Monday, February 2, 2009

Unplugged Challenge: Color

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We did a simple science experiment for this week's Unplugged Challenge. The theme was color, so we did an experiment where the primary colors are combined to make new colors.

We started out with a small, clear glass bowl with a cup of milk in it, dish soap, and yellow, read, and blue food coloring.

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Next, the food coloring was added, three drops of each color near the edge of the bowl, about a third of the way around the bowl from each other, so there was no chance of the different colors touching.

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To the center of the bowl of milk, we added a few drops of dish soap.

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From that point on, there was nothing for us to do but watch the pretty colors swirl around all by themselves. The soap will not combine with the milk, so it floats on the surface and pulls the different colors along with it. Eventually, the colors start to mix and form new colors.



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Note: Do not try stirring the milk, the colors will all mix together and form a muddy color.




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Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, saw his shadow this morning, so there is supposed to be six more weeks of winter.

9 comments:

Jennifer said...

Have you seen this? http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryhowtoguide/a/chalkchromato.htm?nl=1 Seems perfectly related to what you are doing right now. We haven't tried it yet but I want to try it out soon.

Crescent Moon said...

Thanks Jennifer! I checked out that site, now I want to go out and buy some plain white chalk.

naomi said...

That's really magical! I'd like to try that as it doesn't require lots of complicated equipment. Thanks for the idea!

Anonymous said...

cool i wanted to do that but milk is so expensive i couldn't stand to part with it!:)

we did shaving cream i have to write up the post!

i might have to part with sme milk and do it though!

dawn klinge said...

This looks like fun. My kids love any project that involves playing with food coloring.

So Smrt said...

Wow, that's really pretty!

Ula said...

In regards to your question on my blog about the picture. Well look at what I found.... http://blog.modernmechanix.com/magazine/?magname=PopularScience

Anonymous said...

I saw that somewhere once and wondered about it. Thanks for showing it to us. We'll have to try it!

Anonymous said...

What a cool project. I want to try it!

Crafty Crow