Top 3 household lifehacks

Simplify your life with physics!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion.

Equip­ment

  • liq­uid soap;
  • glass­es;
  • pa­per nap­kins;
  • plas­tic bot­tle;
  • sil­i­cone hoses;
  • hot glue;
  • alu­minum wire;
  • nail;
  • sand­pa­per;
  • bat­tery pack with croc­o­dile clips;
  • pa­per clips.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Life­hack 1: To keep glass­es or a mir­ror from fog­ging up, just even­ly ap­ply some liq­uid soap to the sur­face, then re­move the ex­cess and pol­ish with a pa­per tow­el. They won't fog up for a long time!

Life­hack 2: To pump wa­ter out of any con­tain­er us­ing a bot­tle, you need to make holes in the cap and bot­tom of the bot­tle, thread sil­i­cone tubes through the holes, and seal. Low­er one tube into the con­tain­er, clamp the oth­er shut, then squeeze the bot­tle. As soon as wa­ter be­gins to fill the bot­tle, you can re­lease the sec­ond tube, through which the wa­ter will pour out.

Life­hack 3: A sim­ple elec­tro­mag­net can help in the search for met­al. Wind some cop­per wire around a nail, clean the con­tacts, and con­nect to a bat­tery pack us­ing croc­o­dile clips. The mag­net at­tracts met­al ob­jects!

Process de­scrip­tion

Life­hack 1: When hot steam touch­es a cool mir­ror, it fogs up due to the con­den­sa­tion of wa­ter va­por: a lot of tiny wa­ter droplets form on the sur­face of the glass. When soap is ap­plied to the sur­face, the sur­fac­tants that make up the soap re­main in a thin film and pre­vent the for­ma­tion of droplets.

Life­hack 2: In squeez­ing the bot­tle, you push air out of it. Due to elas­tic force, the bot­tle par­tial­ly ex­pands, and the pres­sure in the bot­tle de­creas­es. Wa­ter be­gins to force its way into the bot­tle, fill­ing it, and then pours out through the sec­ond tube.

Life­hack 3: An elec­tro­mag­net con­sists of a coil and a fer­ro­mag­net­ic core. A mag­net­ic field aris­es when elec­tric cur­rent pass­es through the wire, and the core am­pli­fies it, also ac­quir­ing mag­net­ic prop­er­ties.

You can get these and oth­er ex­per­i­ments in the MEL Physics sub­scrip­tion!

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