Hello!
At the end of 2013, the publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" published my book "Experiments of Professor Nicolas". In it, I collected experiments that can be easily prepared at home, described them and provided a large number of photographs.
We tried very hard to make the book interesting, and I would like to know your opinion about it.
Under the cut detailed information about the book:
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Book in quality edition - great gift to kid.
After reading this book as a family and experimenting a lot, you will definitely agree with our motto that
Science is great!
I will be glad for your feedback and comments.
Hello dear guest!!!
Now most of my posts are open.
Under lock and key personal posts and photos. If you want to read everything, knock. And write a little about yourself, I will be glad to meet you :)
Happy reading and Have a good mood!
With the help of a chemical reaction, we will call the genie from the flask.
For experience we need:
- glass flask;
- potassium permanganate;
- protective gloves;
- oilcloth.
Attention! It is impossible to carry out the experiment without protective gloves, and also to bend over the flask during the reaction.
Experiment steps:
1. It is best to cover the table with oilcloth so that it does not get dirty.
2. Add inside the flask a large number of hydrogen peroxide.
3. Add a small amount of potassium permanganate inside the flask.
4. Genie from a flask!!!
Science is great!
How can you create a glowing slime?
I wonder what is needed to create a glowing slime, and what experiments can be done with it?
We will need:
- polyvinyl alcohol;
- sodium borate;
- a glass and a spoon;
- phosphorescent paint;
Flashlight (ultraviolet is best)
What we do:
1. Pour polyvinyl alcohol into a glass.
2. Add a phosphorescent dye inside the polyvinyl alcohol and mix well.
3. Prepare a solution of sodium borate.
4. Add a solution of borax inside the polyvinyl alcohol and mix well. Slime is ready!
5. It stretches and breaks, exhibiting the properties of both liquid and solid body(it's a non-Newtonian fluid).
6. If you shine a flashlight on the slime and turn off the light, it will glow!
Science is great!
How to prepare a large amount of foam using a chemical reaction?
- flask;
- concentrated hydrogen peroxide;
- protective gloves;
- liquid soap;
- potassium iodide.
Attention! Peroxide and foam should not be touched with unprotected hands.
What we do:
1. Put on protective gloves and add a small amount of hydrogen peroxide inside the flask.
2. Now you need to add a small amount of liquid soap or dishwashing detergent.
3. Mix the contents inside the flask well!
4. Add a spoonful of potassium iodide.
5. Hooray! Foam!!!
And if the liquid is tinted, then the foam will be colored.
Science is great!
How to prepare a non-Newtonian fluid?
A non-Newtonian fluid is an amazing substance, because it has the properties of both a solid and a liquid body.
In order to prepare a colored non-Newtonian liquid, you will need:
- starch;
- a bowl of warm water;
- liquid dye.
What we do:
1. We begin to add starch to a bowl of water and mix the contents thoroughly.
2. After a while, it will be possible to feel how the spoon begins to resist movement inside the liquid.
3. If you take a small amount of liquid in your hands and roll it, it behaves like a dense lump, but as soon as you stop working on it, it spreads like an ordinary thick liquid.
4. You can try to lift the bowl if you pull sharply with your hands that are inside the liquid.
5. If you smoothly move the spoon inside the liquid, nothing interesting happens, but if you do jerky movements, then the liquid parted and you can see the bottom.
Science is great!
Best Recipe making colored slime.
We all like slimes, because they have the properties of both a solid and a liquid body. They can be perfectly stretched, torn, reconnected, made into balls - beauty!
In order to prepare the slime you will need:
1. Polyvinyl alcohol.
2. Sodium borate solution.
3. Dye.
4. Cup and spoon.
How to cook slime:
1. Pour polyvinyl alcohol into a glass and add a small amount of dye.
2. Mix well with a spoon so that the alcohol is evenly colored.
3. Now add a small amount of sodium tetraborate solution (it must be dissolved in water in advance) in a ratio of 1 to 4.
4. After that, we begin to stir intensively until the liquid thickens.
5. Lizun is ready!
After experimenting with the slime, you need to put it in a cup with a lid so that it does not dry out.
Science is great!
I wonder how you can dissolve a huge piece of Styrofoam, turning it into chemical chewing gum? Let's do an experiment!
For the experience you will need:
. Bowl;
. a long piece of foam;
. acetone;
. spoon.
Experiment steps:
1. Pour a small amount of acetone into a bowl.
2. Take a piece of Styrofoam from the top.
3. Dip a piece of Styrofoam into a bowl and watch it shrink right before your eyes!
4. If you look from above, you can see a lot of bubbles, as well as hear a hissing sound.
5. Gradually, the entire foam will dissolve in acetone, turning into a viscous substance.
6. Using a spoon, take a chemical "chewing gum" - it stretches. If you take it out of the bowl and leave it for a while, it will dry out and become hard.
So what really happened to the piece of styrofoam?
Science is great!
How can you turn a tea bag into a miniature flying machine and send it flying? Let's do an experiment!
For the experience you will need:
tea bags (need those that do not have a partition inside);
scissors;
tray;
lighter;
cup.
Photo-instruction of the experiment:
1. Use scissors to cut off the top of the bag.
2. Straighten the sachet and pour the contents into the glass.
3. You should get a cylinder, which must be placed on a tray and set on fire with a lighter.
4. The bag will begin to burn and decrease in size, and after a while it will fly into the air!
5. Now that you know how to send a tea bag flying, try sending three tea bags flying at once!
What makes tea bags fly?
Science is great!
I wonder how you can make a soap bubble levitate? Let's do an experiment!
For the experience you will need:
Bowl;
warm water;
dry ice;
plastic pipette;
scissors;
cup;
soap solution;
cotton gloves.
Experiment steps:
1. Fill a bowl halfway with warm water.
2. Add soap solution to the cup.
3. Cut off a part of the pipette with scissors so that it is convenient for blowing soap bubbles tubule.
4. Touch the tip of the tube to the soap solution and blow into it. Soap bubble is ready!
5. Put on gloves and make sure that the soap bubble does not float in the air on its own, but falls.
6. Add a handful of dry ice inside the bowl. In warm water, it will immediately begin to turn into a gaseous state, forming an interesting cloud.
7. Blow a soap bubble into the bowl. The bubble will not sink, but will levitate in a cloud of carbon dioxide - very beautiful.
What makes a soap bubble levitate?
Science is great!
The beads start to move miraculously! What is their secret?
If you put these beads in a bowl, and then pull the tip, they will begin to spill out of the container as if on their own. Interested to try? Let's do an experiment!
For the experience you will need:
various containers;
scotch;
garlands of beads.
Experiment steps:
1. Take a bowl and carefully place the bead garland inside so that it does not get tangled.
2. The tip of the garland should look out of the bowl. For clarity, tie it with tape or tape - so it will be easier for you to find it later.
3. Raise the bowl of beads to chest level, and then pull the end of the garland.
4. Look, the beads start popping out of the bowl as if by themselves. Moreover, you can see how the garland rises from the bottom up as if breaking the force of gravity.
5. Repeat the experiment, this time using a tall carafe or vase. Also, carefully lay the garland inside the container, sticking the tip out (you didn’t forget about electrical tape, right?).
6. During the movement of a garland from a high decanter, you can even better watch how the beads rise from the bottom up, which looks just amazing!
7. And now it's time for another entertaining experience with inertial beads. Lay the garland on the table with a snake as in the photo.
8. If you pull the tip, the beads begin to fall off the table while repeating the complex pattern of the garland.
9. And if you are lucky enough to be the owner of a very long garland and a lot of patience (after all, it takes much longer to lay it), then you can watch the amazing movement of the beads for a long time.
What makes the beads move in such an interesting way?
Science is great!
It turns out that with the powder for creating artificial snow, you can do a lot of entertaining experiments. It's time to take a good look at it. Let's do an experiment!
For the experience you will need:
. powder for creating artificial snow;
. cups;
. narrow glass;
. spoon;
. warm water.
Stages of the experiment:
1. Pour a few tablespoons of powder into a glass to create artificial snow.
2. Pour warm water into the second glass.
3. Quickly pour a glass of water into the glass of powder.
4. After a while, you will see how the powder absorbs water and begins to turn into artificial snow. At the same time, it will increase significantly in volume.
5. Now do a similar experiment with a narrow glass. Also pour a few tablespoons of powder inside.
6. Add warm water into a glass and watch how so much artificial snow arises from a small glass.
7. It is also very interesting to make snow right in your hands. Pour a small amount of powder into your palms, and then ask your friend to pour warm water directly into their palms.
8. Warm and pleasant to the touch snow appears in the palms as if by magic. Great!
9. And now it's time to make a snowball from artificial snow. Pour a small amount of water into a pile of artificial snow.
10. Thanks to the addition of water, it forms a snowball! Too bad he's so fragile.
What will happen to artificial snow after a while?
3. Add inside the carafe vegetable oil- small colored water bubbles will begin to rise.
4. Wait until the colored water is at the bottom and the oil is at the top.
5. Now it's time to add the effervescent tablets inside.
6. As soon as the effervescent tablets reach the water, they will begin to dissolve, releasing gas, and the colored bubbles will begin to move.
7. Put the decanter on top of the flashlight and turn off the light - it's very beautiful to watch the movement of colored figures with illumination.
8. Now carry out a similar experiment, but this time take a tall glass and another dye. For beauty, illuminate the container with a flashlight from above.
9. Use a tall glass or other shaped vessel.
You can watch the movement of bubbles for a very long time - it's so beautiful!
What causes colored bubbles to move?
Science is great!
It turns out that pills can be used not only for treatment. I wonder if it is possible to get real chemical snakes from calcium gluconate tablets? Let's do an experiment!
For the experience you will need:
. dry fuel;
. fireproof stand;
. calcium gluconate tablets;
. lighter.
Stages of the experiment:
1. Place a dry fuel tablet on top of the fireproof stand, and place four calcium gluconate tablets on top of the tablet.
2. Use a lighter to light a tablet of dry fuel.
3. After a while, gray snakes will begin to “hatch” from the tablets.
4. Snakes are constantly growing in size. Who would have thought that such long snakes could form from such small pills.
5. At some point, snakes can combine into one giant snake.
Does the number of pills affect the size and number of snakes?
2. Fill the flask one third full with hydrogen peroxide.
3. Add liquid soap inside the flask and mix the contents well.
4. Add a small amount of liquid dye inside and also mix well.
5. Spread the oilcloth and put a flask with a solution on top of it.
6. Add a spoonful of potassium iodide inside the flask.
7. A large amount of colored foam rush up from the flask!
8. Pay attention, the foam is getting bigger and bigger!
Why do you think the foam has a yellowish tint?
Science is great!
We bring to your attention 10 amazing magic tricks, experiments, or science shows that you can do with your own hands at home.
At your child's birthday party, weekend or vacation, make the most of your time and become the center of attention of many eyes! 🙂
An experienced organizer of scientific shows helped us in preparing the post - Professor Nicolas. He explained the principles behind a particular focus.
1 - Lava lamp
1. Surely many of you have seen a lamp that has a liquid inside that imitates hot lava. Looks magical.
2. In sunflower oil water is poured and food coloring (red or blue) is added.
3. After that, we add effervescent aspirin to the vessel and observe a striking effect.
4. During the reaction, colored water rises and falls through the oil without mixing with it. And if you turn off the light and turn on the flashlight, the "real magic" will begin.
: “Water and oil have different densities, and also have the property of not mixing, no matter how we shake the bottle. When we add effervescent tablets inside the bottle, they dissolve in water and begin to release carbon dioxide and set the liquid in motion.”
Want to put on a real science show? More experiences can be found in the book.
2 - Experience with soda
5. Surely at home or in a nearby store there are several cans of soda for the holiday. Before you drink them, ask the guys the question: “What happens if you submerge soda cans in water?”
Drown? Will they swim? Depends on the soda.
Invite the children to guess in advance what will happen to a particular jar and conduct an experiment.
6. We take the cans and gently lower them into the water.
7. It turns out that despite the same volume, they have different weight. That is why some banks sink and others do not.
Commentary by Professor Nicolas: “All our cans have the same volume, but the mass of each can is different, which means that the density is different. What is density? This is the value of mass divided by volume. Since the volume of all cans is the same, the density will be higher for one of them, whose mass is greater.
Whether a jar will float in a container or sink depends on the ratio of its density to that of water. If the density of the can is less, then it will be on the surface, otherwise the can will go to the bottom.
But what makes a regular cola can denser (heavier) than a diet drink can?
It's all about the sugar! Unlike ordinary cola, where granulated sugar is used as a sweetener, a special sweetener is added to diet cola, which weighs much less. So how much sugar is in a typical soda can? The difference in mass between regular soda and its dietary counterpart will give us the answer!”
3 - Paper cover
Ask the audience a question: “What happens if you turn a glass of water over?” Of course it will spill! And if you press the paper to the glass and turn it over? The paper will fall and the water will still spill on the floor? Let's check.
10. Carefully cut out the paper.
11. Put on top of the glass.
12. And carefully turn the glass over. The paper has stuck to the glass, as if magnetized, and the water does not pour out. Miracles!
Commentary by Professor Nicolas: “Although it’s not so obvious, but in fact we are in the real ocean, only in this ocean there is not water, but air that presses on all objects, including you and me, we just got used to it to this pressure that we do not notice it at all. When we cover a glass of water with a piece of paper and turn it over, water presses on the sheet on one side, and air on the other side (from the very bottom)! The air pressure turned out to be greater than the pressure of the water in the glass, so the leaf does not fall.
4 - Soap Volcano
How to make a small volcano erupt at home?
14. You will need baking soda, vinegar, some dish detergent and cardboard.
16. Dilute vinegar in water, add washing liquid and tint everything with iodine.
17. We wrap everything with dark cardboard - this will be the “body” of the volcano. A pinch of soda falls into the glass, and the volcano begins to erupt.
Commentary by Professor Nicolas: “As a result of the interaction of vinegar with soda, a real chemical reaction with the release of carbon dioxide. A liquid soap and dye, interacting with carbon dioxide, form a color soap suds- here is the eruption.
5 - Candle pump
Can a candle change the laws of gravity and lift water up?
19. We put a candle on a saucer and light it.
20. Pour tinted water on a saucer.
21. Cover the candle with a glass. After a while, the water will be drawn into the glass against the laws of gravity.
Commentary by Professor Nicolas: What does the pump do? Changes pressure: increases (then water or air begins to "run away") or, conversely, decreases (then gas or liquid begins to "arrive"). When we covered the burning candle with a glass, the candle went out, the air inside the glass cooled, and therefore the pressure decreased, so the water from the bowl began to be sucked in.
Games and experiments with water and fire are in the book "Experiments of Professor Nicolas".
6 - Water in the sieve
We continue to study the magical properties of water and surrounding objects. Ask someone present to put on a bandage and pour water through it. As we can see, it passes through the holes in the bandage without any difficulty.
Bet with others that you can make it so that water will not pass through the bandage without any additional tricks.
22. Cut off a piece of bandage.
23. Wrap a bandage around a glass or champagne glass.
24. Turn the glass over - the water does not spill out!
Commentary by Professor Nicolas: “Due to such a property of water as surface tension, water molecules want to be together all the time and it is not so easy to separate them (they are such wonderful girlfriends!). And if the size of the holes is small (as in our case), then the film does not tear even under the weight of water!”
7 - Diving bell
And to secure you honorary title Mage of Water and Master of the Elements, promise that you can deliver paper to the bottom of any ocean (or bath or even a basin) without soaking it.
25. Have those present write their names on a piece of paper.
26. We fold the sheet, put it in a glass so that it rests against its walls and does not slide down. Immerse the leaf in an inverted glass to the bottom of the tank.
27. Paper stays dry - water can't get to it! After you pull out the sheet - let the audience make sure that it is really dry.
Boiling mysterious liquids in flasks and crucibles, mixing various substances in test tubes - a spectacle that can captivate not only an adult, but also a children's audience! And a person conducting chemical experiments appears to be a kind of sorcerer or medieval alchemist, whose actions are very interesting to watch ... This is what our chemical show crazy Professor, which we are pleased to present to your attention!
The enchanting show program will interest both high school students who are getting acquainted with chemistry, and junior schoolchildren and even preschoolers! The most fascinating of sciences reveals the veil of its secrets to children - chemical experiments with flashes, smoke and soap bubbles impress with their entertainment and are completely safe for kids!
What is included in the program chemical show? The most magical and unusual! The crazy professor will demonstrate real miracles - how to create ink that can disappear, tell you how to make children's champagne with a pop-up cork and answer the question of whether ice can boil. Our Professor is simply obsessed with his science! However, this does not at all prevent him from telling and showing children intelligibly how to make artificial snow, how a rope turns into a rod, how slimes and disco smoke are made. Chemistry experiments conducted for children are interactive - our Professor needs faithful helpers! The children will take part in the “soap porridge” experience, where porridge can be boiled with dry ice, take a shower from soap bubbles, inside which there is smoke, they will help to make a “penetration-proof ball” and multi-colored polymer worms, which they can then take with them as a keepsake!
The crazy professor will be happy to conduct his chemical experiments on a holiday in the office, school, kindergarten and just at home! If children's holiday takes place at home, you just need to invite crazy professor with his show program! Indeed, in the arsenal of this scientist there are many experiments that can and should be carried out at home! For example, homemade chemistry experiments such as growing crystals or the trick of raising water with the power of thought, children can master and carry out at home on their own!
The chemical show will appeal not only to young fidgets, a bright and original spectacle will entertain bored adult guests at a banquet or corporate party! Adults will rediscover chemistry: bright experiments of our scientist are fundamentally different from boring school curriculum! Adult spectators are happy to take part in the show program!
Chemical show - the last word in the entertainment industry! Magnificparty offers its customers only the most spectacular and original show programs, one of which is the Crazy Professor Chemistry Show!
Invite the crazy Professor with his program for an anniversary or a banquet - and a cascade of unforgettable impressions is guaranteed for your guests!
The composition of the program "Chemistry show with a crazy professor":
- a shower of large soap bubbles, inside of which there is smoke
- experiment "soap porridge" (simulation of making porridge using dry ice)
- making baby champagne with cork shot
- dry ice experiments
- creating a live chemical mouse and catching it
- checking magic ink (sprayed on children, removed with gas)
- experiment "Serpent Gorynych" (growing the heads of the Serpent Gorynych from tablets)
- creation of artificial snow, distribution of snow as a gift to children
- making a puncture-proof ball
- slime creation, hand-gum (additional 500 rubles for all participants)
- BONUS: Disco with a crazy Professor in artificial smoke (super fog), riddles
Program duration :
The composition of the program "Fascinating chemistry and physics":
- Making artificial snow.
- Hot ice experiment: A participant pours a liquid onto a surface, which forms a mountain of crystals.
- Genie from the flask - the appearance of smoke from the flask.
- Ball skewers: stringing balls on a knitting needle
- Experiment "Magic flower". From the spray gun is applied to the flower absolutely pure water and it turns bright pink. They blow on the flower - and it is again white.
- Experiment with meteorite sand. It is lowered several times into the water, but the sand remains absolutely dry.
- Volcano experiment. When certain components are burned, a bright flash occurs with ash erupting.
- Experiment "Magic light bulb". We light an ordinary light bulb right in our hands.
- "Space" phone - phone without wires.
- Experiment "Hand Boiler" - the liquid boils from the heat of the hands.
- Experiment "Whirlpool" - a tornado in a bottle
- Experiment "Invisible balls". The balls are placed in a bowl of water and they disappear before the eyes of the audience.
- Experiment "Giant pipe": participants inflate a two-meter bright sausage with one breath! There is a fun competition in "swindle".
Program duration : 40 min, 1 hour, 1.5 hours (with 30 min animation + 1500r)
Then I realized that it was time to move on new level. “Professor Nicolas' Show” had already begun to generate a stable income by that time, and it was difficult for me alone to cope with a large flow of orders. I hired two assistant hosts, trained them and rented an office. Now, four years after the start, there are 23 people in the Moscow team, 12 of them are leaders.
We have 200 shows per month per season (September, January and May). The hosts conduct 15-17 programs per day. In normal months, there is a decline. I take the choice of presenters seriously: 97% of those who came are eliminated at the casting. We do real acting auditions once or twice a year. 100 people came to the last casting, everyone had to show the proposed experiment in an interesting way and get out of difficult situation. As a result, five coped with the task, and only three were able to work. We immediately decided that we would not take professional animators, because they had to be retrained.
Money
The starting capital was 100,000 rubles, which I took from the bank four years ago. I spent this money to buy chemical reagents and a cotton candy machine, and then said no to loans. I still adhere to this policy: I invest money from free ones.
Our services are not cheap: in Moscow, the price for a performance varies from 8,000 to 60,000 rubles, depending on the length of the show. IN small towns the price, as a rule, does not exceed 8,000 rubles.
Very proud of our Peugeot Nicolas carson which the leaders ride. We bought three cars for Moscow - it is more profitable to keep new cars than to repair used ones and pay taxi drivers. Branded cars are useful: new customers often call after seeing Professor Nicolas' flashy cars in traffic. We spend the most on contextual advertising, about 100,000 rubles a month - it brings 30% of orders. I do not save on brand development - this is my long term investment. I am satisfied with the result: compared to last year, the revenue increased by 50% and is about 25 million rubles. Franchising gives about 25% of the turnover, the rest - income from the show, sales of kits for home experiments a la "Young Chemist" and monetization of the YouTube channel through advertising.
Nikolai Ganailyuk, a man with tousled hair, a crazy look, in a white coat and a bright green tie, pours water into one glass, pours white powder into another and asks: "Who wants to try?" Two dozen children of 12-13 years old sitting in front of Ganailyuk, who until then had been following his every action, raised their hands at once and shouted: "I, I!" Ganailyuk calls one to him, invites him to mix the powder with water, count to three and pour the contents over his head. The boy hesitates.
Ganailyuk goes down on one knee: "Pour it on my head then." The boy obediently mixes, counts, turns the glass... and nothing spills out of it. "That's the trick!" a girl screams excitedly. "Not a trick, but a scientific experiment," Ganailyuk corrects and patiently explains why the superabsorbent powder absorbs moisture so well. In his company "The Crazy Professor Nicolas Show" Ganailyuk has long introduced a taboo on the word "focus". After all, what the company does is real science, even if it looks like magic.
With the breakup Soviet Union and reduced funding Russian science, "Horizons of Technology for Children", "In the World of Science" (publication resumed since 2003), "Home Laboratory" and "Quantum" (publications resumed in in electronic format). Circulation of non-fiction literature dropped to 20 million in 1991 and to 8 million in 1999. All-Union competitions "Young Physicist" and circles "Young Chemist" were no longer held (140 thousand people participated in them in the 1970s), and the set of the same name, which was in the house, it seems, of every Soviet schoolchild, lost out in competition with LEGO and transformers.
New life was breathed into science pop by cable and satellite television, the number of subscribers of which, according to National Cable Networks, increased sevenfold from 2004 to 2011. According to TNS Russia, the top 15 non-terrestrial TV channels include five popular science channels: Discovery Channel (15 million monthly viewers), Animal Planet (14 million viewers), My Planet (10 million) and others. But media projects are not the only way to capitalize on interest in pop-science.
crazy science
In 2006, Valery Mityakin, the owner of a small rubber flooring company, was leafing through a franchise catalog and suddenly came across an offer from the Canadian company Mad Science. Since 1986, she has been putting on science shows for children - with all sorts of chemical "tricks", which is quite scientific explanation. Mityakin was inspired and bought a franchise. It cost "tens of thousands of dollars plus royalties," Mityakin recalls. He recruited a team of managers and began to organize performances in entertainment centers and at children's parties.
Two years later, Mityakin brought the company to payback. Today, its turnover is, according to the Federation Council, more than 30 million rubles. in year. In 2008, 24-year-old Nikolai Ganailyuk, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, who quit a large consulting company for the sake of his dream of becoming an actor, came to work as a show host in Russia's Mad Science. Ganailyuk came up with the pseudonym Crazy Professor Nicolas and quickly won the recognition of the audience.
The Mad Professor Nicolas Show
In 2009, Ganailyuk demanded a pay rise. Holding a holiday for a client cost an average of 10 thousand rubles, but the host received only a tenth of this money. In "Crazy Science" he was refused, Ganailyuk quit and opened his own company - "The Crazy Professor Nicolas Show". Buy a franchise from former employer Ganalyuk refused. For this, Mityakin still harbors a grudge against him (he even refused to be photographed with a competitor for this article). However, Mityakin himself stopped paying for the Canadian Mad Science franchise, renaming his company Crazy Science.
“I had clients who left with me, they recommended me to friends and further through word of mouth,” says Ganailyuk, waving his arms artistically. “A year later, I realized that I couldn’t cope with orders alone. I had to hire a person, then another one, and another." Now the company employs nine presenters (in white coats, with green ties and bright hairstyles), an accountant, an administrator, three drivers, a storekeeper and a director - Ganailyuk himself. A total of 16 people. According to the Federation Council, the revenue of The Mad Professor Nicolas Show for 2011 amounted to 15 million rubles, that is, two times less than that of Mad Science. True, Ganailyuk promises to catch up with Mityakin in 2013. Prices for an hourly program for both competitors range from 10-15 thousand rubles.
40 magazines and eight dozen TV channels "spud" popular science topics today. The growth of circulations of cognitive literature resumed
In this business, a lot is built on charisma, so Ganailyuk selects the leading ones among actors, not teachers. Conducts real theatrical auditions: candidates are given props and asked to show experiments. When the experiments don't work out (which happens almost always, because the actors, as a rule, are not too savvy in terms of chemistry), the host has to get out: Ganalyuk believes that the ability to improvise is the most important thing, and shakes his head resentfully when I call his employees " animators". “These are not pirates who jump with ropes around children, these are the leaders. And their salary is appropriate,” says Ganailyuk. Now he pays his presenters more than "Crazy Science" - from 20% to 25% of the order amount.
Ganailyuk has no competitors, except for "Mad Science", but there are six franchise partners - in Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Chelyabinsk. Mityakin, unlike Professor Nicolas, does not sell a franchise - he himself was in the role of a franchisee, he knows. Here is the former partner of Ganailyuk from Yekaterinburg, who bought the franchise first, a year ago broke the contract with the "professor" and opened his own show "Opener".
Competitors differ not only in their attitude to franchising, but also in sales channels. If "Crazy Science" focuses on children's parties, then "The Mad Professor Nicolas Show" prefers to perform in schools, as a rule, instead of chemistry lessons. Facilitators distribute leaflets to students and then often receive invitations from parents.
Ganailyuk is satisfied with the status of the "mad professor": in the end, he fully realized his childhood dream of becoming an actor.
Craving for experimentation
In the museum of entertaining sciences "Experimentanium", which is designed to tell children and remind adults how the world in terms of physics, chemistry and biology, almost everything can be touched. A huge eye that you have to hold with two hands, and plastic embryos showing the development of a child at different stages of pregnancy are the anatomical part of the museum. And if you approach the table and chairs enlarged several times, it immediately becomes clear how a three-year-old child feels in the adult world. Nearby you can play a piano with a glass front and still see what is happening inside the instrument, wander through the glass labyrinth, studying optical illusions, as well as watch how a tornado is born: the US $10,000 installation simulates this process in miniature.
For museum co-founder Natalia Potapova and three of her university friends, the creation of a museum of entertaining sciences is the main experiment in life. In childhood, they all studied in the Moscow palaces of pioneers, read out the magazine " Young Technician"and" Entertaining Physics "by Yakov Perelman. And when their children grew up, it turned out that there were too few places in Moscow where you can have fun and usefully spend time with the whole family. When traveling abroad, partners noticed that Western museums are much more interactive than Russian ones. “If something is missing, then you need to do it yourself,” Potapova and her partners decided, and in the fall of 2010 they rented a room of 2,000 sq. m on the territory former factory on Butyrskaya street in Moscow.
In a year they did overhaul, partly purchased abroad, and partly assembled 250 exhibits for the museum at their own research and production base. Starting investments (own funds of the founders) amounted to several million dollars. According to SPARK-Interfax, the co-owners of the company are Potapova herself, who in the past was engaged in real estate management at Interros and VTB, and three top managers of the Life banking group - Yaroslav Alekseev, Konstantin Suloev and Philip Samarets.
All profits, assures Natalia Potapova, co-owners reinvest in museum collection. In January, they purchased ten more expensive exhibits to be placed on an additional 500 sq. m of the second floor. Child ticket costs 250 rubles. on a weekday and 350 rubles. on weekends, adult - 350-450 rubles. On weekdays, the museum is visited by about 300 people - mostly school trips.
Interesting weekdays "Experimentanium"
On weekends, the audience of "Experimentanium" - parents with children, their number can reach up to 500. The co-owners of the museum are actively developing other areas - master classes and lectures on " entertaining sciences"and even experimental cinema. Due to this, the partners are trying to attract a youth audience to the museum, for which they arranged, for example, a student party on Tatiana's Day. In addition, the museum has a shop selling puzzles and thematic books, including the famous "Entertaining physics" Perelman. According to the calculations of the Federation Council, the revenue of "Experimentanium" can be about 50 million rubles a year.
In December, the partners opened a branch of the museum in Saratov, having decided to test a reduced model of Experimentanium (its area is 600 square meters) in one of the typical million-plus cities. If the experiment succeeds, the partners will open branches in other Russian and Ukrainian cities, because for the project to become profitable, Potapova calculates, at least five museums need to be created.
Nikolai Ganailyuk is looking for actors for his shows, not chemists. But he flatly refuses to consider them animators, elevating them almost to the rank of scientists. especially talented salaries reach 100 thousand rubles. per month
