20 Boredom-Busting Science Experiments You Can Do at Home, Courtesy of YouTube’s Physics Girl

YouTube sensation Physics Girl is keeping boredom at bay in the best way possible: with DIY science experiments that you can recreate on your own.

In the video below, she challenges herself to complete all 20 experiments in five minutes—not including the time it takes to set everything up—which amounts to 15 seconds for each one. Parents who are homeschooling their kids (or adults who just have a little more free time than usual while in self-isolation) can, of course, slow them down to a more leisurely pace or even spread them out over a few weeks.

You probably already have a lot of the materials you’ll need, like eggs, candles, soda cans, oil, water, pans, and other basic household items. Some experiments are simple and kid-safe—like spinning a hard-boiled egg on its side until it stands on its end—while others require adult supervision, like blowing out a candle and relighting it without actually touching the lighter to the wick.

A few of them might end up entertaining kids (or you) for much longer than the duration of the experiment itself. A mixture of cornstarch and tonic water, for example, creates a slime-like substance called a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning it can act like a solid or a liquid, depending on how you handle it. (If you don’t have tonic water, here’s how to make it with regular water.)

And after you’ve mastered all the challenges and spent hours letting cornstarch slime run through your fingers at various viscosities, there are many more wonders to behold on Physics Girl’s YouTube channel, which is run by PBS Digital Studios. There, the MIT graduate (also known as Dianna Cowern) explores why Tic Tacs sometimes bounce higher on the second bounce, investigates whether it’s possible to power a house with a ShakeWeight, and plenty more.