• Question: What Experiments Have Surprised you when you found the results and what was the experiment?

    Asked by lisabristowe to Judith on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi, The experiments we do break down into two things, either synthesis (making new materials) or characterising the materials we have already made. The characterization is always more interesting and we look at physical properties eg strength, optical properties and chemical properties, eg, composition.

      so i was working on someone elses gel, looking at the strength- the way we calculate strength of a material is to pull it apart (tension) or push it together (compression) until it fails, in this case i was pulling it apart, and it broke into two sections. But when i left the two sections touching they joined back together!! (i later found out that this is called self-healing, but did not know that at the time!!)

      That was without doubt the most surprising thing! I was honestly convinced that i hadn’t run the test yet so did it again!

      What kinds of experiments do you do in lessons??

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