Science Question: Can you defy gravity?
The law of gravity states that what comes up will come down. But sometimes other forces can make it appear that gravity is not working. This is a magic trick where you will make macaroni defy gravity and jump up.
Supplies needed:
• 3 Boxes dried tube-shaped pasta noodles
• Large spool of thin ribbon
• Bowl
The experiment:
Slide macaroni onto the ribbon, making a long pasta ‘snake’ in the bowl. You want it to be at least 5m long, or longer. After you have the string filled with noodles, hold the bowl at about chest height and toss a few inches of macaroni-covered ribbon out of the bowl.
The outcome:
Your macaroni begins to flow out of the bowl onto the floor, but if you look closely it jumps up several inches out of the bowl before it falls.
Why it worked:
This jumping action is called the Mould Effect. The ribbon and macaroni form a series of hard rods separated by flexible ribbon. It is physics. As one side of the pasta is lifted, the other side pushes down, causing it to ‘jump’. The macaroni appears to defy gravity.
Source: The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments by Rachel Miller, Holly Homer and Jamie Harrington.