Friday, March 20, 2020
Rubber Egg and Chicken Bones - Mad Scientist Lab
Rubber Egg and Chicken Bones - Mad Scientist Lab A Mad Scientist can make a toy out of just about anything, including a boiled egg. Soak an egg in a common kitchen ingredient, vinegar, to dissolve its shell and make the egg rubbery enough that you can bounce it on the floor like a ball. Soaking chicken bones in vinegar will soften them so that they will become rubbery and flexible. Rubber Egg Materials hard-boiled eggglass or jar, big enough to hold the eggvinegar Turn the Egg into a Bouncy Ball Place the egg in the glass or jar.Add enough vinegar to completely cover the egg.Watch the egg. What do you see? Little bubbles may come off the egg as the acetic acid in the vinegar attacks the calcium carbonate of the eggshell. Over time the color of the eggs may change as well.After 3 days, remove the egg and gently rinse the shell off of the egg with tap water.How does the boiled egg feel? Try bouncing the egg on a hard surface. How high can you bounce your egg?You can soak raw eggs in vinegar for 3-4 days, with a slightly different result. The eggs shell will become soft and flexible. You can gently squeeze these eggs, but its not a great plan to try to bounce them on the floor. Make Rubbery Chicken Bones If you soak chicken bones in vinegar (the thinner bones work best), the vinegar will react with the calcium in the bones and weaken them so that they will become soft and rubbery, as if they had come from a rubber chicken. It is the calcium in your bones that makes them hard and strong. As you age, you may deplete the calcium faster than you replace it. If too much calcium is lost from your bones, they may become brittle and susceptible to breaking. Exercising and eating a diet that includes calcium-rich foods can help prevent this from happening.
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
The Descent of Hag
The Descent of Hag The Descent of Hag The Descent of Hag By Mark Nichol The headline of this post uses descent in two senses: This post discusses the etymological origin of hag, but it also points out how the connotation of the term has plummeted in status. The contemporary connotation of hag is ââ¬Å"old woman,â⬠with additional senses of a careless, ugly, or evil appearance; the offensive term ââ¬Å"fag hagâ⬠refers to a straight woman who associates with gay men. In the Middle Ages, the term referred to a female demon or an evil spirit, but it was originally associated with highly respected oracles, or soothsayers. Hag is the truncated version of the Old English term hagetes (also spelled hagtesse), meaning ââ¬Å"witchâ⬠or ââ¬Å"sorceress.â⬠The second syllable, later misidentified as a mere suffix, was lopped off, but thatââ¬â¢s the essential element; itââ¬â¢s probably related to words in other languages referring to demons or spirits, while hag is likely cognate with hedge. The significance of that term is that hedges were considered the boundary between civilization and the wild, and witches- and reclusive women with mysterious healing abilities who were sometimes accused of being witches- straddled both worlds. A term with a loose association, hagridden, refers to sleep paralysis, because of the belief that oneââ¬â¢s sense of being immobilized while lying in bed was caused by a spirit bearing down on the sufferer; by extension, the term also means ââ¬Å"tormented,â⬠and the verb hagride means ââ¬Å"torment.â⬠Similarly, the rare adjective hagged originally meant ââ¬Å"bewitchedâ⬠and later acquired the sense of ââ¬Å"gaunt,â⬠due to the belief that such an appearance was the result of bewitchment. Haggard, originally meaning ââ¬Å"unrulyâ⬠or ââ¬Å"wild,â⬠is not directly related- it comes from the Old French phrase faulcon hagard (ââ¬Å"wild falconâ⬠)- but itââ¬â¢s a distant relation that acquired the sense of ââ¬Å"wornâ⬠by association with hag. Other related words include the archaic noun haw, meaning ââ¬Å"enclosureâ⬠(the first syllable of hawthorn), and hex, which originally referred to a witch but later came to apply to a witchââ¬â¢s spell. (Haggle has a separate derivation; itââ¬â¢s related to hack.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Apply to, Apply for, and Apply withWriting the Century25 Idioms with Clean
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