15/54 Seven-Layer Density Column

   Turns out this is the perfect experiment to show someone what density is. So let’s hop to it! First I took one of my large graduated cylinders (tall beaker) and labeled it according to the experiment procedure.

 

  As you may have assumed, I am going to add all of these substances to the cylinder in order. But I must do a little bit more work than that. Lamp oil, rubbing alcohol, corn syrup, and water are all relatively the same color. So I must color them with food coloring to see the difference easily. For a smooth transition I measured 50ml of each substance, poured it into a small foam cup, and then colored it. Even with the substances I didn’t need to color, I still measured 50ml and put them in a foam cup.

After successfully pouring, measuring, coloring, and all that mumbo-jumbo I was ready to pour our first candidate--the honey. The foam cups were easy to bend so I had control over the slow stream.

     That icky-sticky stuff is for heffalumps and woozels! (I am a big Winnie the Pooh fan)

  I had to be careful to not let the stream of honey hit the side of the cylinder. The next layer is the corn syrup.

As I added the corn syrup it got this weird but cool shape to it! After just a short time, it settled into a nice layer. Here is the dish soap.

 

Now I will skip to the end and show you all the layers.

 TA-DA!!!

Each layer is comfortably sitting on top of each other! Why aren’t they mixing? Well, they each have different densities! The honey is more dense than the corn syrup, the corn syrup is more dense than the dish soap, etc.

I hope you found this very interesting. The water and the dish soap mixed just a little because they are close in their densities. So I covered the cylinder and I will let it set overnight. I want to see if they will separate more cleanly. I will post and let you know tomorrow night.