Nitinol Paperclip

Reach into your kit & pull out the bag that says Experiment 31. Take everything out of the bag and place it on your white mat. Then, put the bag back in the box.

Place the two plastic cups in the center of the white mat, fill one cup halfway with cold water and fill the other cup halfway with hot water from the sink.

Grab the thermometer and check the temperature of the hot water. It needs to be 60 degrees celsius. If you need to heat the water, simply use the microwave to heat for 7 seconds at a time until you reach 60 degrees.

Next, grab the paper clip and unbend each side so that it is mostly straight and then place it into the cup of hot water. Watch how it bends back into its original shape!

Now, let’s try it again. Use your tweezers to grab the paperclip out of the hot water and drop it into the cup of cold water. Then, you can take it out of the cold water and unbend the paperclip again.

This time, unbend the paper clip like before but this time give it some different twists and turns. Then, dip it back into the cup of hot water to see it bend back to its original shape.

Now, grab a pen or pencil and this time let’s wrap the paperclip around the pen to create a coil then drop it into the hot water. No matter what shape you bend it into, the hot water makes it go back to its original shape.

Next, grab the sheet of black liquid crystal paper, and with your gloves off, place it on top of your hand, laying it across your fingers. Watch how it starts to change colors.

If you place the sheet on the table, it will start to change back to black as the heat escapes. This time, try using just your breath and watch how it creates a dark blue center that slowly fades away as the heat escapes.

This time, place the sheet on top of the cup of hot water. All types of heat work. Since the water is hotter than our body it changes much faster. You can even place it on top of the cup of cold water to help it cool down faster. You can try different things that are hot and cold.

Next, grab the piece of copper metal and place it in the palm of your hand holding the top with your thumb. Then, place the sheet of paper on top of the metal and watch as the heat transfers from your thumb to the metal making the colors grow.