Fun Experiment (4) Invisible?Incredible!

Invisible Ink with Lemon Juice

Making invisible ink is a lot of fun, you can pretend you are a secret agent as you keep all your secret codes and messages hidden from others. All you need is some basic household objects and the hidden power of lemon juice.

What you'll need:

• Half a lemon
• Water
• Spoon
• Bowl
• Cotton bud
• White paper
• Lamp or other light bulb

Instructions:

1. Squeeze some lemon juice into the bowl and add a few drops of water.
2. Mix the water and lemon juice with the spoon.
3. Dip the cotton bud into the mixture and write a message onto the white paper.
4. Wait for the juice to dry so it becomes completely invisible.
5. When you are ready to read your secret message or show it to someone else, heat the paper by holding it close to a light bulb.

What's happening?

Lemon juice is an organic substance that oxidizes and turns brown when heated. Diluting the lemon juice in water makes it very hard to notice when you apply it the paper, no one will be aware of its presence until it is heated and the secret message is revealed. Other substances which work in the same way include orange juice, honey, milk, onion juice, vinegar and wine. Invisible ink can also be made using chemical reactions or by viewing certain liquids under ultraviolet (UV) light.

Fun Experiment (3) Let's make FIZZY~~

Make Lemonade Fizzy Drink

 

There's a lot of people out there that like drinking fizzy drinks, so why not do a fun science experiment that leaves you with your own lemon soda to drink afterwards!

A bit of lemon here and a bit of baking soda there and before you know it you'll be an expert at making your own fizzy drinks. Make your own lemonade softdrink with this fun experiment for kids.

What you'll need:

• Lemon
• Drinking glass
• Water
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• Some sugar to make it sweet

Instructions:

1. Squeeze as much of the juice from the lemon as you can into the glass.
2. Pour in an equal amount of water as lemon juice.
3. Stir in the teaspoon of baking soda.
4. Give the mixture a taste and add in some sugar if you think it needs to be sweeter.

What's happening?

The mixture you created should go bubbly and taste like a lemonade, soda, fizzy or soft drink, if you added some sugar it might even taste like a lemon flavoured soft drink you've bought at a store. The bubbles that form when you add the baking soda to the lemon mixture are carbon dioxide (CO2), these are the same bubbles you'll find in proper fizzy drinks. Of course they add a few other flavored sweeteners but it's not much different to what you made. If you are wondering how the carbon dioxide bubbles formed, it was because you created a chemical reaction when you added the lemon (an acid) to the baking soda (a base).

Fun Experiment (2) Oil & Water ??!!

Mixing Oil and Water

Some things just don't get along well with each other. Take oil and water as an example, you can mix them together and shake as hard as you like but they'll never become friends.....or will they? Take this fun experiment a step further and find out how bringing oil and water together can help you do your dishes.

What you'll need:

• Small soft drink bottle
• Water
• Food colouring
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
• Dish washing liquid or detergent

Instructions:

1. Add a few drops of food colouring to the water.
2. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the coloured water along with the 2 tablespoons of cooking oil into the small soft drink bottle.
3. Screw the lid on tight and shake the bottle as hard as you can.
4. Put the bottle back down and have a look, it may have seemed as though the liquids were mixing together but the oil will float back to the top.

What's happening?

While water often mixes with other liquids to form solutions, oil and water does not. Water molecules are strongly attracted to each other, this is the same for oil, because they are more attracted to their own molecules they just don't mix together. They separate and the oil floats above the water because it has a lower density.

If you really think oil and water belong together then try adding some dish washing liquid or detergent. Detergent is attracted to both water and oil helping them all join together and form something called an emulsion. This is extra handy when washing those greasy dishes, the detergent takes the oil and grime off the plates and into the water, yay!

Fun experiments (1) Floating Egg!

Make an Egg Float in Salt Water

An egg sinks to the bottom if you drop it into a glass of ordinary drinking water but what happens if you add salt? The results are very interesting and can teach you some fun facts about density.

What you'll need:

One egg

Water

Salt

A tall drinking glass

Instructions:

1. Pour water into the glass until it is about half full.
2. Stir in lots of salt (about 6 tablespoons).
3. Carefully pour in plain water until the glass is nearly full (be careful to not disturb or mix the salty water with the plain water).
4. Gently lower the egg into the water and watch what happens.

What's happening?

Salt water is denser than ordinary tap water, the denser the liquid the easier it is for an object to float in it. When you lower the egg into the liquid it drops through the normal tap water until it reaches the salty water, at this point the water is dense enough for the egg to float. If you were careful when you added the tap water to the salt water, they will not have mixed, enabling the egg to amazingly float in the middle of the glass.