Blobs in a Bottle
Resources:
• A clean 1-litre clear soft drink bottle
• 3/4 cup of water
• Vegetable oil
• Antacid tablets (such as Quick-Eze or Mylanta)
• Food colouring
Procedure/Steps:
- Pour the water into the bottle.
- Use a measuring cup to slowly pour the vegetable oil into the bottle until it’s almost full. You may have to wait a few minutes for the oil and water to separate.
- Add 10 drops of food colouring to the bottle; the drops will pass through the oil and then mix with the water below.
- Break an antacid tablet in half and drop it into the bottle. Watch it sink to the bottom and watch the lava start to flow.
- To keep the effect going, just add another piece of antacid tablet.
Big questions:
- Does the temperature of the water affect the reaction?
- Does the effect still work if the cap is put on the bottle?
- Does the size of the tablet pieces affect the number of blobs created?
- What is an oil spill and how do they happen?
- How do ice and water interact during an oil spill?
- How does oil affect marine life during an oil spill?
Scientific Explanation (How it works):
To begin, the oil stays above the water because the oil is lighter than the water or, more specifically, less dense than water. The oil and water do not mix because of something called “intermolecular polarity.” Molecular polarity basically means that water molecules are attracted to other water molecules. They get along fine, and can loosely bond together (drops.) This is similar to magnets that are attracted to each other. Oil molecules are attracted to other oil molecules. When you added the tablet piece, it sank to the bottom and started dissolving and creating a gas. As the gas bubbles rose, they took some of the coloured water with them. When the blob of water reached the top, the gas escaped and down went the water.
Hey Skyler why did you call it disaster explosion? There is not much of your own work on this blog post. I hope to see better this week.
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