Interesting Arm Raising Experiment

by Robert Krampf - KRAMPF@aol.com  -  Used by permission from author

 

To try it, you will need: a doorway.  OK, it is really very simple.   Stand in the doorway.   Start with your arms hanging down by your sides.   Lift them outwards until the backs of your hands are touching the doorframe on each side of you.   Now press outwards with your arms, as hard as you can.   Keep pressing while you count to 60, or as long as you can without it hurting.   Then take one step forward and relax your arms.   Your arms will seem to rise upwards all by themselves.

What is going on?   Two things are working together to make this happen.  The first is muscle tension. If you tense a muscle until it gets tired, it will keep some of that tension even after your brain stops sending it a signal to push.   You can try that by making a fist and squeezing it as tight as you can for about a minute.   Then if you slowly open your hand, you can feel the muscle tension that is still trying to keep your hand closed.

This muscle tension by itself is not enough to explain what happens to your arms.   The other part of the experiment involves suggestion.   An important part of this trick is telling the person that is trying it what will happen.  Because they are expecting it to happen and they are prepared for it, as soon as they feel the muscle tension lifting their arms, they unconsciously help.  

To read the rest of Experiment  # 316, go to the on-line archive located at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/krampf/messages 
Receive a weekly experiment - send a blank e-mail to: krampf-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

 

(Note from Lois: You will find many experiments at this site that could be used to make your family devotions, family nights, Sunday school classes, youth groups more interesting, by thinking up spiritual lessons to go along with these experiments.  You will have fun learning science, while at the same time, applying spiritual truths to go along with these experiments!)

A Mother Talking about Love / A Powerful Poem / Experiment

Author unknown

Cited on The Funnies ~ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/andychaps_the-funnies

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper - not a homemaker. If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness - not godliness. Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh. Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window. Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk. Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys. Love is present through the trials. Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive.  Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood. Love is the key that opens salvation's message to a child's heart. Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection. Now I glory in God's perfection of my child. As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is love.

Note from Lois:  Moms, doesn't this give you some relief?  Now go play with, listen to, read to, teach, lovingly discipline or just hug and cuddle your precious children!   Housework can wait!

A POWERFUL POEM

We've all heard this poem before.  May I suggest you memorize it and teach it to your children?

(Key Words:  Sow and Reap ~ Thought ~ Act ~ Habit ~ Character ~ Destiny)

"Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit, and you reap a character;
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny." 

 -- Unknown [Quoted by Scottish author Samuel Smiles]

 

TRY THIS EXPERIMENT OF THE WEEK

Note from Lois:  Whether you homeschool, send your children to a Christian or public school, are a teacher yourself, have grown children or grandchildren, you will find Robert Krampf's weekly experiment interesting, educational and fun!   Try turning them into object lessons to teach your children even more than science!

Adults will find this one fascinating too!  It would even be fun to do at a party!  We are fearfully and wonderfully made, as told in Psalm 139, and this is just one proof of that fact.  

Ladies, you could also incorporate some of these experiments into interesting family devotions with your children.  This is the main part of one of his latest newsletters.  He went into more detail, but space is limited in this newsletter.

From Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week
To join the list, send a blank e-mail to:  krampf-subscribe@topica.com

This week, we will use the science of complex systems to confuse your body again.   To try this, you will need: your hands and feet.

Lift your right foot about 6 inches off the ground.   Now start moving it in circles, clockwise.   As you continue doing that, use your right hand to draw a number 6 in the air in front of you.   As you do that, you will find that your foot has changed directions and is now going counterclockwise.

Now, how did that happen?   Although the experiment is easy, it is far from simple.   It took quite a bit of digging to trace this trick back to Professor Haken and the science of Synergetics.   This science deals with the ways that complex systems work.   In a complex system such as your brain and nervous system, there are many different signals moving back and forth.   Some of these signals are treated with more importance than others.   Some of the signals also become coupled, with one signal guiding the other.   That is what is happening with your foot and hand.   Your hand movement couples with your foot movement, but your hand movement is treated with more importance, so your foot changes direction.

Yeast Monsters

(Project by Catie Gosselin at http://womanlinks.com)

This is a fun activity to combine with baking quick (any bread product that has no yeast) and yeast breads.  Take a slice of both types of bread and ask your child, after looking at it, where all the bumps and crannies come from since the bread dough is smooth.  Let them open the jar of yeast to look at, smell, or drop some in their hands.

Materials : 1 tsp. yeast, 1 tsp. sugar, warm water, a drinking glass

Mix all ingredients, stirring once gently, and observe over time what happens (maybe 1/2  to 1 hour).  The yeast mixture will bubble and grow, and then fall.

 After performing the experiment, ask the kids what they think caused the reaction.  Why did it grow and then fall? The yeast is a single-celled fungi that consumed the sugar and gave off a gas in return.  The generation of gas caused the growth.  Once all the sugar was consumed, gas production stopped and the mixture shrunk.

Tips and Tidbits

Lots of Ideas for Homemade Father's Day Cards ~ http://crafts.kaboose.com/fathers-day-card-index.html

 

Top Tips for Dads on Bonding with Your Baby ~ One mother reveals a few activities to break the ice frozen around male- bonding with a baby.

www.babycenter.com/0_top-tips-for-dads-on-bonding-with-your-baby_3692.bc

 

Fun Crafts for Kids ~  

Age 5 and Up ~ Paper Plate Bluebird Nest
Age 6 and Up ~ Coffee Filter Butterfly Clips

Fun Summer Science Experiments to Keep Your Kids Learning  While on Break ~ http://thehappyscientist.com ~ 120 videos and 342 science experiments

 

Raisin No-Bake Cookies ~ There's no need to heat up your kitchen with a hot oven to make these cookies!

Ingredients: 2 cups raisins, 2 cups Chinese noodles, 1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter, 1/4 cup honey
(Stevia could be substitutes for honey for less carbs and calories)

Mix raisins and Chinese noodles in bowl.  Put peanut butter and honey in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until smooth and hot (but not boiling).  Pour over raisin mixture and toss with a fork until evenly coated. Shape rounded spoonfuls into 2 inch balls forming gently with fingers.  Allow to cool.

Angel Food Ministries ~ If you haven't heard of this nationwide opportunity to save money on groceries, it's worth checking into.  You can get $65.00 worth of groceries for $30.  Several different types of packages are available, even for senior citizens, people on the go, or those with food allergies.  Find a source near your home.  http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

 

Simply Serve Water at Meals ~  If milk, juice, or another drink is offered at mealtime, picky eaters may fill up on the beverage and not want to eat the vegetables and other nutritious food you have prepared.

 

Lots of Ideas for Homemade Father's Day Cards ~ http://crafts.kaboose.com/fathers-day-card-index.html

Rainbow Ribbons / Egg Experiments

RAINBOW RIBBONS ~ A FOOD ACTIVITY FOR CHILDREN

www.familycorner.com/newsletter/busycooks.shtml

Clean and cut fruit and place in separate bowls if you want the kids to make their own Rainbow Ribbons.  Place fruit on skewers in order listed to make a rainbow.

Assorted fruit in the colors of the rainbow:
        Red - watermelon balls, strawberries, or cherries
        Orange - orange sections, cantaloupe balls, mango, or papaya
        Yellow - pineapple cubes or banana slices
        Green - green grapes, honeydew melon balls, or kiwi fruit slices
        Blue - large whole blueberries
        Purple - purple grapes or cubed plums

EGG EXPERIMENTS
by Julie Druck, York, PA, editor of the A Heart for Home Newsletter- Julie's blog: http://www.lifeinskunkhollow.blogspot.com/

To subscribe to her monthly newsletter, send a blank e-mail to:  aheartforhome-subscribe@welovegod.org

        Here’s an experiment that turns a hard eggshell into a slimy soft covering - and then you can make the egg shrink and swell. This one’s amazing! To remove the shell from the egg without touching it: Place an egg in a glass and cover it with vinegar. Look closely and you’ll see bubbles appear on the shell. This is carbon dioxide - the same gas that makes soda bubble. Carbon dioxide is released when the vinegar reacts with the shell. Let the egg sit for three days. Most of the shell with dissolve. Carefully pick the slippery, squishy egg out of the vinegar with your fingers. The egg will look like a small water-filled balloon, and you’ll be able to see the yolk clearly. If little bits of soft shell material remain, gently rinse the egg under a trickle of water. Shake it carefully and let the kids feel the egg without its shell. Now you’re ready to shrink the slippery egg. Put the egg in a clean glass and cover with white corn syrup. Let it sit overnight.

        In the morning, fish out the egg with your fingers and rinse it off. The egg will look smaller, and you should be able to feel the lump of yolk. Overnight, much of the water inside the egg passed through the egg’s porous membrane into the corn syrup. (Corn syrup is too thick a substance to have passed through the membrane into the egg.) As a result, the egg shrank. If you want, you can reverse the process. Place the egg into a glass of water and then let it sit overnight. By morning, the egg will have swelled up again. This time, the water passed through the membrane back into the egg. Who said science is boring?!