Mims - Make: Forrest Mims science experiments DIY projects from the pages of Make

Forrest Mims

Forrest Mims Science Experiments

DIY Projects from the Pages of Make:

By Forrest Mims

Copyright 2016 Forrest Mims. All rights reserved.

Printed in Canada.

Published by Maker Media, Inc.,
1160 Battery Street East, Suite 125
San Francisco, California 94111

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Publisher: Roger Stewart

Editor: Patrick DiJusto

Copy Editor: Nancy Peterson, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader: Scout Festa, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Interior Designer and Compositor: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Illustration: Richard Sheppard, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Cover Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Indexer: Valerie Perry, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

September 2016: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2016-07-25: First Release

See oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781680451177 for release details.

Make:, Maker Shed, and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. The Maker Media logo is a trademark of Maker Media, Inc. Forrest Mims Science Experiments and related trade dress are trademarks of Maker Media, Inc.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Maker Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps.

While the publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the author disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including, without limitation, responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.

978-1-680-45117-7

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Make:

1160 Battery Street East, Suite 125

San Francisco, CA 94111

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Make: unites, inspires, informs, and entertains a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and garages. Make: celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your will. The Make: audience continues to be a growing culture and community that believes in bettering ourselves, our environment, our educational systemour entire world. This is much more than an audience its a worldwide movement that Make: is leading and we call it the Maker Movement.

For more information about Make:, visit us online:

• Make: magazine makezine.com/magazine
• Maker Faire makerfaire.com
• Makezine.com makezine.com
• Maker Shed makershed.com
• To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to bookquestions@oreilly.com.

This book is dedicated to my late father, Forrest M. Mims Jr., and my wife Minnie, both of whom encouraged my pursuit of science, and our three children, Eric, Vicki and Sarah, each of whom produced outstanding science fair projects during their school years.

This book owes much to former MAKE: Magazine editor Mark Frauenfelder, who understands better than anyone the motivations that drive and inspire both makers and amateur scientists. It was Mark who assigned the column in MAKE: that evolved into this book.

A n editorial in a leading science journal once proclaimed an end to amateur science: Modern science can no longer be done by gifted amateurs with a magnifying glass, copper wires, and jars filled with alcohol. I grinned as I read these words. For then as now theres a 10 magnifier in my pocket, spools of copper wire on my workbench, and a nearby jar of methanol for cleaning the ultraviolet filters in my homemade solar ultraviolet and ozone spectroradiometers. Yes, modern science uses considerably more sophisticated methods and instruments than in the past. And so do we amateurs. When we cannot afford the newest scientific instrument, we wait to buy it on the surplus market or we build our own. Sometimes the capabilities of our homemade instruments rival or even exceed those of their professional counterparts.

So began an essay about amateur science I was asked to write for Science (April 1999, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/284/5411/55.full), one of the worlds leading science journals. Ironically, the quotation in the first sentence came from an editorial that Science had previously published.

In the years since my essay appeared in Science, amateur scientists have continued doing what theyve done for centuries. Theyve discovered significant dinosaur fossils, found new species of plants, and identified many new comets and asteroids. Their discoveries have been published in scientific journals and books. Likewise, thousands of websites detail an enormous variety of amateur science tips, projects, activities, and discoveries. Ralph Coppola has listed many of these sites in Wanderings, his monthly column in The Citizen Scientist (www.wanderings.ca/TNW/Archive/Wanderings.pdf).

Todays amateur scientists have access to sophisticated components, instruments, computers, and software that could not even be imagined back in 1962 when I built my first computer, a primitive analog device that could translate 20 words of Russian into English with the help of a memory composed of 20 trimmer resistors (www.digibarn.com/stories/MITS/forrest-mims-III-material/Homebrew%20Analog%20Computer.pdf).