a homeschooling blog about Simon, a young mathematician and programmer, and his little sister Neva. Visit https://simontiger.com
This is Simon’s favourite self-made toy at the moment: a straw and a ball made of foam clay. He is continuously experimenting with trying to levitate the ball with rising … Continue reading Physics Experiments: Levitating small spherical objects and air pressure
Our third MEL Science box arrived back in August, when we were on vacation. We have already tried two experiments from the box, both perhaps more suitable for winter. Instant … Continue reading MEL Chemistry Box number 3: Artificial Snow and growing crystals on a Xmas tree
Simon has been experimenting away, mostly inspired by Physics Girl. Below are a few of his favourite experiments. The Confused Peanuts. Mixing tap water and carbonated water creates this interesting … Continue reading Physics Experiments: Confused Peanuts and a few more
Yet another cool experiment inspired by Physics Girl. Simon tries stacking balls to increase the bounce of the top ball (that gets extra energy from the bottom ball/balls). Simon’s second … Continue reading Physics Experiments: Ball Stacking
Simon learned about this experiment from Physics Girl and tried several variations with a number of plastic plates and frisbees. He even got kicked out of a fashionable pool in … Continue reading Physics Experiments: Vortices
Although vacation is a vague notion in our family, where days are devoted to doing favourite things 365 days a year. For Simon, that means that his days are filled … Continue reading Looking back at the vacation
Here Simon placed the primary colors in the next to the secondary ones (that he mixed using only the three primary colors) so that the colors that are absolute opposites … Continue reading Color Opposites
If you put a cereal flake in a bowl of water you can steer it with a strong magnet. The magnets above aren’t strong enough, but the really powerful ones … Continue reading How much iron is there in your favorite cereal?
Here Simon tried to induce a magnetic field by allowing electric current to go through a conductor that is normally not magnetic (copper wire). The green stick is a magnet … Continue reading Experimenting with electromagnetism
Simon explains why train wheels are actually shaped like truncated cones. Inspired by a Numberphile video about stable rollers. The wooden slopes for the experiment Simon designed himself and his … Continue reading The Best Shape for Train Wheels
Today we opened our second MEL Chemistry box with two experiments using tin (Sn). We made a tin dendrite and grew a tin hedgehog. Both experiments involved preparing a tin … Continue reading The second set of MEL Chemistry experiments
We have received our first MEL Chemistry box, something the kids were really impatient to start. And guess what, finally something to be proud of being a Russian from St.Petersburg … Continue reading Our first MEL Chemistry set has arrived!
Geeks out of the box 