Quick Quicksand
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Quick Quicksand
Materials:
Plastic container
Scissors
Duct or plastic tape
Garden hose
Small, heavy toys
The car sinks slowly into the quicksand pit, soon to be drawn into oblivion. Onlookers gasp as they wonder about the fate of the inhabitants. A scene from an Indiana Jones movie? No, the car is a toy, and the quicksand "pit" a plastic container. Here's how to make one yourself.
•Take a large yogurt or cottage cheese container or bottom of a quart milk jug and cut a half-inch hole in the side near the bottom.
•Cut eight half-inch slits radiating from the hole, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
•Push a garden hose into the hole, then seal the edges around the hose as best you can with duct or wide plastic tape.
•Fill the container with sand, not quite to the top -- do not pack or tamp down.
•Put a rock or small, heavy toy on top of the sand and turn on the spigot so the water trickles into the container (test beforehand to determine how much of a turn of your faucet handle produces a trickle).
•The sand will rise slightly as the water seeps between the grains, weakening its ability to support the toy. In other words ... quicksand!
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