8/54 Color Changing Milk

  This five minute experiment made my day a colorful splash! I took my mom’s glass pie pan and filled it with just enough milk to cover the transparent pan.

    Then I put a few drops of food coloring in the milk. Blue, red, pink, and green were the colors of my choice.

   I took a cotton swab and put it in the middle of the circle of food coloring and, as expected,  nothing happened.

   Then I flipped the cotton swab around and dipped the other end in some dish soap.

   Then I placed it in the center of the circle and something beautiful happened… Take a look.

  

    Without moving the swab, the colors looked like they were racing to the edge of the pan. Then I had placed the swab in other places of the pan and watched what happened.

   With that, my beautiful milky pan made my day one of great enjoyment.

  Mr. Spangler does provide explanations for every experiment in his book. I LOVE to read and learn why something happens and that is half the fun! That is why if you are interested in a certain experiment, I strongly encourage you to research for answers and learn what what we can learn about God’s creation!!

7/54 Bubbling Lava Bottle

  For the first experiment in our second chapter, “Kitchen Chemistry”, Bubbling Lava Bottle was colorfully entertaining. I took a 16-ounce soda bottle that came with one of my kits and filled it three-fourths full of vegetable oil.

  For the remaining space, I filled it with water from my tap.

  As some of you may know, water is more dense than vegetable oil. Thus the water eventually found its way and made friends with the bottom of the bottle.

   After waiting for most of the water to maneuver itself to the bottom, I added many drops of red food coloring. The red dots slowly sunk to the bottom and took its time mixing with the water.

  While we were waiting for the food coloring to mix, we had some fun with the camera.

BOTTLE FACE!!

  When the food coloring was mixed in well I took a antacid tablet and dropped it into the bottle. It was supposed to start fizzing… but noooo. I  needed Alka-Seltzer tablets. I thought antacid tablets and Alka-Seltzer tablets were the same thing.

 

  After a lesson learned, my momma saved the day once again. She found some Alka-Seltzer tablets for me from a previous birthday party (It was a science party).

  I then broke the tablet into fourths and put one in the bottle. TA-DA!! The carbon-dioxide bubbles made from the tablet attached themselves to the colored blobs of water and carry them to the surface making a lava lamp… but without the lamp!

   That is really cool, but it is not the coolest part! I took a big powerful flashlight and you are supposed to put the bottle directly on top of the lens of the flashlight but my flashlight had a round lens so I took some cooling racks and put it on some books. By placing the light underneath the rack, it was perfect!

  

   I turned on the flashlight and turned off my bedroom light. By dropping another quarter of a tablet in the bottle, the colorful show began!

   As Mr. Spangler said, “Groovy, baby!”

  With that, a great day of science which should always be enjoyed. Have a great week!

 

6/54 How To Make Giant Smoke Rings- The Time Has Come

  Yesterday morning I put on my lab coat and a red bowtie and realized I looked like Bill Nye with a braid. After a good laugh, I grabbed my trash drum and the smoke machine.

    I was in luck because we had a neighbor who had bought this smoke machine for our Macbeth play. I would like to thank the Sparks family for letting me borrow the machine. After my dad moved the car out of the garage I filled my trash can with all the smoke it could hold.

   I held the can and hit the screen and, with a thump, rings of smoke came rolling out into the garage.

  We tried to get nice pictures but it is kind of hard to get pictures of fast moving air. But here is a video of myself performing the experiment.

   I kept refilling the can and shooting those mysterious smoke rings until my heart was content. It was too much fun!! 

    That wraps up our first chapter,  “The Power of Air”, in this enthralling book “Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes”. The next chapter is called “Kitchen Chemistry” and it has twelve experiments starting with “Bubbling Lava Bottle”. Stay Tuned!! 

6/54 How to Make Giant Smoke Rings- Prep Work

   I wanted to do this experiment today but the prep time took longer than I thought. So today I just decided to postpone the experiment and  tell you guys about the preparation.

   In this experiment I needed a trash can, shower liner, a dremel, and a bungee cord. After a good washing of my mom’s old blue trash can, I needed to cut a hole in the bottom. First the measuring. I did this by taking the radius of the circle I needed and, in this case, the radius was three inches. I hammered a nail in the middle of the trash can, cut a three inch (plus some for the tying) piece of string, and attached one end of the string to the nail and the other to a sharpie. By pulling on the string and drawing in a circle you get a wonderfully perfect circle. This will be the outline for the hole in the bottom of the can.

  For some reason, I do not know what, my circle was eight inches instead of six inches! With some minor adjustments, I redid it and it came out gorgeous!!

  As my father went to get a dremel, I measured, cut, and placed a shower curtain on the top of the can and put a bungee cord around it. I tightened it so it would sound like a drum, it was beautiful!

Then Dad showed me how to do the dremel and we cut the hole! I had a hard time at first but that is why I practiced!

The middle piece there is where I practiced. I had so much fun cutting!

    Soon I am going to fill the inside of that blue trash can with theatrical smoke and then I will hit that shower curtain and there should be smoke rings shooting out that hole! Whoohoo! I am excited!