Physics experiments
Middle school physics:
16 hands-on experiments.
The textbook classics across electricity and magnetism, forces and motion, and light and waves — every one of them doable with materials from home or a stationery shop, and every one of them opening with its safety notes.
Electricity & Magnetism
Light a Bulb with One Battery: Your First Circuit Experiment
Electric current is invisible, but connect one complete loop and the moment the bulb lights up, circuits suddenly make sense.
Build a Circuit That Lights: Closed, Open and Short
When a bulb won't light there are only two possibilities: the path is broken, or the current has found a shortcut around the bulb.
Series or Parallel: Two Bulbs, Two Ways to Wire Them
Same two bulbs, same battery. Change how they are wired and the brightness changes — and so does what happens when you unscrew one of them.
Ohm's Law I = U/R: Verifying It with a Fixed Resistor
How does current depend on voltage, and on resistance? Change one thing at a time and the answer surfaces on its own.
The Invisible Electric Field: Charging by Friction and the Forces Between Charges
Rub a balloon on your hair and it can pick up paper scraps and bend a stream of water. Behind it all are electric charges — and the invisible electric field that surrounds them.
The Secret Around a Magnet: Drawing Field Lines with Iron Filings and a Compass
A magnet pulls a paper clip toward it without ever touching it. Is that gap in between really empty? Sprinkle a handful of iron filings, and the field lines reveal themselves.
Forces & Motion
What Sets a Pendulum's Beat: A Period and Length Experiment
Release the same pendulum from any height, hang any weight on it — the time for one full swing barely changes. That is the isochronism of the pendulum, just as Galileo discovered it.
Balance a Ruler with Coins: The Lever Balance Experiment
On a seesaw, a lighter child sitting further out can still lift a heavier one. A lever balances on more than the size of the forces — the distance from each force to the pivot counts just as much.
Make an Egg Float: A Salt Water Buoyancy Experiment
The very same egg sinks to the bottom in fresh water, yet once you stir in enough salt it slowly rises to the surface. It isn't the egg that changed — it's the density of the liquid around it.
Measuring a Rock's Density with a Balance and a Graduated Cylinder
Pick up a rock by the river and no ruler can tell you its volume. A cup of water can.
Why Two Water Drops Merge into One: Feeling Intermolecular Forces at Home
Molecules are far too small to see, but the push and pull between them is something your own two hands can feel.
Light & Waves
A Laser Pointer and a Mirror: Verifying the Law of Reflection
Light hitting a mirror bounces back — and not in just any direction. Measure it, and the angle out matches the angle in exactly.
Why Light "Bends" in Water: A First Refraction Experiment
Dip a chopstick into a glass of water at an angle and it seems to "break" at the surface. That's no illusion of the glass — it's light refraction fooling your eyes.
A Prism Splits White Light: The Dispersion Experiment
The prism does not colour the light. Those colours were in there all along — normally piled on top of one another, which is what "white" looks like.
The Upside-Down Image in a Magnifying Glass: A Convex Lens Experiment
Held close, a magnifying glass shows you an enlarged, upright image — but hold it farther away, aim it at the window, and it throws a shrunken, upside-down world onto a sheet of paper.
How Waves Travel: A Frequency, Wavelength and Amplitude Experiment
Flick a long rope and humps go racing away down its length — yet the rope itself never travels anywhere. A wave carries vibration and energy, not the medium.
Suggest a topic
Want a physics experiment we haven’t covered?
Tell us which experiment from your textbook or classroom you would like written up, and it may become the next guide.