1999-07-14|Sunatori's Kids: Projects [Done]

Potential Discovery or Invention

• always use bookmarks after reading!

• always tell the truth
  • age | 10 (base-8), 10 on 01-01, etc.

• jump into "newspaper pond" -> study physics and calculate cushion weight support

• make a peanut candle (peanut oil)

• answer questions
  • what is wrong with air pollution?

• attitude
  • always look around
  • avoid "penny wise and dollar foolish"
  • avoid tunnel taste, eating similar things all the time
  • avoid tunnel vision, tunnel thinking, blind spots
    • global optimisation versus local optimisation
    • both time and space
    • avoid maniac obsession like constantly emptying trash
    • exercise (e.g., come up with the simplest way to programme microwave oven for 1 minute, 10 minutes)
  • common sense versus tunnel vision, blind spots
  • consider Murphy's law
  • do not blindly follow rules
    • no laws/regulations in a perfect world
    • solar eclipse watching (just needs a filter)
    • traffic lights and stop signs if there is no car/pedestrian/police
  • do a push-up for each error
  • keep asking questions (Taken)
  • open-mindedness
  • prioritise (importance, urgency)
  • think logically before talking

• arrange domino pieces to form letters of a person's initials in cascade fall

• attend day camps and courses
  • Débrouillards
  • Dinosaurs
  • Magic
  • Math Day Camp at home with GRE questions
  • Rocks and Minerals

• build electrical
  • a buzzer with an electromagnet and an AC power supply
  • a radio
  • a battery with coins and lemon juice
  • a flash light with LED
  • a light sabre with LED
  • a polygraph (lie detector)
  • an electronic metronome
  • an elevator with a counterweight and a motor with direction switch

• build electronics
  • a gravity switch in film can and a nut
  • a HeNe laser
  • a light bulb
  • a motor with gear set
  • a unipolar motor with a bent wire, a battery and a rare-earth magnet
  • an LED array on a cereal box

• build mechanical
  • LEGO/Duplo blocks
  • K'nex pieces
  • rare-earth bar magnets with ball bearings as building elements
  • plastic scrap, straw, spaghetti
  • Stix (bridge, house, dome, etc.)
  • models of Thunderbirds and Tracey Island, then make a film with audio/video insert
  • a bow and arrow
  • a balance toy with a metallic arc and counterweights
  • a balloon-powered vehicle on a suspended fishing line
  • a balloon vertical lifter with a nozzle to control air flow
  • a humidity meter with a piece of hair (amplify reading by lever)
  • a pendulum and demonstrate the effect of length not weight
  • a push puppet
  • a model of double helix DNA (rotating with motor)
  • a trebuchet
  • a "telephone" communicator with 2 plastic cups and metal/fish line

• build mechatronics
  • a solar-powered robot
  • robots (kits, free-form) and do sumo fight

• build optics
  • a heliostat with mirrors (parabola)
  • a spying periscope with prism
  • a rotating mirror sphere with a bouncing ball and broken plastic mirror pieces

• build magnetics
  • a compass with a floating rare-earth magnet
  • a maglev windmill girouette/anemometre
  • a magnetiser solenoid by winding wire around a plastic core
  • a balance with a straw, a pin and 2 grapes on the ends, then swing it with a rare-earth magnet

• build a shaking rock with a pillow and a motor having an asymmetrical weight

• build toys
  • a house of cards with playing cards
  • a Jacob's ladder
  • a Mobius strip (cut in half, also twist 2/3/4 times and cut in half)
  • a 3-way Mobius strip
  • a Klein's bottle
  • a 3-D pop-up greeting card
  • a pinball game

• build and play a Viking board game

• build a scooter

• build a squirrel/pigeon trap

• build a star theatre planetarium

• build a racquet game with rubber bands

• build a steam snow melting system with a kettle and a perforated drain tile

• build a thermometer with a film container and coloured water

• build a pulley suspended crossing with a rope fixed to a tree

• build aeronautics
  • an airplane powered by compressed air by air pump
  • an airplane powered by rubber band
  • a plastic model airplane

• build an artificial lung with a clear plastic bottle, balloon and a membrane (balloon) at the cut-bottom of the bottle

• build musical instrument
  • a xylophone with construction leftover wood pieces
  • string with a rubber band (guitar, harp)
  • whistle and flute with a tube
  • mutant guitar sound by putting pressure on string ends

• build ice structures
  • ice columns and ice statue with dripping water at -10 C or below

• build snow structures
  • igloo with a window (back yard, front yard)
  • maze (front yard)
  • skating rink (back yard)
  • slide (front yard)
  • snowperson (front yard)
  • tunnels (front yard)
  • fortress (front yard)
  • wall (front yard)
  • dinosaur statue (front yard)

• build Tracy Island and Thunderbirds out of recycled containers and make a video

• build a water park in back yard

• build a sun dial

• build a solar car
  • use multiple mirrors (heliostat) to concentrate sunlight
  • use blacklight for greater UV content
  • compare indoors/outdoors for UV portion

• build a microwave energy reflector for cellular phone/wireless phone with aluminum foil

• build something with a cork

• build something with straws

• build something with plastic cloth hangers

• build an indoor igloo with diaper packages

• burn a piece of wood in a candle flame to make a graphite pen

• soak a piece of paper ($5 bill) in a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water, then burn it without damaging it

• arrange figure skating music with GarageBand

• compose music in GarageBand with natural human sounds (fart, blurp, hicups, etc.)

• do chemistry experiments
  • buy a chemistry lab kit
  • buy a glow-in-the-dark ring by chemical reaction
  • buy chemiluminescent bar/ring
  • do crystal growth
  • mix chlorine (Javex) with ammonia (Windex) to produce toxic monochloramine smoke

• do electronics
  • buy an electronic project kit

• buy stuff
  • Active/Future Electronics
  • Edmund Scientific
  • Radio Shack

• capture frogs/tadpoles and grow them

• capture a mouse/rat

• carry mini-books to read at bus stop, phone card

• Cellular Radio telephone eavesdrop on channel 79 to 83 on TV (analog only)

• choose musical instruments
  • keyboard for flexibility and connection to a computer

• collect iron filings in sands with a magnet

• computer/multimedia/Internet
  • 3-D computer model creation and animation (Meshwork, Infini-D, Ray Dreams, Poser, etc.)
  • do graphics with "paint" and "draw"
  • do HyperTalk programming in HyperCard (MaGnUm, MeGnOm, etc.)
  • do HyperTalk programming in HyperCard (Typing Practice Game, etc.)
  • MIDI programmes (MIDIGraphy, etc.)
  • play HyperGames
  • play CD Scientifix
  • produce animation with QuickTime
  • produce games with HyperCard (HyperGames)
  • produce graphics with scanned images of comic characters
  • create new game with HyperCard (MaGnUm, Bin Laden, etc.)
  • multimedia effects to make morph and warp effects
  • multimedia effects to play sound and voice backwards, special effects (echo, etc.)
  • multimedia effects to play same mono sound from 2 speakers at slight delay for ambience (delay element)
  • multilingual dictionary in Revolution
  • Typing Programme in Revolution
  • Skating Music Scheduling System in Revolution
  • ASCII Art/Edit and animation with Revolution

• cooking
  • dome-shaped cake
  • Egg-Pancake
  • muffins
  • Nutri-Puck (pancakes with meat and vegetables)
  • wiener sausage with half slices to make a circle

• connections
  • place a loudspeaker as a microphone inside an acoustic guitar, connect it with a ghetto blaster

• create new playing cards (Gro Cards)

• create new rules for chess, checker, card games

• creativity
  • calligraphy
  • hieroglyph (must create characters)
  • music composition on the keyboard
  • story composition with/without illustration

• cut a Mobius strip in half to make a large ring

• cycling

• demonstrate fluorescent paint under black light/UV LED

• demonstrate tricks
  • hole in a hand with a paper tube (perspective)
  • continuous blowing with mouth as air reservoir
  • (99 > 111 > 100) in the microwave oven time control (seconds versus minute)

• design a stable table/chair

• digital camera
  • still picture, QuickTime movie

• disassemble items into parts and reassemble it
  • ball-point pen
  • watch
  • radio

• do camping in a tent

• do chemistry experiments
  • soak desicant in water to observe exothermic reaction (water boils!)

• do decision-making balance list with weighting factor for choice of high school

• do fireworks

• do laser light show with a laser pointer in bed

• do origami

• do perfume experiment

• do research and write a report with hierarchy and organisation
  • Nuclear Weapons, contains Fission (A-bomb) and Fusion (H-bomb)
  • birds
  • dinosaurs
  • universe, galaxy, stars, planets, moons, constellations

• do ice fishing on a container with partially frozen ice and a fish figurine

• drive a car in a large parking lot (Park & Ride)

• eat chalk as antacid

• eat weeds (dandelion, etc.)

• electricity conduction in distilled water versus NaCl water

• envelope a gift in a balloon, must puncture to get it

• experiments
  • smell by eating a potato and an apple with eye and nose closed
  • talk with lungs filled with helium from a balloon
  • put whitener into a cup of coffee and listed to the change in stirring sound
  • drop droplets of water into a hot flying pan to see insulated mercury action
  • melt margarine/yogurt tab on a hot stove for art creation

• explain concepts
  • 10-digit dialing for local telephone calls
  • addiction (alcohol, cigarette, drug, Pokémon)
  • diminishing return
  • Doppler effect
  • economy of scale (e.g., Internet hosting business)
  • profit margin
  • population "donut effect" downtown
  • species don't mix after 1 generation (mule, etc.)
  • grey scale of human skin colour
  • showing no information is better than showing wrong information
  • progression of myopia
  • progressive taxes on income taxes
  • salary versus capital gain ($1 dollar/year ideal)
  • U.S.A. comprises 46 states, 4 commonwealths, 1 district
  • water on leaky mesh filter for saving/wasting money
  • boiling point of water is lower at high altitude
  • boiling point of water is higher in a pressure cooker
  • boiling point of water is higher with NaCl
  • edible food-grade paraffin wax
  • mold around Ginkgo biloba seeds
  • left-hand and right-hand laws
  • Murphy's Law
  • Moore's Law
  • clouds dissipate

• explain how it works
  • furnace function and house temperature difference between top and bottom floors

• explain mathematics
  • base-10/base-2/base-8/base-16 numbers
  • calculus (differential, integral)
  • compound interest
  • matrix theory
  • use spreadsheet for plotting functions (e.g., sine wave, y = x^1.5)
  • graphing calculator
  • statistics (sampling, normal distribution)

• explain science
  • action, reaction, inertia, momentum
  • alcohol (methane-methanol, ethane-ethanol)
  • alloy
  • analogue and digital, A-D/D-A conversion, PCM/PAM/PWM/etc.
  • bacteria suvival on metallic surface (coins)
  • benzene core for smell
  • breathe into skin repeatedly to raise skin temperature by accumulated heat
  • 1 Byte = 8 bits, 1 KByte = 1024 bits, 1 MByte, 1 GByte, 1 TByte, etc.
  • binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal, etc.
  • pixel
  • difference among computer virus, worm, Trojan horse, etc.
  • echo-location (bats, sonar, radar)
  • eddy current effect (movement of rare-earth magnet above a copper block)
  • electromagnetic radiation spectrum (light) continuous
  • electroplating (penny (Cu) + vinegar + salt, then soak nail (Fe) into liquid)
  • F = ma (acceleration, not speed), W = Fl
  • ionising radiation (VUV, X-ray, gamma ray, etc.)
  • Normal (Gaussian) distribution
  • inhale He and talk at high pitch voice, inhale SF6 and ...
  • helium escape from a porous balloon due to small molecular size
  • logarithm and logarithmic scale
  • monomer versus polymer
  • octave (8th note)
  • Newton decided the number of colours to be 7 to correspond with music
  • pH scale (acid-base) (H3O+, OH-)
  • polar airline route for minimum distance with the globe, jet stream for different time going East/West
  • probability
  • rectifier with diodes
  • latch-up problem in a flip-flop
  • series
  • skyscraper height versus earthquake (swing, not break)
  • sound distortion at high volume and loudness button (linear versus non-linear)
  • stable table with 3 legs, land vehicle with 3 wheels
  • terminal velocity, fall 90 metre and survive
  • time zone (UTC/GMT, EST/EDT, etc.)
  • DNA double helix (AT-CG)

• explain scientific fraud
  • planting evidence, fudging data, etc.

• explain sports
  • track events (1 500 metre race, staggered start)

• finish homework at school for more free time after school

• finish book chapter or TV chapter before going away (toilet, etc.)

• fly
  • Air Hog compressed-air airplane
  • frisbee
  • kite
  • rocket launcher at the mini-airport

• fold a sheet of paper and cut it to make multiple symmetrical holes

• fold a sheet of paper maximum of 7 times
  • possible to fold a 1-ply Kleenex tissue paper 8 times!

• foster imagination, creativity, ingenuity and originality
  • importance of books, audio-only programmes, black & white movies, etc.

• go to Toys-R-Us to buy "distressed goods"

• Good -> Bad
  • Anakin Skywalker -> Darth Vader (Dark Side)

• grow avocado tree from avocado seed soaked in water

• hammer a penny to make a pendant

• soak a penny in acid/base for accelerated oxidation

• hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to bleach hair

• inflate a balloon and latex/vinyl gloves with air or water

• invent
  • a new board game
  • bullet toboggan
  • cross-country skis with uphill spike
  • head umbrella
  • shower head with liquid soap
  • soup maker
  • basket elevator with electric motor

• invisible ink magic
  • write something on a 3M sticky pad with a yellow fluorescent pen, illuminate with incandescent lamp versus fluorescent lamp versus UV LED

• keyboard practice
  • Greek characters
  • Morse code
  • music
  • touch-typing with a broken keyboard of a computer terminal

• lick a 9-Volt battery

• listen to short-wave radio
  • Morse code (amateur bands)
  • overseas radio stations
  • static noise on AM radio due to meteor and lightning

• make a computer list of X'mas gift wishes and publish it on the Internet

• make a fountain pen out of a real feather

• make a big pile of wrinkled newspaper and magazine pages as a cushion so that the kids can be thrown into it safely

• make an ant farm

• make flags with rare-earth magnet, straw and graphics from flag website

• make ice cream in sub-0 temperature with ice and salt mixture

• make paper out of fibres

• make point-symmetrical patterns by folding paper and cutting edges and holes

• make triangular origami

• melt plastic (polyethylene from ice-cream container) and use it to glue, mold, weld, etc.

• missionise tasks and execute them one by one

• modify a computer game (sound, graphics) by ResEdit (Baxter)

• observe monitors
  • approach a magnet to CRT and LCD to see the distortion effect
  • splash water on CRT and LCD to see the magnified pixels

• observe movement of a ball in parabola

• observe space station Mir in the sky with naked eyes

• organise life (journe pedagogique)
  • "test"
  • schedule of the day
  • do choirs to earn money as the only way to get allowance
  • self-count monthly allowance

• participates in contests, library programmes

• pierce a Zip Loc plastic bag filled with water with bamboo sticks

• play bowling and explain Strike and Spare, keep score

• play electrostatic game by walking on the carpet and touching a grounded object (e.g., filing cabinet) in the dark

• play CD-ROM
  • CD Scientifix (Débrouillards)
  • Dinosaur Safari
  • HyperCard Mail List CD
  • Magic School Bus

• play games
  • geography name finding game on globe/atlas/map
  • mathematical games
  • HyperGames
  • card games (memory game)
  • checkers
  • chess against computer
  • computer games
  • invent new card games
  • Scrabble
  • Genome quiz

• play sports
  • badminton in back yard

• play with fire
  • eat fire
  • put out a candle fire with fingers

• play with carbon paper copying (black ink on newspaper)

• play with magnetic fishing

• practice making fire with a match

• produce a LEGO video movie, Spice Girls music video

• put hot water into a can to create vacuum

• put things in order

• read newspaper clips on science, technology and engineering

• reconfigure a racing track from flat level-crossing (2-D) to bridge (3-D), then to double-decker roadway

• record and play back music and speech backwards on the computer

• record orchestra by multiple channels of music

• research hottentot

• conduct music

• observe different ice formations

• rock hunting and collection in mines and pits

• rock polish with diamond drill/sanding bits

• rock tumbler supplies (grits)

• scientific experiments
  • blow air from a hair dryer into 1 ping-pong ball and tilt it to demonstrate lift by Bernoulli effect
  • blow air from a straw into 2 ping-pong balls, which hit together
  • chromatograph to separate colours
  • primary and complementary colours (stare at one colour, then stare at white surface)
  • explain duty cycle in microwave oven
  • explain why LED does not light up in microwave oven
  • fry a Compact Disc in microwave oven
  • fry a carrot, dill pickles, green pepper, orange peel, etc. in microwave oven
  • grow mold on a wet piece of bread
  • light up a dead fluorescent/incandescent lamp in microwave oven
  • no-mix hot water (red) and cold water (blue) in 2 half containers
  • observe rust comparison (water, air, water + air)
  • penny rusts in vinegar to make green colour
  • resonating wine glasses with a finger on the wet edge (1 transmitter, multiple receiving glasses!)
  • rusting of iron, steel, copper in water, half-water, air, salt
  • show effect of outdoor UV exposure on newspaper
  • spray orange oil from orange peel into candle flame to make fireworks
  • make super-candle from broken candles
  • put a finger into a flame in fast motion without feeling pain
  • volcano with vinegar and baking soda
  • pour water for light refraction to view a penny in a pan
  • glass upside down with a cardboard for atmosphere to hold
  • observe a mini-tornado at the sink
  • observe a laminar flow from the faucet
  • touch a glove and a hand simultaneously, show only the glove for feeling false sensation
  • compare freshness of an apple/avocado: MSG, NaCl (better), onion (?)
  • best way to dry a glass/cup: up, down, side, diagonal

• Science Fiction
  • read Jules Verne's books
  • watch Star Trek, etc.

• sculpture
  • ice sculpture with a chisel
  • Styrofoam sculpture with a steel wire and a battery

• sell items at garage sale

• send drawing and math for grand-parents

• show magic
  • sponge and ice in a glass for water-ice transformation

• show light magic
  • fluorescent paint that glows in black light
  • luminescent paint that glows in the dark

• show Space-Shuttle tiles and aerogels

• squeeze orange/lemon peel for its oil to burn in a flame

• teach music to each other

• give direction to friends in map on a website

• super-heat water (after repeated heating to remove gases) in microwave oven, sprinkle salt to activate

• super-cool water (or beer in a bottle)

• swing a stick hard to make a sound

• swing a cup/glass of H2O without spilling due to centrifugal force

• take apart toothpaste dispenser mechanism (Colgate/Crest pump, Colgate standup, Crest upright)

• tell story of 4 little pigs (straw, wood, brick, dome)

• suspend objects from ceiling with magnets

• teach music to sisters and brothers

• turn a belt around 2 times to put it back straight

• village of Sunatori in Romania

• voice change with helium from a balloon

• what does "Nova" mean in Spanish?

• write a summary of a book (Jules Verne, Harry Potter)

• write in mirror image letters with left hand (Leonard da Vinci)

• virtual lab

• automatic surrealism = surrealist automatism

• anamorphic illusion

• clean a penny with vinegar

• place a penny on a solid ice to observe its sinking
  • compare an old penny (copper) with a new penny (steel)

• use a magnet to decipher what kind of metal is inside a penny
  • copper -> zinc -> steel + nickel

• cancer tree

• Do Plants Get Cancer? - YouTube

• Finding Polaris?

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"Sunatori, Go Simon" <GS.Sunatori@HyperInfo.CA>

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Copyright/Droit d'auteur © 1995-2024 by/par HyperInfo Canada Inc.

• All rights reserved./Tous droits réservés.
• Produced in Canada./Produit au Canada.

ISBN 978-0-929105-04-8

• 2024-12-17T20:36:33.000Z