Get your child interested in science by doing these wacky and wild science experiments with your child. They will be amazed as a balloon blows up by itself or color magically spreads. Be sure to explain how the magic happens after you are all done, because it isn’t really magic, just amazing science at work.
Blow Up A Balloon
Everyone knows that you can blow up a balloon by blowing into it. By how can you blow up a balloon using baking soda and vinegar? Watch and be amazed.
You will need:
Balloon (6-8 inches)
Baking soda
Vinegar
Funnel or piece of paper in a cone shape
Empty bottle with a small opening
Directions:
Blow up the balloon then let the air out. This helps stretch out the balloon and makes it easier to fill.
Use the funnel to fill the balloon with 3-4 tsp of baking soda. Then fill the bottle 1/3 full of vinegar.
Without spilling any of the baking soda into the bottle fit the balloon over the bottle’s opening.
When it is securely on hold the balloon straight up and allow the baking soda to fall into the vinegar.
As the baking soda mixes with the vinegar the balloon will begin to blow up.
Why it works:
When baking soda and vinegar mix it creates a special chemical reaction. Which means that two compounds when mixed create a third compound. The combination of baking soda and vinegar create a gas called carbon dioxide (The same gas that humans breathe out). The carbon dioxide is what blows up the balloon.
Color Wonder
This experiment creates a colorful surprise.
You will need:
Milk
Dish soap
Shallow pan
Food coloring
Directions:
Pour milk into the dish until the bottom is completely covered.
Put a few drops of one color of food coloring into the center of the dish.
Then add a few drops of dish soap to the food coloring. Watch as the color explodes from the center creating a colorful surprise.
Why it works:
The dish soap contains molecules that don’t like water. That’s why soap clusters together when dropped in water. When the dish soap is dropped into the milk, which contains water, it tries to get away. It spreads out over the surface of the milk so that the “water hating” molecules are exposed to the air instead of the water. As the dish soap moves it carries the food coloring with it.
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