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Anything other than vinegar and baking soda

2007-05-31 17:45:23 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Chemistry

4 answers

I found this great site and some good experiments. Hope you have fun with these:
1. Grow a cupful of epsom salt crystal needles in your refrigerator. It's quick, easy, and safe.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 3 hours
Here's How:
In a cup or small, deep bowl, mix 1/2 cup of epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) with 1/2 cup of hot tap water (hot as it will get from the faucet).
Wash your work area, utensils, and hands when you have completed this activity.
Stir about a minute to dissolve the epsom salts. There will still be some undissolved crystals at the bottom.
Place the cup in the refrigerator. The bowl will fill with needle-like crystals within three hours.
Tips:
Don't use boiling water to prepare your solution. You will still get crystals, but they will be more threadlike and less interesting. The temperature of the water helps control the concentration of the solution.
If you like, you can place a small object at the bottom of the cup to make it easier to remove your crystals, such as a quarter or plastic bottle cap. Otherwise, carefully scoop the crystal needles from the solution if you wish to examine them or save them.
Don't drink the crystal liquid. It's not toxic, but it's not good for you either.
What You Need:
cup or small bowl
epsom salt
hot tap water

2. Bouncing Polymer Ball
Here's a list of materials you need to gather to make bouncing polymer balls:

borax (found in the laundry section of the store)
cornstarch (found in the baking section of the store)
white glue (e.g., Elmer's glue - look for it in the school supplies section)
warm water
measuring spoons
spoon or craft stick to stir the mixture
2 small plastic cups or other containers for mixing
marking pen
watch with a second hand
metric ruler
zip-lock plastic baggie

Procedure
Label one cup 'Borax Solution' and the other cup 'Ball Mixture'.
Pour 2 tablespoons warm water and 1/2 teaspoon borax powder into the cup labeled 'Borax Solution'. Stir the mixture to dissolve the borax.
Pour 1 tablespoon of glue into the cup labeled 'Ball Mixture'. Add 1/2 teaspoon of the borax solution you just made and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Do not stir. Allow the ingredients to interact on their own for 10-15 seconds and then stir them together to fully mix. Once the mixture becomes impossible to stir, take it out of the cup and start molding the ball with your hands.
The ball will start out sticky and messy, but will solidify as you knead it.
Once the ball is less sticky, go ahead and bounce it!
You can store your plastic ball in a sealed ziploc bag when you are finished playing with it.
Don't eat the materials used to make the ball or the ball itself.

3. "Oobleck"
Oobleck was the name given to a type of slime in a Dr. Seuss book that was capable of gumming up a whole kingdom. The oobleck the you can make for a science project isn't gummy, but it does have interesting properties of both solids and liquids. It normally behaves like a liquid or jelly, but if you squeeze it in your hand, it will seem like a solid.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 10-15 minutes
Here's How:
Mix 1 part water with 1.5 to 2 parts cornstarch. You may wish to start with one cup of water and one and a half cups of cornstarch, then work in more cornstarch if you want a more 'solid' oobleck. It will take about 10 minutes of mixing to get nice homogeneous oobleck.
Mix in a few drops of food coloring if you want colored oobleck.
Tips:
Oobleck is a type of non-Newtonian fluid called a dilatant.
If you slowly lower your hand into oobleck, it will sink, but it is difficult to quickly remove your hand (without taking all the oobleck and its container with you).
If you squeeze or punch the oobleck, the starch particles will not move out of the way quickly, so the oobleck will feel solid.
Oobleck can be molded in a container, but when the mold is removed, the oobleck will lose its shape.
What You Need:
water
corn starch
food coloring (optional)

4. These are instructions for making non-toxic invisible ink using baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: A Few Minutes
Here's How:
There are at least two methods to use baking soda as an invisible ink. Mix equal parts water and baking soda.
Use a cotton swab, toothpick, or paintbrush to write a message onto white paper, using the baking soda solution as 'ink'.
Allow the ink to dry.
One way to read the message is to hold the paper up to a heat source, such as a light bulb. The baking soda will cause the writing in the paper to turn brown.

A second method to read the message is to paint over the paper with purple grape juice. The message will appear in a different color.
Tips:
If you are using the heating method, avoid igniting the paper - don't use a halogen bulb.
Baking soda and grape juice react with each other in an acid-base reaction, producing a color change in the paper.
The baking soda mixture can also be used more diluted, with one part baking soda to two parts water.
Grape juice concentrate results in a more visible color change than regular grape juice.
What You Need:
Baking Soda
Paper
Water
Light Bulb (heat source)
Paintbrush or Swab
Measuring Cup
Purple Grape Juice (opt.)

2007-05-31 18:17:31 · answer #1 · answered by crrllpm 7 · 0 0

A simple, but not original, little demo is to pour vinegar onto some baking soda and to see the carbon dioxide gas bubbling off. That's a chemical reaciton.

2016-05-18 02:12:42 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0 0

Awesome: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/activities/extraction/

2007-05-31 17:56:34 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Liquid plumming(Drane-o) and a peice of tin foil. Do it outside b/c of fumes and not in a closed container.

2007-05-31 17:53:37 · answer #4 · answered by Michael 1 · 0 0

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