid oxygen is a form of the element oxygen. Commonly referenced as 'LOX,' this oxygen allotrope is used in aerospace, submarine and gas industry applications. It forms only at very low...

Correction fluid is made using an assortment of chemicals to create a fluid that spreads across normal typing or writing errors. The first chemical is titanium dioxide, which has a color index of...

The first three states of matter, solid, liquid and gas, can be illustrated by an ice cube, a solid, that melts into water, a liquid, and evaporates into the air, a gas. Understand the movement of...

Dry ice is a popular commercial and industrial cooling agent. It has been used for the flash freezing of food products, carbonation of beverages and in medical applications. It was first...

When a salt is added to water, it dissolves into its component molecules until as many salt ions as the water can hold are floating around the hydrogen and oxygen molecules. When this happens, the...

Using microscopes to view small organisms, molecules and objects is common. Unlike a magnifying glass, microscopes require slides in order to view the tiny specimens under their lenses. Proper...

A manometer measures the difference in air or liquid pressure by comparing it to an outside source, usually a sample of Earth's atmosphere. There are several types of manometers, the simplest...

The air we breath is actually a mixture of gases, roughly 78% nitrogen (N2), 21% oxygen (O2), 1%Argon (Ar), 0.5% water vapor (H2O), 0.2% carbon dioxide (CO2) and 0.2% methane (CH4). In order for...

A refractometer is a scientific instrument used to gauge a liquid's index of refraction. The refractive index is determined by placing a liquid sample on a prism and allowing light to pass through...

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, to distill something means to use a chemical process to convert a liquid to a gas and then back to a liquid. Distilling separates liquids from one another...

While not toxic to humans, methane (which constitutes 75 percent of natural gas by volume) can still be very harmful, albeit indirectly. Methane (CH4) is potentially dangerous as an asphyxiant, an...

Most people know that bubbles are nothing more than an extremely thin film of liquid surrounding a quantity of air, all within a volume of air. Moreover, they are very easy to make. Most people,...

Hydrogen, the most basic element, is made up of one proton and one electron and is the most abundant element in the universe. There are also two isotopes of hydrogen. Deuterium contains one...

The refractometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure the refractive index of a liquid or solid sample. Refractometers are used by a number of different industries, including it's...

Archimedes' principle states that when an object is suspended in liquid, it will meet with a force that is equal to the weight of the liquid that object displaces. This principle applies to the...

A hydrometer is tool made of glass and metal used for measuring the "specific gravity" of liquids--that is, determining whether a liquid is more or less dense than water. Take this opportunity to...

A hydrometer is an instrument developed for the use of measuring the relative density or specific gravity of various liquids. The hydrometer measures the density in relation to its ratio compared...

Liquefied oxygen is a distilled form of the oxygen that makes up 21 percent of the air that we breathe. It has a number of commercial and industrial uses.

Liquid oxygen is the liquid form of the gaseous oxygen necessary for human life. It has many uses, but there are also definite dangers involved in working with liquid oxygen.

Liquid pressure gauges are used in a variety of applications and settings. Industrial environments where coatings and sealants are applied on a regular basis rely on a gauge's readings to ensure...

Molecules have energy and momentum, so they are always moving. This is most easily seen in gases, but solids and liquids move, as well. When molecules are heated, they move faster. When they're...

The most common liquid used in common household thermometers used to be mercury, but because of that material's toxicity, it has been replaced by alcohol, or ethanol. An alcohol thermometer is a...

In 1777 French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier, gave the name "oxygen" to the life-supporting chemical element that was discovered a few years earlier by two scientists who were working independently...