See what happens when you mix oil, water, vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and a bit of colour.
The science behind our experiments:
Experiment no. 1: The water (or vinegar) in pipettes form ‘bubbles’ in the oil because they don’t mix – water molecules are more attracted to each other than to oil molecules.
Experiments no. 2 and 3: The vinegar (acid) and bicarbonate of soda (alkali) fizz because together they produce carbon dioxide gas.
What you’ll need:
Tin foil trays or any tray or dish with a lip Pipettes or old Calpol syringes
Food colouring
Water
Clear vinegar
Baby oil or vegetable oil
Bicarbonate of soda
We did our experiment in the garden on a mat which helped contain mess.
I filled a washing up bowl with warm soapy water to have close by, along with an old towel, for washing hands or utensils.
Be careful – any oil spills will be slippy if walked on.
I disposed of the colourful, oily water on one of our garden flowerbeds – probably best not to pour down the sink or toilet.
Baby oil and vegetable oil.
I mixed water with food colouring.
I filled a bowl with soapy water and got an old towel to keep nearby while doing this experiment.
I set up two trays each – one baby oil and one water so the boy and girl could see how the coloured water would react with both substances.
Putting coloured water in a tray of water. “It makes colour clouds!”
It was fun to watch different colours blend in the water.
Dropping coloured water into the baby oil. “It’s making water bubbles!”
Kitchen Science Lab
“I can pick up the water bubbles!”
Coloured water in water and in baby oil.
The girl started mixing everything together by pouring the water tray into a big tray of oil.
It made lovely patterns the more we mixed.
It was interesting watching the water bubbles separate and settle.
Remember the bowl of soapy water? The girl added foam to the coloured water and oil mix.
Rainbow soap bubbles.
Experiment part two: bicarbonate of soda and vegetable oil.
For this part of the experiment I mixed food colouring and clear vinegar. We used pipettes to add bubbles to the water like before.
We sprinkled bicarbonate of soda on to the vinegar bubbles and watched what happened…
…fizzing bubbles!
Mixing it all together.
What does it feel like?
Experiment part three: a tray of bicarbonate of soda.
We added coloured vinegar to the tray to make rainbow fizz.
This was a great kitchen science experiment and one we’ll do again and again I’m sure.
