Send us your questions

Some of our visitors have sent emails with interesting questions, we decided to start having a space to answer them. In this space the blog "Restless Minds" will answer all questions you send us
Send us your question for the email: Restless Minds.

Science progress affects our daily life and "to know" means you are going to chose right, because it allows you to form your own opinion on scientific everyday issues. On the other hand, having an elegant and harmonious vision of the world where we live in leads to a feeling of intellectual satisfaction.
We believe this kind of scientific day to day knowledge should be encouraged from an early age, and that's why this project was born: science, culture, knowledge, crafts for your restless mind.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Homemade glue

This is a non toxic, easy and inexpensive way to do child craft glue.

This needs adult supervision, remember that the kitchen can be a dangerous place to play in.

What we need:
  • 1/2 cup hot water,
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar,
  • 2 tablespoons of milk powder ,
  • 1/2 tablespoon of  baking soda,
  • water,
  • 1 coffee filter, 
  • 1 funnel,
  • a plastic/ glass containner,
  • 1 tablespoon,
  • plate.
How to:
  1. Mix the hot water and the powder milk until dissolves;
  2. Add the vinegar, the milk will form 2 distinct parts, the serum and the curds;
  3. Keep mixing this mixture until curds and serum are well separated;
  4. Place the filter in the funnel;
  5. Place the funnel in the container;
  6. Filter the previous mix;
  7. If necessary raise a little bit the funnel so the air can flow, remember that air takes up space;
  8. When the funnel is full "squeeze" the filter a bit, carefully;
  9. Discard the serum;
  10. In a small plate, using the spoon, break the serum layer into small pieces;
  11. Add one hot water teaspoon and about 1/4 teaspoon baking soda;
  12. Mix it all well until the adhesive becomes soft and more fluid;
  13. If the mixture is too thick add a little more water, if it has lumps add more baking soda.
  14. When not in use the adhesive covering it with transparent paper. 
With time the glue becomes more transparent and liquid. Trash the glue when it starts to smell slightly spoiled milk.

Note:
If the milk does not curdle try:
  • add more vinegar;
  • heat the mixture;
  • use more hot water.
Et voilá!
you can almos eat it

Enjoy!

The air takes up space- ballon in a bottle

The challenge is to blow a balloon inside a plastic bottle. A big bottle works better but you can use a small bottle if you want. But is it that easy? Lets see

What we need:
  • plastic bottle and stopper,
  • latex balloon,
  • water,
  • nail,
  • hammer.
How to:
  1. Place the balloon inside the bottle, with the tip out;
  2. Try to inflate the balloon, try again!;
  3. Remove the balloon;
  4. Fill the bottle with water and cap it tight;
  5. With the nail punch a hole in the bottle bottom; 
  6. Remove the nail and uncap the bottle, what happens?,
  7. Leave only a small amount of water in the bottle;
  8. Place the balloon inside the bottle again, just like in step 1;
  9. Try to inflate the balloon, what happens?;
  10. When the balloon is full of air, use your finger to close the nail hole;
  11. Stop blow, what happens?;
  12. Now remove your finger, what happens?
What happens?
In step 2, you aren't able to inflate the balloon.

When you remove the nail and uncap the bottle- step 6- the water exits the bottle through the hole.
Step 9-  you are successful.
While your finger is in the hole the balloon will remain full of air- Step 11.
If you remove the finger the balloon deflates.

Why?   
Step2- The bottle is full of air, there is no room for anymore air.
when you punch the hole in the bottle the air can escape through it and and "make some space" to the air in the balloon , while you inflate the balloon it "pushes" the air and the water inside the bottle to the outside through the hole.
Same reason explains why the balloon remains inflated in step 11 and deflates in step 12, amazing humm?



Et Voilá!
It takes space

Enjoy!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Frame with rolled paper tubes

This project can be done by everyone from 8 to 80. It's a recycling and inexpensive project and  it's a lot of fun.

We are going to learn how to do a frame with a cardboard stencil.

Before we start you should read this 2 posts:

What we need:
  • rolled paper tubes,
  • rolled paper coils,
  • cereal box,
  • glue,
  • scissors,
  • craft knife,
  • old paper,
  • varnish, transparent,
  • white paint, or any other color you like best,
  • paint-brush.
How to:
  1. Roll about 60 paper tubes;
  2. Roll a few coils too, minimum 4 like the tutorial;
  3. Use the scissors to "unmount" the cereal cardboard;
  4. Keep the 2 larger pieces, one will be the frame back, the other will be the stencil;
  5. Use one of the big pieces and draw your image, the one you want to appear in stencil, in this tutorial is a flower, draw always on the backside;
  6. Cut it;
  7. Paint the front side with the color you chose, we used white;
  8. In the second big card piece, same size as the first one, glue the paper tubes, leaning against each other;
  9. Leave about 0,5in at the top and at the bottom, just like the image;
  10. Take you paper coils and glue them in the cardboard piece corner;
  11. Wait to dry;
  12. Cut the excess rolled paper;
  13. Apply glue both in the coils and in the stencil base;
  14. Glue the stencil to the base with the rolled tubes, just like the image;
  15. Press and let it dry, we used small paper clamps;
  16. Glue small pieces of paper around the edges of the frame.
  17. Let it dry;
  18. Varnish it;
  19. Let it dry again;


Et voilá!
Paper all the way!

Enjoy!

Paper rolls and paper coils, recycling old paper

This is a great idea and it's a wonderful way to reccycle and reuse old paper.
All the pictures are from Reloveddesigns.com.
This is a cheap and easy project that can be done by everyone from 8 to 80. It can be done in family and saved for later use.

This is a great project for several reasons:
  • Recycling;
  • Uses the bright colors, or just letters, from magazines and old newspapers;
  • It's cheap;
  • The final result is great;
  • it's a family project.
What we need:
  • old magazines,
  • white glue.
How to:

  1. Cut the magazine paper in strips (with about 5 to 7 cm width), try to make them all the same size;;
  2. Begin to roll the paper diagonally at one end, begin as "tight as possible" that way the roll will be skinny and long.;
  3. When they are almost done apply the glue on paper and finish the roll.
  4. Repeat the procedure for all paper strips.
Result: 
A stack of paper rolls.

To do what?

You can use this paper rolls to do a lot of things, to make some photo frames for example.
 
But if you feel with courage you can roll the paper rolls.

 
It's very easy. Use a round stick and rolls the paper roll around it. You can use a broomstick, a chinese stick or  a crochet needle.... 

The only thing you must control is that every time you go around with it the paper must overlap the previous turn. As a final result you will have a paper coil with a hole in the center. Apply a small amount of glue at the tip end.

If you have a lot of coils you can do something like those in the pictures, or use you imagination and do something completely different.




Et voilá!
Recycle and have fun!

Enjoy!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Newton discs, How do they work?

Sunlight has no color, that's why it is known as white light. In fact the white light is a mix of different colors, these colors are visible only when light passes through a transparent object such as glass, and decomposes in all colors, this effect is commonly called rainbow and scientifically called spectrum.

The spectrum consists of seven colors:
  • red; 
  • orange; 
  • yellow; 
  • green; 
  • blue; 
  • indigo; 
  • violet.  

Today we will do a "magic disc"- the Newton disc. We will learn that white light is made by mixing all these 7 colors.

What we need:

  • pencil,
  • scissors,
  • thick white card,
  • crayons, markers will do,
  • ruler,
  • compass,
  • protractor.
How to:
  1. Cut the card in a circle, use a compass;
  2. Use the protractor to divide it into 7 parts, like in the picture, sections of 55 º, 60 º and 35 º;
  3. Paint each piece with a spectrum of colors, the figure shows the red, the orange, the yellow, the green, the blue, the indigo and the violet. Paint it as uniformly as possible and use the same intensity with all the colors;
  4. Make a hole in the middle of the circle and pass the pencil through it, the center of the circle is where the "hole" of the compass is;
  5. Spin the pencil quickly, like a top, look at the color wheel, adjust as necessary to rotate the set easily.
What happens?
The disc appears as a grayish white tone.

Why?
In fact if the conditions were optimized we would see a clean white circle, without the grayish tone.

The colors painted on the wheel are the main colors of the white light, like those that are present in the rainbow. When the wheel spins it creates a visual effect that makes your brain believe that they mingle and wheel appears white when in reality it´s multicolored.

This is a demonstration, turn the test in to an experiment, experiment with different color combinations. Here are two suggestions: red, blue and green, or red and green for example, what happens? Why?

Et Voila!
After all the white has a lot of color

Enjoy it!

Lava lamp DIY- Recycling materials

A lava lamp is an object containing droplets of colored wax inside a closed glass container filled with clear liquid, the wax rises and falls due to changes in density caused by heating. This heating is due to the presence of an incandescent lamp.

Today we will build a lava lamp using plastic bottles.

What we need:
  • empty plastic bottle,
  • cooking oil,
  • funnel,
  • water,
  • food coloring,
  • tape or glue.
How to:
  1. Wash the bottle, remove the label and any residues of glue that may have;
  2. With the funnel fill the bottles to 3/4 with oil;
  3. Fill a measuring cup of water;
  4. Add water 3 or 4 drops of food coloring, the red gives it "that" look!;
  5. Add the water to the bottle, use the funnel;
  6. Cap and seal the bottle with glue, adhesive tape can also be used, but the glue is safer;
Your restless will love to see the bubbles go up and down, do not stir too intensely, always use smooth movements.

Plastic bottles are certainly a fantastic item to use on your crafts!

Et Voila!
A homemade lava lamp.

Enjoy!

Easter painting pages

Painting pages just for you.
Print and color.
All of this images were found on the internet.















Et voilá!
Have fun!

Enjoy!
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