WATER IN A SLING.
Half fill a mug with water, place it in a sling, and you may whirl it around you without spilling a drop; for the water tends more away from the centre of motion towards the bottom of the mug, than towards the earth by gravity.
ATTRACTION IN A GLASS OF WATER.
Pour water into a glass tumbler, perfectly dry, and it may be raised above the edge, in a convex form; because the particles of the water have more attraction for each other than for the dry glass; wet the edge, and they will be instantly attracted, and overflow, and the water will sink into a concave form.
TO PREVENT CORK FLOATING IN WATER.
Place at the bottom of a vessel of water, a piece of cork, so smoothly cut that no water gets between its lower surface and the surface of the bottom, when it will not rise, but remain fixed there, because it is pressed downward by the water from above, and there is no pressure from below to counter-balance it.
INSTANTANEOUS FREEZING.
During frosty weather, let a vessel be half filled with water, cover it closely, and place it in the open air, in a situation where it will not experience any commotion: it will thereby frequently acquire a degree of cold more intense than that of ice, without being frozen. If the vessel, however, be agitated ever so little, or receive even a slight blow, the water will immediately freeze with singular rapidity. The cause of this phenomenon is, that water does not congeal unless its particles unite together, and assume among themselves a new arrangement. The colder the water becomes, the nearer its particles approach each other; and the fluid which keeps it in fusion gradually escapes; but the shaking of the vessel destroys the equilibrium, and the particles fall one upon another, uniting in a mass of ice.
Or, provide a glass full of cold water, and let fall on its surface a few drops of sulphuret of carbon, which will instantly become covered with icy network: feathery branches will then dart from the sulphuret, the whole contents of the glass will become solidified, and the globules will exhibit all the colours of the rainbow.