Experiment 12 — Fooling Your Own Senses

Topic: Biology · Classes 4–5 · Our sense organs and how we use them

Aim: Identify the food correctly — then find out which sense you were really using.

Daily: When you have a cold, food tastes bland — because most of “taste” is really smell. Chefs and tea tasters train their noses as carefully as their tongues.

Question: Blindfolded, with your nose pinched, you taste a piece of onion. What is most likely?

Exp: Most of what we call taste is smell. With the nose blocked, even strong foods are hard to identify.

Exp: Detailed flavour comes mostly from smell.

Question: Food tastes bland during a cold because…

Exp: Smell is doing most of the work of flavour.

Question: Sense organs send messages to the…

Exp: The brain interprets and combines the signals.

Question: Removing one sense at a time in a test is an example of…

Exp: It isolates the effect of a single factor — the heart of fair testing.

Question: You want to test whether hot water dissolves sugar faster. Which setup is a FAIR test?

Exp: Only the temperature may differ; every other input must be identical.

Question: A clay lump sinks; the same clay as a boat floats. This shows floating depends on…

Exp: Shape decides how much water is pushed aside.

Question: Which pair are BOTH attracted by a magnet?

Exp: Only iron, steel, nickel and cobalt are magnetic.

Question: A seed sprouts in a dark cupboard. What does this prove?

Exp: Germination uses food stored inside the seed.

Question: The bulb does not glow although the switch is closed. Most likely cause?

Exp: A non-conducting material anywhere in the loop stops the current.

Question: Toy 10 cm, lamp 15 cm from the toy, screen 30 cm behind it. Shadow height?

Question: Salt water is filtered. What is left on the filter paper?

Exp: Filtering cannot separate a dissolved solid; you must evaporate.

Question: A toy car travels further on tile than on carpet because tile has…

Exp: Smooth surfaces produce less friction.

Question: Water rises to the top of a tall tree mainly because…

Exp: Transpiration creates the pull through the xylem.

Question: Iodine turns blue-black on…