DIY Lantern for Hari Raya

Be creative during this festive season and decorate your house with DIY lanterns. It's easy to make! All you need are colourful A4-sized pieces of plastic (you can get it from the stationery shop), battery, wire, bulb, bulb holder, scissors, tape and a piece of cardboard.

Here are a few simple steps to make it.

Step 1:
Fold the coloured plastic piece into two. Then, cut the plastic starting from the folded edge. Leave approximately 2 cm on the opposite edge. The way we cut the plastic will determine result of the pattern. Be creative! You may try with printed papers too!

Step 2:

Open the folded plastic. Assemble the body of lantern simply by rolling the plastic into a tube shape as shown in the photo above and taping the edges together.

Step 3:
Now, make a simple circuit by connecting the materials with tape as shown in the picture below. 

Step 4:
Attach the simple circuit to a piece of cardbord as a base. Then, tape the base to the body of the lantern that you have made earlier.

Step 5:
If you prefer to hang up the lantern, punch two holes opposite each other on the top side of the lantern and tie a thread through it.

Tadaa! Now you can light up the lantern just how people used to traditionally, but powered by a dry cell battery! Remember DO NOT place a candle inside the lantern to light it up. This lantern is only for decorative purposes and should not be used with open flames such as candles. 

Although it looks like art or craft, it's actually another way to learn and apply knowledge of electricity through fun learning. Reminds me of a popular quote which goes, "I do and I remember"!

Posted by Ayu

Learning Specialist, Petrosains

Steel Wool Lighter

There are many ways to start a fire. For instance, campers usually bring along a lighter or match, army men might bring their fire starter if you’re doing it old school, you can use wood or bones to start a friction-based fire, and you can also use a lens and sunlight to start a fire.  In this short demonstration, we bring you a cool experiment on how to start a fire using a 9-volt battery and steel wool.

All you need is a battery (which in this demo, we prefer to use a 9 volt one because it has both terminals at the same end) and fine steel wool. Simply stretch out the steel wool so that it touches both ends of the battery terminals. Almost instantly, the steel wool will puff up and ignite.

If you are going to set a bonfire, make sure you have your tinder pile at the ready, because this all happens very quickly!

How does it work?

The basic principle involved is steel wool is a good conductor and battery is the power source. The moment we make contact between the steel wool and battery, the “electrical current” flows through the steel wool and the fine steel wool gets hot enough to create sparks and burn. If we try this using thicker steel wool, which strands are of a larger diameter, then there isn't enough "resistance" in the strands. We might not get any spark but we may later feel the battery getting warmer. In fact, we are discharging the battery.
A nine volt (9V) battery is considered a high voltage supply for small diameter strands of steel wool. Thus, the higher the voltage, the more current will flow and the hotter the steel wool strands will get.

Try to get an assortment of steel wool, an assortment of batteries and play and observe for a while. You may need some testing to find what the optimal combinations are to get the instant spark. Don’t forget the safety aspects. Get an adult to help you and be careful with fine steel wool as it can get in your skin like a splinter. Finally remember not to keep the battery and the steel wool together in your pocket or pack or they could start a fire on their own!

Shared by Izhana
Learning Specialist, Petrosains