Princess Rashid- Art with science

I found Princess Simpson Rashid while I was googling in Internet about the Periodic Table of chemical elements, her paintings just popped up when I asked google to see "images".  My first thought was "wooo this is soberb, I have to post this". I found it so amazing that, for the first time in "Mentes Irrequietas/ Restless Minds Boosters" blog history, I felt I should write the artist before I post it, and so I did it, Princess Simpson Rashid answered me next day giving Restless Minds permission to post her work, thats why for the first time- of many more, I hope- the image has the "used with permission" statement.

Princess Simpson Rashid is a passionate with science. She is a Bachelor in Physics- Georgia State University-, and she studied printmaking and painting at the Escuela de Artes Plastica in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Science-Inspired Abstraction, Modern Sport-Fencing, and Expresssionistic Landscapes are the main themes she turns to in her work. Today we are going to see only a small part of her work, the Science-Inspired Abstraction.
If you like the images you are going to see next, I strongly advise you to check Rashid website, her work is "super restless" and full of color and good energy.
At this moment Rashid lives in Tampa, Florida, USA, and in her own words:

"My current body of work explores the relationship between abstract art and math, color and music, composition and perception. I use line and color to convey movement. My painting technique often involves dripping and pouring paint until I’m satisfied with the composition. My artistic goal is to capture the individual energy and essence of the subject matter by whatever means available to me. Color, texture, design and energy are the components that make up all of my work.." in http://www.foglefineart.com/artists/profile/rashid-princess/

In this paintings Princess Simpson Rashid is a true art scientist, or "sciencartist" if you want, she uses the elements of Periodic Table, the x's and y's from math and even Pi constant from geometry (the famous 3,14). Super Restless uh?

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Periodic Table-2",  Acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 60 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Periodic Circles 2",  Acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 36 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Composition B",  Acrylic on Canvas,48 x 24 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Composition A",  Acrylic on Canvas,48 x 24 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Periodic Circles 1",  Acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 36 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Pi-1",  Acrylic on Panel, 24 x 24 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

For more informations please consult Rashid website, and her blog.

Sources: 
http://www.foglefineart.com 
http://princessrashid.com

Et voilá!
Science and art holding hands!

Enjoy!

Nature finds a way- light labyrinth

It's amazing how the sentence "Nature finds a way" is incredibly correct, everyone knows at least one story about animals saving people or about animals doing thousands of  km despite the unimaginable difficulties- like monarch butterflies or salmon going up the river.

Nature follows a small set of rules that allow ecosystems to function in equilibrium theoretically "ad eternum" if they are not disturbed by the "human hand".

Today I bring you a demonstration of how nature always finds a way to overcome the difficulties.
The test is very simple allows direct observation of the struggle for life.

We will need:

• potato;
• small plastic container/pot, like a cup,
• soil,
• shoe box,
• wooden blocks, legos®, or other small obstacles.

How to:

1. Allow the potatoes a few weeks at room temperature, so they can germinate, this procedure should be done in dry conditions, with light and warm. This procedure can take up to 6 weeks; 
2. Take the potatoes and place them in the container with the "little eyes" facing upwards;
3. Cover the potatoes with moist soil;
4. In the narrow side of the box make a round hole the size of a small coin;
5. Put the pot inside the box at the opposite end to the hole that opened in the box;
6. build small walls and obstacles using the legos®;
7. Place these obstacles inside the box, make sure that there is at least one free path to the hole, don't close the hole;
8. Close and seal the box, make sure no light can get in except from the hole;
9. Place the box somewhere with direct light with the hole facing the light source;
10. Wait 3 or 4 days and observe.

What happens?
After a while the potato will grow in light direction, sprouts will naturally go around obstacles in light direction

Why?Because the plant needs light to produce food, and thus growth will always be towards the light.
 
Go further: 
Repeat this with other plants.
"Do all plants grow in the same way?" 
you can use dry beans, onion.
 
Et Voilá!
Nature finds a way!

Enjoy!

Recycled lanterns, DIY project

For Christmas, Halloween or any acasion, handmade lanters with cans! Its a great way o reuse and recycling metal can's thats would end in trash can..
I found this super restless idea here and i think the final result is great. 
this project needs adult supervision and I fond it to be a bit more difficult o execute then it appear.


What we need:

• cans, sausage cans, mushrooms, peas ... in short, those who we often have around in the kitchen,
• hammer, careful with your fingers,
• nail, it will look better if you use a thin nail,
• water, enough to fill up the cans,
• dishcloth,
• freezer, ya the one in refrigerator,
• candles, as many as the cans;
• indelible marker.

How to:

1. Fill up the cans with water;
2. Place then in the freezer;
3. Wait about 24 hours;
4. With the indelible marker draw the form you want to illuminate in the can, you can draw it in a piece of paper and secure it with tape to the can;
5. Cover a table with a cloth, make sure the table is resistant;
6. With the nail and the hammer punch some holes along the drawing lines, those must be equally spaced;
7. Place the can in the sink, wait until you can remove the ice block;
8. Dry the can; 
9. Now you can paint it like they did here; 
10. Place the candle inside.

Et voilá!
Light effects!

Enjoy!

Paper clip hearts, so lovely, so simple

Mother's day is almost here and today we will see how to bend a paper clip in a heart shape.
I saw it here for the first time and it was love at first sight.

You can bend your hearts using any size or paper clip color.

Et voilá!
Thank you Tais for this wonderful restless idea. Very simple and very restless

Enjoy!

1+1 sometimes is not 2

This is one of the greatest math problems, side by side with the one that states that 0 is different than 0. But this demonstration is not about math, is about Archimedes' Principle.

Archimedes' Principle states:
" a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid"

In other words, when we place a body in a fluid, like water, the volume of the object equals the volume of displaced water.

The simplest example is a bath. If we fill the tub with water up to the top and we lay down inside it, the water will exit, and your bathroom will be a very wet place similar to a lake. The amount of water that came out equals your body volume. You can, with some time and work, calibrate the tub to find out your body volume, 1L=1dm3.
In this example 1+1=2, but sometimes 1+1= "not sure" 

What we need :

• glass container,
• tape, one you can write on
• pen,
• sugar,
• glass container with a scale,
• paper towel,
• straw,
• spoon,
• hot water.

How to:

1. Clean the container;
2. Apply a vertical strip of tape in the container;
3. Fill the scaled container with hot water (container A);
4. Pour the water in the other container (container B); 
5. Use the pen on the tape to mark the water level in container B;
6. Fill the container A again and add the water to the container B
7. Use the pen again and mark the water level in container B;
8. Reject the water;
9. With the paper towel clean and dry container B;
10. Repeat step 3, 4 and 5;
11. Now fill up the container A with sugar;
12. Add the sugar to container B;
13. Use the spoon to mix the solution;
14. Use the pen to mark the level;

What happens?
1 volume of hot water + 1 volume of sugar it's different from 2 volumes of hot water.

Why?
Water molecules are organized like a net. This net is stable and cohesive due to hydrogen bridges. When this net is formed some hydrogen atoms link to neighbor water molecules by a "false" bond with the oxygen, those are called hydrogen bridges. When this happens some "blank spaces" are left between the molecules- in the net. This spaces are as big as the molecules are excited, thats why we used hot water- more empty space makes dissolution more efficient.

When we add the sugar the sugar molecules occupy the empty spaces between water molecules, thats why:

1 sugar unit+ 1 water unit doesn't equal 2 water units

This is a demonstration, but you can make it an experiment:
Go further:
Try with 1 unit of water+ 1 unit of sugar. Does that equals 2 units of sugar?
Try with cold and ice water, what happens?

Et Voilá!
Now you can teach some stuff to your math teacher

Enjoy!