An Expert’s Recommendations Reading glasses, mirrors and vinegar are common things that we see in our daily lives. When you come into contact with these things, you can sometimes notice some phenomena: reading glasses can be used to make fires, placing a mirror in a basin can create a rainbow while white vinegar can make an eggshell disappear. In daily life and learning, children often ask these questions: What is electricity? Can I generate electricity? Under what circumstances can paper strips dance on their own? Why does the toilet create a whirlpool when it is flushed? Books are the ladder of mankind’s progress. In this comic book about fun experiments, by using entertaining comic stories, Plants vs. Zombies characters such as Peashooter, Wall-nut, Sunflower and Torchwood demonstrate many fun experiments to answer many life questions and bring everyone to explore the mysteries behind the experiments. This allows children to enjoy reading and understand interesting science knowledge subtly at the same time. In life, science is everywhere and science makes life full of wonders. This book enables children to enter a broader world of science, understand and explain wonderful life from a scientific perspective as well as feel the greatness of science and the joy of learning. It also helps them to think and analyse problems, make arguments, deny, summarise and explore. Great scientists are also grown up from curiosity. This comic book about fun experiments is like a key to enter the palace of science. It stimulates children’s curiosity about science, cultivates their interest in science and enables them to understand basic science knowledge and principles. Moreover, children’s innocent questions will also promote their exploration together with their parents and thus further strengthen the relationship between them and their parents. Improving the public’s literacy of science should begin with children. I sincerely hope that more children will learn to explore, think diligently, dare to try and fall in love with science through this book. Let this interesting comic book about experiments to be an introductory reading material for future scientists! Man Ruilin Professor School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Central South University, China
Contents Can a whirlpool be made in a plastic bottle? 32 Which bottle rolls faster: the one filled with water or the one filled with sand? 36 How do we make a newspaper “stick” to a wall? 38 Why can paper strips dance by themselves? 42 Why doesn’t water leak out from the small holes on a piece of paper? 46 Have you seen an egg-eating bottle? 50 How do we make a bottle shrink on its own? 54 How do we generate electricity with lemons? 8 Can glasses be used to play music? 12 How do we make a volcano indoors? 16 How do we make artificial clouds? 20 How do we make invisible ink? 24 Have you tried making soft drinks yourself? 28
Contents How do we make a rainbow? 58 Why do eggs float? 62 Can water and a glass be used to make a magnifying glass? 66 How do we make a simple compass? 70 Can a piece of paper lift a book? 74 How do we make fingerprints on the paper visible? 78 How do we make a simple mosquito trap? 82 Can we make 3D glasses by ourselves? 86 Will eggshells disappear automatically? 90 Why won’t a ping-pong ball be washed away by water? 94 How do we distinguish raw eggs from cooked eggs? 98
Contents Can we cook noodles without using a pot? 102 How do we inflate a balloon without blowing it? 106 How do we purify murky water? 110 Why can a hot air balloon lift up to the sky? 114 Can we make fire extinguishers ourselves? 118 How do we draw with mushrooms? 122 How do we create patterns on a leaf? 126 How do we put a bird into the cage? 130 Can a paper cup be made into a phone? 134 How do we dye flowers? 138 What is Pavlov's experiment? 142 Fun Experiments Encyclopaedia 146 Glossary 158
Bonk Choy Squash Cherry Bomb Tall-nut Radish Sunflower Torchwood Jalapeno Wall-nut Peashooter Introduction of the main characters
Imp Pirate Zombie Cowboy Zombie Pirate Captain Zombie Zombie Bull Rider Conehead Cowboy Prospector Zombie Pirate Zombie Qigong Zombie Imp Monk
Okay. Swish Swish Swish How do we generate electricity with lemons? Aren’t you performing a magic trick for everyone today? What are you doing here? I'm getting my materials! Please hold the ladder for me. 8
Ouch! Peashooter, why didn’t you catch me? You ONLY asked me to hold the ladder for you. My magic performance today is generating electricity with lemons. I don’t believe it! Can lemons generate electricity? Thump! 9
Insert copper and zinc strips into several lemons to form a series circuit. The ends of the strips are connected to both positive and negative electrodes of one LED light bulb. It really lights up! Amazing! That trick is a chemical reaction. Lemons contains acidic electrolytes1 . Inserting metals with different electrochemical2 activity in lemons will form a primary battery, so it lights up the bulb. Not everyone knows this principle. Are you a physics teacher? 10
NO! I’m a LEMON FARMER! I’m looking for the THIEF who stole my lemons! It’s not my fault. They’re the ones who asked me to perform magic. Please don’t drag others into your wrongdoing! Apart from lemons, fruit such as apples and oranges as well as vegetables such as potatoes and tomatoes can also generate electricity. This chemical reaction is known as primary battery reaction. There are three conditions to build a primary battery: 1) the electrodes consist of two metals with different electrochemical activities or a metal and another conductive material; 2) both electrodes must be immersed in the electrolyte; and 3) there is a wire connected to the two electrodes to form a closed loop. Quick Facts 11
Can glasses be used to play music? Qigong Zombie! I want to join this! What’s the matter? Pooh! The fee is so expensive! It’s clearly daylight robbery3 ! Musical Instrument Courses RM10000 Musical Instrument Courses RM10000 Musical Instrument Courses RM10000 12
Plants vs. Zombies: How Do We Inflate A Balloon Without Blowing It? Story & Comic by ｜ Xiao Jiangnan Layout by ｜ Chan Yin Yee, Tham Meow Yoke Translated by ｜ Teo Huey Boon Edited by ｜ Anthony Chan Yew Choong Published by ｜ G.Apple Studio Sdn. Bhd. (517085-P) Endah Parade Shopping Mall Lot 3-055, 3rd Floor, 1, Jalan 1/149E, Taman Sri Endah, Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur. Distributed by ｜ United Publishing House (M) Sdn. Bhd. (14620-K) (A wholly-owned subsidiary of Sasbadi Holdings Berhad) Endah Parade Shopping Mall Lot 3-055, 3rd Floor, 1, Jalan 1/149E, Taman Sri Endah, Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03-9054 7272 Fax: 03-9054 7273 Email: [email protected] Website: www.uph.com.my Printed by ｜ Percetakan Advanco Sdn. Bhd. (45169-K) No 19, 21, 23, Jalan Segambut Selatan, 51200 Kuala Lumpur. If there are problems of missing or torn pages, kindly return to the distributor for replacement. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED First Printed September 2019 Plants vs Zombies ·Science Comic Books Fun Experiments Text Copyright © China Children’s Press and Publication Group First published in China by China Children’s Press and Publication Group This edition is published under licence by China Children’s Press and Publication Group, for sales in Malaysia and Singapore only and may not be bought for export thereafter. Plants vs. ZombiesTM © 2019 Electronic Arts Inc. PopCap is a trademark of Electronic Arts Inc. Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Xiao, Jiangnan PLANTS vs ZOMBIES : Questions & Answers Science Comic : Fun Experiments : How Do We Inflate A Balloon Without Blowing It? / Xiao Jiangnan ; Translated by: Teo Huey Boon ; Edited by: Anthony Chan Yew Choong. ISBN 978-967-2296-34-8 1. Comic books, strips, etc. 2. Science--Comic books, strips, etc. 3. Plants--Comic books, strips, etc. 4. Zombies--Comic books, strips, etc. 5. Comic books, strips, etc.--China--Translations into English. I. Title. 741.5