a homeschooling blog about Simon, a young mathematician and programmer, and his little sister Neva. Visit https://simontiger.com
Simon really wanted to try building a capillary bowl – a version of a perpetual motion machine in which water circulates. Although aware of the fact that perpetual motion was … Continue reading Physics Experiments: Capillary Bowl
Simon isn’t fond of magic or fantasy. Plus, he is not fond of long walks in the woods. Both “not fond of” are understatements. What was I counting on when … Continue reading Photons Trapped in Flemish Woods
Simon is greatly impressed by the fact that if the Charge-Parity-Time (CPT) Symmetry doesn’t hold, the whole special relativity theory would have to be reconsidered. Does general relativity rely on … Continue reading Inertial Reference Frames
Simon didn’t want to watch Interstellar (he generally dislikes fiction and often finds it too scary as well), but somehow he did get sucked into the story after his sister … Continue reading Simon explaining Interstellar
We had such a genuinely rewarding homeschooling experience yesterday when we took up Physics Girl’s challenge to recreate the Weissenberg effect – a phenomenon that occurs when a spinning rod … Continue reading Physics Experiments: Slime for Science
Our new MEL Chemistry box arrived, containing tons of color fun! We have already tried two experiments. In the Color changing milk experiment, the soap touches the milk creating a very thin … Continue reading Chemistry Experiments: Colors (surface active agents and pH indicator)
Simon got a belated birthday present from his Russian grandparents, something he had dreamed about for months: the Magformers Sky Track set, sort of a monorail that allows Simon the … Continue reading The Sky Track
Although Simon doesn’t have the Magformers Dinosaur Set, he does have all the pieces (he collects the set using the pieces from other sets). It’s great fun to be able … Continue reading Building dinos and looking them up in the encyclopedia
Simon went further on his research about what exactly valence is, and what determines how many other atoms an atom can bond with. “What about Helium? My question is, how … Continue reading The way to own your knowledge
“It’s so mesmerising!” Simon explains what a standing wave is and the nodes in a wave, using a Slinky. Standing waves can be polarised in any direction (horizontally, vertically or … Continue reading Physics Experiments: Standing wave
Inspired by Physics Girl, here come a couple crafty color wheel experiments involving what Physics Girl calls “mind blending” (it may not be the real name) – mixing color wave … Continue reading Physics Experiments: The Color Wheel and Mind Blending
Geeks out of the box 