Project 1: The Weird Science Fair

For our first attempt at delving into the realm that is weird science, we collectively decided to keep the introspection simple, and create a project that can show man's everyday attempts at weird science. In other words, we wanted to perform a limited number of basic science tricks, the kinds that a traveling performer would take to grade schools.

For us, these tricks were pretty damn cool, since we could all be considered legally retarded when it came to our scientific abilities. We got most of the tricks out of this book that Keith received in a similar presentation that was performed in his undergraduate university. After choosing the perfect doable experiments and gathering all of the necessary materials, we realized that we needed a gimmick of some sorts to make our presentation interesting. That is where “Adair” and “Clown” came into the picture. Adair is the name of one of the characters from the Upright Citizens Brigade. Clown is merely a descriptor that pertained to the scary clown face mask that Eric found in his room. It kind of freaked us out to know that he had such a mask lying around, but that's none of our business.



The experiments that we chose to perform were these.

1) Pick up a cylindrical glass using only a blown up balloon.
2) Remove an ice cube from a glass of water using only a lasso make out of a paper napkin.
3) Blow up a long balloon inside of a water bottle.

We filmed ourselves completing each experiment prior to our classroom presentation. We then brought in the materials that were needed to complete each challenge, and selected a volunteer to attempt each crazy difficult task. What we didn't realize was that every damn student in the class was really smart, and that they already knew the extra object that would be needed to scientifically facilitate each solution.

Our last experiment was a guessing experiment, where the class had to figure out how many bubble noodles would fit inside a normal coffee tin. Of course the class figured out that nail polish remover would be added to the coffee tin, and that a roomful of bubble noodles would now be able to fit inside this tin. We ended our presentation with a blooper reel that showed the frustration that we had in executing a couple of these so called “easy” experiments.

We feel that this was a great way to start off the semester; by creating a project that added both humor and science together. It served the same purpose as the shallow end of a pool would; it allowed us to get our feet wet before we were ready to jump fully into the unknown and murky abyss that is weird science.