Blowing Up Balloons With CO2

Chemical reactions make for some great experiments. Make use of the carbon dioxide given off by a
baking soda and lemon juice reaction by funnelling the gas through a soft drink bottle and in to your
awaiting balloon!


What you'll need:
Balloon
About 40 ml of water (a cup is about 250 ml so you don't need much)
Soft drink bottle
Drinking straw
Juice from a lemon
1 teaspoon of baking soda

Instructions:
1. Before you begin, make sure that you stretch out the balloon to make it as easy as possible to inflate.
2. Pour the 40 ml of water into the soft drink bottle.
3. Add the teaspoon of baking soda and stir it around with the straw until it has dissolved.
4. Pour the lemon juice in and quickly put the stretched balloon over the mouth of the bottle.

What's happening?
If all goes well then your balloon should inflate! Adding the lemon juice to the baking soda creates a chemical
reaction. The baking soda is a base, while the lemon juice is an acid, when the two combine they create carbon
dioxide (CO2). The gas rises up and escapes through the soft drink bottle, it doesn't however escape the balloon,
pushing it outwards and blowing it up. If you don't have any lemons then you can substitute the lemon juice for
vinegar.







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.

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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 l ower 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.







Egg Bubbles
This fun science experiment for kids focuses on some of the interesting characteristics of eggs. Prove
the existence of a small air pocket inside an egg as well as thousands of small holes in the shell called
pores, while learning what air does as it is heated.

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What you'll need:
A clear glass or jar
Hot water (adult supervision is a good idea when using hot water)
An egg
A magnifying glass

Instructions:
1. Place the egg carefully into the glass or jar.
2. Carefully pour hot water into the glass or jar until it is nearly full.
3. Leave the glass or jar on a table or flat surface and watch the egg closely for a few minutes (the glass may become hot so be careful).
4. Use your magnifying glass to closely examine what is happening.

What's happening?
After surrounding the egg with hot water you will notice tiny bubbles forming on the egg shell which eventually bubble their way to the surface.
An egg contains a small air pocket at its larger end between the shell and egg white. When the air trapped inside this small pocket begins to
heat up it expands and tries to find a way out of the shell, but how does it escape?
They're too small to see under normal conditions but with the help of a magnifying glass you can see that egg shells contain thousands of small
holes called pores (human skin has pores too).
The pores allow air to pass through the shell, making it look like the egg is breathing as the air expands and is forced through the shell.





BUILD A TABLETOP HOVERCRAFT!

An old CD or DVD disc
A 9 balloon
A pop-top cap from a liquid soap bottle or a water bottle
A hot glue gu

1. If you are using the cap from a water bottle, cover the center hole of the CD with a piece of tape and poke
about 6 holes in the tape with a push-pin or small nail. This will slow down the flow of air and allow your
hovercraft to hover longer.
2. Use the hot glue gun to glue the cap to the center of the CD or DVD disc. Create a good seal to keep air
from escaping.
3. Blow up the balloon all the way and pinch the neck of it. (Dont tie it.)
4. Make sure the pop-top is closed and fit the neck of the balloon over the pop-up portion of the cap. (This is
usually easier with 2 people)
5. Thats it! When your ready to commence hovering, simply put the craft on a smooth surface and pop the
top open.


HAPPY HOVERING!

The air flow created by the balloon causes a cushion of moving air between the disc and the surface. This lifts the
CD and reduces the friction which allows the disc to hover freely. Large scale hovercraft are capable of traveling
over land, snow and water.

The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:
1. Does the size of the balloon affect the CDs ability to hover?
2. Does a helium balloon work better than an air filled balloon?
3. Do larger discs make better hovercrafts (plastic picnic plates, old record albums) ?
Magic Ketchup Experiment!

You can make a pack of ketchup float and sink
at your command while it's sealed inside a bottle!

* A 1 liter plastic bottle
* Ketchup pack from a fast food restaurant
* Salt (using Kosher salt helps keep the water from becoming
foggy)




1. Remove any labels from the bottle and fill it all the way to the top with water.
2. Add a ketchup pack to the bottle.
3. If the ketchup floats, you're all set - go to step 4. If the ketchup sinks in the bottle, go to step 5.
4. For the floating ketchup pack simply screw the cap on the bottle and squeeze the sides of the bottle hard.
If the ketchup sinks when you squeeze it, and floats when you release it, congratulations, you're ready to
show it off. If it does not sink when you squeeze it, try a different kind of ketchup pack or try a mustard
or soy sauce pack.
5. If the ketchup pack sinks, add about 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of salt to the bottle. Cap it and shake it up
until the salt dissolves. (Kosher salt will keep the water from getting too cloudy, although it will usually
clear up over time if using regular table salt.)
6. Continue adding salt, a few tablespoons at a time until the ketchup is just barely floating to the top of the
bottle.
7. Once it is consistently floating, make sure the bottle is filled to the top with water, and then cap it tightly.
8. Now squeeze the bottle. The magic ketchup should sink when you squeeze the bottle and float up when
you release it. With some practice you can get it to stop in the middle of the bottle.


This experiment is all about buoyancy and density. Buoyancy describes whether objects float or sink. This usually
describes how things float in liquids, but it can also describe how things float or sink in and various gasses.
Density deals with the amount of mass an object has. Adding salt to the water adjusted the water's density to get
the ketchup to float. Sound complicated? It is, but here's the basics on the ketchup demo...there is a little bubble
inside of the ketchup packet. As we know bubbles float, and the bubble in the ketchup sometimes keeps the heavy
packet from sinking. When you squeeze the bottle hard enough, you put pressure on the packet. That causes the
bubble to get smaller and the entire packet to become MORE DENSE than the water around it and the packet sinks.
When you release the pressure, the bubble expands, making the packet less dense (and more buoyant) and, alas,
it floats back up. This demonstration is sometimes known as a CARTESIAN DIVER.

The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:
1. Do different food packs (ketchup, mustard, soy sauce) have the same density?
2. Does the temperature of the water affect the density of the ketchup packet?
3. Does the size of the bottle affect how much you have to squeeze to get the packet to sink?













clean dry paper clips
tissue paper
a bowl of water
pencil with eraser

1. Fill the bowl with water
2. Try to make the paper clip float...not much luck, huh?
3. Tear a piece of tissue paper about half the size of a dollar bill
4. GENTLY drop the tissue flat onto the surface of the water
5. GENTLY place a dry paper clip flat onto the tissue (try not to touch the water or the tissue)
6. Use the eraser end of the pencil to carefully poke the tissue (not the paper clip) until the tissue sinks.
With some luck, the tissue will sink and leave the paper clip floating!

How is this possible? With a little thing we scientists call SURFACE TENSION. Basically it means that there is a sort

of skin on the surface of water where the water molecules hold on tight together. If the conditions are right, they
can hold tight enough to support your paper clip. The paperclip is not truly floating, it is being held up by the
surface tension. Many insects, such as water striders, use this "skin" to walk across the surface of a stream.

The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:
1. How many paperclips can the surface tension hold?
2. Does the shape of the paperclip affect its floating ability?
3. What liquids have the strongest surface tension?
4. Can the surface tension of water be made stronger? (try sprinkling baby powder on the surface
















Bend a Straw with Your Eyes
Using the power of your eyes, bend a straw sitting in half a glass of water without even touching it! It
sounds like magic but it's really another amazing scientific principle at work.

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What you'll need:
A glass half filled with water
A straw
2 eyes (preferably yours)

Instructions:
1. Look at the straw from the top and bottom of the glass.
2. Look at the straw from the side of the glass, focus on the point where the straw enters the water, what is strange about what you
see?

What's happening?
Our eyes are using light to see various objects all the time, but when this light travels through different mediums (such as water & air) it
changes direction slightly. Light refracts (or bends) when it passes from water to air. The straw looks bent because you are seeing the bottom
part through the water and air but the top part through the air only. Air has a refractive index of around 1.0003 while water has a refractive
index of about 1.33.






Make a Big Dry Ice Bubble
Have fun making a dry ice bubble that will grow and grow as it fills with fog. This experiment is a great
one for adults to do with kids. Add water to the dry ice, cover it with a layer of soapy water and watch
your bubble grow, how big will it get before it bursts? Give it a try and find out!

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What you'll need:
Water
A large bowl with a lip around the top (a smaller bowl or cup will work too)
A strip of material or cloth
Soapy mixture for making bubbles (water and some dishwashing liquid should do the trick)
Dry ice - one piece for a cup, more for a bowl. Places where adults can buy dry ice include large grocery stores and Walmart. Butchers
and ice cream stores might have some too.
Safety first! Be careful with dry ice as it can cause skin damage if not used safely. Adults should handle dry ice with gloves and avoid directly
breathing in the vapor.

Instructions:
1. Place your dry ice in the bowl and add some water (it should start looking like a spooky cauldron).
2. Soak the material in your soapy mixture and run it around the lip of the bowl before dragging it across the top of the bowl to form a
bubble layer over the dry ice.
3. Stand back and watch your bubble grow!

What's happening?
Dry ice is carbon dioxide (CO2) in its solid form. At temperatures above -56.4 C (-69.5 F), dry ice changes directly from a solid to a gas, without
ever being a liquid. This process is called sublimation. When dry ice is put in water it accelerates the sublimation process, creating clouds of fog
that fill up your dry ice bubble until the pressure becomes too much and the bubble explodes, spilling fog over the edge of the bowl. Dry ice is
sometimes used as part of theater productions and performances to create a dense foggy effect. It is also used to preserve food, freeze lab
samples and even to make ice cream!