top 10 chemistry experiments

68 Best Chemistry Experiments: Learn About Chemical Reactions

Whether you’re a student eager to explore the wonders of chemical reactions or a teacher seeking to inspire and engage your students, we’ve compiled a curated list of the top 68 chemistry experiments so you can learn about chemical reactions.

While the theories and laws governing chemistry can sometimes feel abstract, experiments bridge the gap between these concepts and their tangible manifestations. These experiments provide hands-on experiences illuminating the intricacies of chemical reactions, molecular structures, and elemental properties.

1. Covalent Bonds

By engaging in activities that demonstrate the formation and properties of covalent bonds, students can grasp the significance of these bonds in holding atoms together and shaping the world around us.

Learn more: Covalent Bonds

2. Sulfuric Acid and Sugar Demonstration

Through this experiment, students can develop a deeper understanding of chemical properties, appreciate the power of chemical reactions, and ignite their passion for scientific exploration.

3. Make Hot Ice at Home

Making hot ice at home is a fascinating chemistry experiment that allows students to witness the captivating transformation of a liquid into a solid with a surprising twist.

4. Make a Bouncing Polymer Ball

This hands-on activity not only allows students to explore the fascinating properties of polymers but also encourages experimentation and creativity.

Learn more: Thought Co

5. Diffusion Watercolor Art

This experiment offers a wonderful opportunity for students to explore the properties of pigments, observe how they interact with water, and discover the mesmerizing patterns and textures that emerge.

Learn more: Diffusion Watercolor Art

6. Exploding Baggie

The exploding baggie experiment is a captivating and dynamic demonstration that students should engage in with caution and under the supervision of a qualified instructor.

Learn more: Exploding Baggie

7. Color Changing Chemistry Clock

This experiment not only engages students in the world of chemical kinetics but also introduces them to the concept of a chemical clock, where the color change acts as a timekeeping mechanism.

Learn more: Color Changing Chemistry Clock

8. Pipe Cleaner Crystal Trees

By adjusting the concentration of the Borax solution or experimenting with different pipe cleaner arrangements, students can customize their crystal trees and observe how it affects the growth patterns.

Learn more: Pipe Cleaner Crystal Trees

9. How To Make Ice Sculptures

Through this experiment, students gain a deeper understanding of the physical and chemical changes that occur when water freezes and melts.

Learn more: Ice Sculpture

10. How to Make Paper

Through this hands-on activity, students gain a deeper understanding of the properties of cellulose fibers and the transformative power of chemical reactions.

Learn more: How to Make Paper

11. Color Changing Chemistry

Color changing chemistry is an enchanting experiment that offers a captivating blend of science and art. Students should embark on this colorful journey to witness the mesmerizing transformations of chemicals and explore the principles of chemical reactions.

12. Gassy Banana

The gassy banana experiment is a fun and interactive way for students to explore the principles of chemical reactions and gas production.

Learn more: Gassy Banana

13. Gingerbread Man Chemistry Experiment

This hands-on activity not only introduces students to the concepts of chemical leavening and heat-induced reactions but also allows for creativity in decorating and personalizing their gingerbread creations.

Learn more: Gingerbread Man Chemistry Experiment

14. Make Amortentia Potion

While the love potion is fictional, this activity offers a chance to explore the art of potion-making and the chemistry behind it.

Learn more: How to Make Amortentia Potion

15. Strawberry DNA Extraction

This hands-on experiment offers a unique opportunity to observe DNA, the building blocks of life, up close and learn about its structure and properties.

16. Melting Snowman

The melting snowman experiment is a fun and whimsical activity that allows students to explore the principles of heat transfer and phase changes.

Learn more: Melting Snowman

17. Acid Base Cabbage Juice

The acid-base cabbage juice experiment is an engaging and colorful activity that allows students to explore the pH scale and the properties of acids and bases.

By extracting the purple pigment from red cabbage leaves and creating cabbage juice, students can use this natural indicator to identify and differentiate between acidic and basic substances.

Learn more: Acid Base Cabbage Juice

18. Magic Milk

The magic milk experiment is a mesmerizing and educational activity that allows students to explore the concepts of surface tension and chemical reactions.

By adding drops of different food colors to a dish of milk and then introducing a small amount of dish soap, students can witness a captivating display of swirling colors and patterns.

Learn more: Magic Milk

19. Melting Ice with Salt and Water

Through this hands-on activity, students can gain a deeper understanding of the science behind de-icing and how different substances can influence the physical properties of water.

Learn more: Melting Ice with Salt and Water

20. Barking Dog Chemistry Demonstration

The barking dog chemistry demonstration is an exciting and visually captivating experiment that showcases the principles of combustion and gas production.

21. How to Make Egg Geodes

Making egg geodes is a fascinating and creative chemistry experiment that students should try. By using common materials like eggshells, salt, and food coloring, students can create their own beautiful geode-like crystals.

Learn more: How to Make Egg Geodes

22. Make Sherbet

This experiment not only engages the taste buds but also introduces concepts of acidity, solubility, and the chemical reactions that occur when the sherbet comes into contact with moisture.

Learn more: Make Sherbet

23. Hatch a Baking Soda Dinosaur Egg

As the baking soda dries and hardens around the toy, it forms a “shell” resembling a dinosaur egg. To hatch the egg, students can pour vinegar onto the shell, causing a chemical reaction that produces carbon dioxide gas.

Learn more: Steam Powered Family

24. Chromatography Flowers

By analyzing the resulting patterns, students can gain insights into the different pigments present in flowers and the science behind their colors.

Learn more: Chromatography Flowers

25. Turn Juice Into Solid

Turning juice into a solid through gelification is an engaging and educational chemistry experiment that students should try. By exploring the transformation of a liquid into a solid, students can gain insights of chemical reactions and molecular interactions.

Learn more: Turn Juice into Solid

26. Bouncy Balls

Making bouncy balls allows students to explore the fascinating properties of polymers, such as their ability to stretch and rebound.

 27. Make a Lemon Battery

Creating a lemon battery is a captivating and hands-on experiment that allows students to explore the fundamentals of electricity and chemical reactions.

28. Mentos and Soda Project

The Mentos and soda project is a thrilling and explosive experiment that students should try. By dropping Mentos candies into a bottle of carbonated soda, an exciting eruption occurs.

29. Alkali Metal in Water

The reaction of alkali metals with water is a fascinating and visually captivating chemistry demonstration.

30. Rainbow Flame

The rainbow flame experiment is a captivating and visually stunning chemistry demonstration that students should explore.

31. Sugar Yeast Experiment

This experiment not only introduces students to the concept of fermentation but also allows them to witness the effects of a living organism, yeast, on the sugar substrate.

32. The Thermite Reaction

The thermite reaction is a highly energetic and visually striking chemical reaction that students can explore with caution and under proper supervision.

This experiment showcases the principles of exothermic reactions, oxidation-reduction, and the high temperatures that can be achieved through chemical reactions.

33. Polishing Pennies

Polishing pennies is a simple and enjoyable chemistry experiment that allows students to explore the concepts of oxidation and cleaning methods.

34. Elephant Toothpaste

The elephant toothpaste experiment is a thrilling and visually captivating chemistry demonstration that students should try with caution and under the guidance of a knowledgeable instructor.

35. Magic Potion

Creating a magic potion is an exciting and imaginative activity that allows students to explore their creativity while learning about the principles of chemistry.

36. Color Changing Acid-Base Experiment

Through the color changing acid-base experiment, students can gain a deeper understanding of chemical reactions and the role of pH in our daily lives.

Learn more: Color Changing Acid-Base Experiment

37. Fill up a Balloon

Filling up a balloon is a simple and enjoyable physics experiment that demonstrates the properties of air pressure. By blowing air into a balloon, you can observe how the balloon expands and becomes inflated.

38. Jello and Vinegar

The combination of Jello and vinegar is a fascinating and tasty chemistry experiment that demonstrates the effects of acid on a gelatin-based substance.

Learn more: Jello and Vinegar

39. Vinegar and Steel Wool Reaction

This experiment not only provides a visual demonstration of the oxidation process but also introduces students to the concept of corrosion and the role of acids in accelerating the process.

Learn more: Vinegar and Steel Wool Reaction

40. Dancing Rice

The dancing rice experiment is a captivating and educational demonstration that showcases the principles of density and buoyancy.

By pouring a small amount of uncooked rice into a clear container filled with water, students can witness the rice grains moving and “dancing” in the water.

Learn more: Dancing Rice

41. Soil Testing Garden Science

Soil testing is a valuable and informative experiment that allows students to assess the composition and properties of soil.

By collecting soil samples from different locations and analyzing them, students can gain insights into the nutrient content, pH level, and texture of the soil.

Learn more: Soil Testing Garden Science

42. Heat Sensitive Color Changing Slime

Creating heat-sensitive color-changing slime is a captivating and playful chemistry experiment that students should try.

Learn more: Left Brain Craft Brain

43. Experimenting with Viscosity

Experimenting with viscosity is an engaging and hands-on activity that allows students to explore the flow properties of liquids.

Viscosity refers to a liquid’s resistance to flow, and this experiment enables students to investigate how different factors affect viscosity.

Learn more: Experimenting with Viscosity

44. Rock Candy Science

Rock candy science is a delightful and educational chemistry experiment that students should try. By growing their own rock candy crystals, students can learn about crystal formation and explore the principles of solubility and saturation.

Learn more: Rock Candy Science

45. Baking Soda vs Baking Powder

Baking soda and baking powder have distinct properties that influence the leavening process in different ways.

This hands-on experiment provides a practical understanding of how these ingredients interact with acids and moisture to create carbon dioxide gas.

46. Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions Experiment

The endothermic and exothermic reactions experiment is an exciting and informative chemistry exploration that students should try.

By observing and comparing the heat changes in different reactions, students can gain a deeper understanding of energy transfer and the concepts of endothermic and exothermic processes.

Learn more: Education.com

47. Diaper Chemistry

By dissecting a diaper and examining its components, students can uncover the chemical processes that make diapers so effective at absorbing and retaining liquids.

Learn more: Diaper Chemistry

48. Candle Chemical Reaction

The “Flame out” experiment is an intriguing and educational chemistry demonstration that students should try. By exploring the effects of a chemical reaction on a burning candle, students can witness the captivating moment when the flame is extinguished.

49. Make Curds and Whey

This experiment not only introduces students to the concept of acid-base reactions but also offers an opportunity to explore the science behind cheese-making.

Learn more: Tinkerlab

50. Grow Crystals Overnight

By creating a supersaturated solution using substances like epsom salt, sugar, or borax, students can observe the fascinating process of crystal growth. This experiment allows students to explore the principles of solubility, saturation, and nucleation.

Learn more: Grow Crystals Overnight

51. Measure Electrolytes in Sports Drinks

The “Measure Electrolytes in Sports Drinks” experiment is an informative and practical chemistry activity that students should try.

By using simple tools like a multimeter or conductivity probe, students can measure the electrical conductivity of different sports drinks to determine their electrolyte content.

52. Oxygen and Fire Experiment

The oxygen and fire experiment is a captivating and educational chemistry demonstration that students should try. By observing the effects of oxygen on a controlled fire, students can witness the essential role of oxygen in supporting combustion.

53. Electrolysis Of Water

The electrolysis of water experiment is a captivating and educational chemistry demonstration that students should try.

Learn more: Electrolysis Of Water

54. Expanding Ivory Soap

The expanding Ivory Soap experiment is a fun and interactive chemistry activity that students should try. By placing a bar of Ivory soap in a microwave, students can witness the remarkable expansion of the soap as it heats up.

Learn more: Little Bins Little Hands

55. Glowing Fireworks

This experiment not only introduces students to the principles of pyrotechnics and combustion but also encourages observation, critical thinking, and an appreciation for the physics and chemistry behind.

Learn more: Glowing Fireworks

56. Colorful Polymer Chemistry

Colorful polymer chemistry is an exciting and vibrant experiment that students should try to explore polymers and colorants.

By combining different types of polymers with various colorants, such as food coloring or pigments, students can create a kaleidoscope of colors in their polymer creations.

Learn more: Colorful Polymer Chemistry

57. Sulfur Hexafluoride- Deep Voice Gas

This experiment provides a firsthand experience of how the density and composition of gases can influence sound transmission.

It encourages scientific curiosity, observation, and a sense of wonder as students witness the surprising transformation of their voices.

58. Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

Liquid nitrogen ice cream is a thrilling and delicious chemistry experiment that students should try. By combining cream, sugar, and flavorings with liquid nitrogen, students can create ice cream with a unique and creamy texture.

59. White Smoke Chemistry Demonstration

The White Smoke Chemistry Demonstration provides an engaging and visually captivating experience for students to explore chemical reactions and gases. By combining hydrochloric acid and ammonia solutions, students can witness the mesmerizing formation of white smoke.

60. Nitrogen Triiodide Chemistry Demonstration

The nitrogen triiodide chemistry demonstration is a remarkable and attention-grabbing experiment that students should try under the guidance of a knowledgeable instructor.

By reacting iodine crystals with concentrated ammonia, students can precipitate nitrogen triiodide (NI3), a highly sensitive compound.

61. Make a Plastic- Milk And Vinegar Reaction Experiment

Through the “Make a Plastic – Milk and Vinegar Reaction” experiment, students can gain a deeper understanding of the chemistry behind plastics, environmental sustainability, and the potential of biodegradable materials.

Learn more: Rookie Parenting

62. Eno and Water Experiment

This experiment not only introduces students to acid-base reactions but also engages their senses as they witness the visible and audible effects of the reaction.

63. The Eternal Kettle Experiment

By filling a kettle with alcohol and igniting it, students can investigate the behavior of the alcohol flame and its sustainability.

64. Coke and Chlorine Bombs

Engaging in this experiment allows students to experience the wonders of chemistry firsthand, making it an ideal choice to ignite their curiosity and passion for scientific exploration.

65. Set your Hand on Fire

This experiment showcases the fascinating nature of combustion and the science behind fire.

By carefully following proper procedures and safety guidelines, students can witness firsthand how the sanitizer’s high alcohol content interacts with an open flame, resulting in a brief but captivating display of controlled combustion.

66. Instant Ice Experiments

The Instant Ice Experiment offers an engaging and captivating opportunity for students to explore the wonders of chemistry and phase changes.

By using simple household ingredients, students can witness the fascinating phenomenon of rapid ice formation in just a matter of seconds.

67. Coke Cans in Acid and Base

Engaging in this experiment allows students to gain a deeper understanding of the chemical properties of substances and the importance of safety protocols in scientific investigations.

68. Color Changing Invisible Ink

The Color Changing Invisible Ink experiment offers an intriguing and fun opportunity for students to explore chemistry and learn about the concept of chemical reactions.

Learn more: Research Parent

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The Top 10 Science Experiments of All Time

These seminal experiments changed our understanding of the universe and ourselves..

Every day, we conduct science experiments, posing an “if” with a “then” and seeing what shakes out. Maybe it’s just taking a slightly different route on our commute home or heating that burrito for a few seconds longer in the microwave. Or it could be trying one more variation of that gene, or wondering what kind of code would best fit a given problem. Ultimately, this striving, questioning spirit is at the root of our ability to discover anything at all. A willingness to experiment has helped us delve deeper into the nature of reality through the pursuit we call science. 

A select batch of these science experiments has stood the test of time in showcasing our species at its inquiring, intelligent best. Whether elegant or crude, and often with a touch of serendipity, these singular efforts have delivered insights that changed our view of ourselves or the universe. 

Here are nine such successful endeavors — plus a glorious failure — that could be hailed as the top science experiments of all time.

Eratosthenes Measures the World

Experimental result: The first recorded measurement of Earth’s circumference 

When: end of the third century B.C.

Just how big is our world? Of the many answers from ancient cultures, a stunningly accurate value calculated by Eratosthenes has echoed down the ages. Born around 276 B.C. in Cyrene, a Greek settlement on the coast of modern-day Libya, Eratosthenes became a voracious scholar — a trait that brought him both critics and admirers. The haters nicknamed him Beta, after the second letter of the Greek alphabet. University of Puget Sound physics professor James Evans explains the Classical-style burn: “Eratosthenes moved so often from one field to another that his contemporaries thought of him as only second-best in each of them.” Those who instead celebrated the multitalented Eratosthenes dubbed him Pentathlos, after the five-event athletic competition.

That mental dexterity landed the scholar a gig as chief librarian at the famous library in Alexandria, Egypt. It was there that he conducted his famous experiment. He had heard of a well in Syene, a Nile River city to the south (modern-day Aswan), where the noon sun shone straight down, casting no shadows, on the date of the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice. Intrigued, Eratosthenes measured the shadow cast by a vertical stick in Alexandria on this same day and time. He determined the angle of the sun’s light there to be 7.2 degrees, or 1/50th of a circle’s 360 degrees. 

Knowing — as many educated Greeks did — Earth was spherical, Eratosthenes fathomed that if he knew the distance between the two cities, he could multiply that figure by 50 and gauge Earth’s curvature, and hence its total circumference. Supplied with that information, Eratosthenes deduced Earth’s circumference as 250,000 stades, a Hellenistic unit of length equaling roughly 600 feet. The span equates to about 28,500 miles, well within the ballpark of the correct figure of 24,900 miles. 

Eratosthenes’ motive for getting Earth’s size right was his keenness for geography, a field whose name he coined. Fittingly, modernity has bestowed upon him one more nickname: father of geography. Not bad for a guy once dismissed as second-rate.

William Harvey Takes the Pulse of Nature

Experimental result: The discovery of blood circulation

When: Theory published in 1628

Boy, was Galen wrong. 

The Greek physician-cum-philosopher proposed a model of blood flow in the second century that, despite being full of whoppers, prevailed for nearly 1,500 years. Among its claims: The liver constantly makes new blood from food we eat; blood flows throughout the body in two separate streams, one infused (via the lungs) with “vital spirits” from air; and the blood that tissues soak up never returns to the heart. 

Overturning all this dogma took a series of often gruesome experiments. 

High-born in England in 1578, William Harvey rose to become royal physician to King James I, affording him the time and means to pursue his greatest interest: anatomy. He first hacked away (literally, in some cases) at the Galenic model by exsanguinating — draining the blood from — test critters, including sheep and pigs. Harvey realized that if Galen were right, an impossible volume of blood, exceeding the animals’ size, would have to pump through the heart every hour. 

To drive this point home, Harvey sliced open live animals in public, demonstrating their puny blood supplies. He also constricted blood flow into a snake’s exposed heart by finger-pinching a main vein. The heart shrunk and paled; when pierced, it poured forth little blood. By contrast, choking off the main exiting artery swelled the heart. Through studies of the slow heart beats of reptiles and animals near death, he discerned the heart’s contractions, and deduced that it pumped blood through the body in a circuit.

According to Andrew Gregory, a professor of history and philosophy of science at University College London, this was no easy deduction on Harvey’s part. “If you look at a heart beating normally in its normal surroundings, it is very difficult to work out what is actually happening,” he says. 

Experiments with willing people, which involved temporarily blocking blood flow in and out of limbs, further bore out Harvey’s revolutionary conception of blood circulation. He published the full theory in a 1628 book, De Motu Cordis [The Motion of the Heart]. His evidence-based approach transformed medical science, and he’s recognized today as the father of modern medicine and physiology.

Gregor Mendel Cultivates Genetics

Experimental result: The fundamental rules of genetic inheritance 

When: 1855-1863 

A child, to varying degrees, resembles a parent, whether it’s a passing resemblance or a full-blown mini-me. Why? 

The profound mystery behind the inheritance of physical traits began to unravel a century and a half ago, thanks to Gregor Mendel. Born in 1822 in what is now the Czech Republic, Mendel showed a knack for the physical sciences, though his farming family had little money for formal education. Following the advice of a professor, he joined the Augustinian order, a monastic group that emphasized research and learning, in 1843. 

Ensconced at a monastery in Brno, the shy Gregor quickly began spending time in the garden. Fuchsias in particular grabbed his attention, their daintiness hinting at an underlying grand design. “The fuchsias probably gave him the idea for the famous experiments,” says Sander Gliboff, who researches the history of biology at Indiana University Bloomington. “He had been crossing different varieties, trying to get new colors or combinations of colors, and he got repeatable results that suggested some law of heredity at work.”

These laws became clear with his cultivation of pea plants. Using paintbrushes, Mendel dabbed pollen from one to another, precisely pairing thousands of plants with certain traits over a stretch of about seven years. He meticulously documented how matching yellow peas and green peas, for instance, always yielded a yellow plant. Yet mating these yellow offspring together produced a generation where a quarter of the peas gleamed green again. Ratios like these led to Mendel’s coining of the terms dominant (the yellow color, in this case) and recessive for what we now call genes, and which Mendel referred to as “factors.” 

He was ahead of his time. His studies received scant attention in their day, but decades later, when other scientists discovered and replicated Mendel’s experiments, they came to be regarded as a breakthrough. 

“The genius in Mendel’s experiments was his way of formulating simple hypotheses that explain a few things very well, instead of tackling all the complexities of heredity at once,” says Gliboff. “His brilliance was in putting it all together into a project that he could actually do.”

Isaac Newton Eyes Optics

Experimental result: The nature of color and light

When: 1665-1666

Before he was that Isaac Newton — scientist extraordinaire and inventor of the laws of motion, calculus and universal gravitation (plus a crimefighter to boot) — plain ol’ Isaac found himself with time to kill. To escape a devastating outbreak of plague in his college town of Cambridge, Newton holed up at his boyhood home in the English countryside. There, he tinkered with a prism he picked up at a local fair — a “child’s plaything,” according to Patricia Fara, fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. 

Let sunlight pass through a prism and a rainbow, or spectrum, of colors splays out. In Newton’s time, prevailing thinking held that light takes on the color from the medium it transits, like sunlight through stained glass. Unconvinced, Newton set up a prism experiment that proved color is instead an inherent property of light itself. This revolutionary insight established the field of optics, fundamental to modern science and technology. 

Newton deftly executed the delicate experiment: He bored a hole in a window shutter, allowing a single beam of sunlight to pass through two prisms. By blocking some of the resulting colors from reaching the second prism, Newton showed that different colors refracted, or bent, differently through a prism. He then singled out a color from the first prism and passed it alone through the second prism; when the color came out unchanged, it proved the prism didn’t affect the color of the ray. The medium did not matter. Color was tied up, somehow, with light itself. 

Partly owing to the ad hoc, homemade nature of Newton’s experimental setup, plus his incomplete descriptions in a seminal 1672 paper, his contemporaries initially struggled to replicate the results. “It’s a really, really technically difficult experiment to carry out,” says Fara. “But once you have seen it, it’s incredibly convincing.” 

In making his name, Newton certainly displayed a flair for experimentation, occasionally delving into the self-as-subject variety. One time, he stared at the sun so long he nearly went blind. Another, he wormed a long, thick needle under his eyelid, pressing on the back of his eyeball to gauge how it affected his vision. Although he had plenty of misses in his career — forays into occultism, dabbling in biblical numerology — Newton’s hits ensured his lasting fame.

Michelson and Morley Whiff on Ether

Experimental result: The way light moves

Say “hey!” and the sound waves travel through a medium (air) to reach your listener’s ears. Ocean waves, too, move through their own medium: water. Light waves are a special case, however. In a vacuum, with all media such as air and water removed, light somehow still gets from here to there. How can that be? 

The answer, according to the physics en vogue in the late 19th century, was an invisible, ubiquitous medium delightfully dubbed the “luminiferous ether.” Working together at what is now Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, Albert Michelson and Edward W. Morley set out to prove this ether’s existence. What followed is arguably the most famous failed experiment in history. 

The scientists’ hypothesis was thus: As Earth orbits the sun, it constantly plows through ether, generating an ether wind. When the path of a light beam travels in the same direction as the wind, the light should move a bit faster compared with sailing against the wind. 

To measure the effect, miniscule though it would have to be, Michelson had just the thing. In the early 1880s, he had invented a type of interferometer, an instrument that brings sources of light together to create an interference pattern, like when ripples on a pond intermingle. A Michelson interferometer beams light through a one-way mirror. The light splits in two, and the resulting beams travel at right angles to each other. After some distance, they reflect off mirrors back toward a central meeting point. If the light beams arrive at different times, due to some sort of unequal displacement during their journeys (say, from the ether wind), they create a distinctive interference pattern. 

The researchers protected their delicate interferometer setup from vibrations by placing it atop a solid sandstone slab, floating almost friction-free in a trough of mercury and further isolated in a campus building’s basement. Michelson and Morley slowly rotated the slab, expecting to see interference patterns as the light beams synced in and out with the ether’s direction. 

Instead, nothing. Light’s speed did not vary. 

Neither researcher fully grasped the significance of their null result. Chalking it up to experimental error, they moved on to other projects. (Fruitfully so: In 1907, Michelson became the first American to win a Nobel Prize, for optical instrument-based investigations.) But the huge dent Michelson and Morley unintentionally kicked into ether theory set off a chain of further experimentation and theorizing that led to Albert Einstein’s 1905 breakthrough new paradigm of light, special relativity.

Marie Curie’s Work Matters

Experimental result: Defining radioactivity 

Few women are represented in the annals of legendary scientific experiments, reflecting their historical exclusion from the discipline. Marie Sklodowska broke this mold. 

Born in 1867 in Warsaw, she immigrated to Paris at age 24 for the chance to further study math and physics. There, she met and married physicist Pierre Curie, a close intellectual partner who helped her revolutionary ideas gain a foothold within the male-dominated field. “If it wasn’t for Pierre, Marie would never have been accepted by the scientific community,” says Marilyn B. Ogilvie, professor emeritus in the history of science at the University of Oklahoma. “Nonetheless, the basic hypotheses — those that guided the future course of investigation into the nature of radioactivity — were hers.”

The Curies worked together mostly out of a converted shed on the college campus where Pierre worked. For her doctoral thesis in 1897, Marie began investigating a newfangled kind of radiation, similar to X-rays and discovered just a year earlier. Using an instrument called an electrometer, built by Pierre and his brother, Marie measured the mysterious rays emitted by thorium and uranium. Regardless of the elements’ mineralogical makeup — a yellow crystal or a black powder, in uranium’s case — radiation rates depended solely on the amount of the element present. 

From this observation, Marie deduced that the emission of radiation had nothing to do with a substance’s molecular arrangements. Instead, radioactivity — a term she coined — was an inherent property of individual atoms, emanating from their internal structure. Up until this point, scientists had thought atoms elementary, indivisible entities. Marie had cracked the door open to understanding matter at a more fundamental, subatomic level. 

Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, in 1903, and one of a very select few people to earn a second Nobel, in 1911 (for her later discoveries of the elements radium and polonium). 

“In her life and work,” says Ogilvie, “she became a role model for young women who wanted a career in science.”

Ivan Pavlov Salivates at the Idea

Experimental result: The discovery of conditioned reflexes

When: 1890s-1900s

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov scooped up a Nobel Prize in 1904 for his work with dogs, investigating how saliva and stomach juices digest food. While his scientific legacy will always be tied to doggie drool, it is the operations of the mind — canine, human and otherwise — for which Pavlov remains celebrated today.

Gauging gastric secretions was no picnic. Pavlov and his students collected the fluids that canine digestive organs produced, with a tube suspended from some pooches’ mouths to capture saliva. Come feeding time, the researchers began noticing that dogs who were experienced in the trials would start drooling into the tubes before they’d even tasted a morsel. Like numerous other bodily functions, the generation of saliva was considered a reflex at the time, an unconscious action only occurring in the presence of food. But Pavlov’s dogs had learned to associate the appearance of an experimenter with meals, meaning the canines’ experience had conditioned their physical responses. 

“Up until Pavlov’s work, reflexes were considered fixed or hardwired and not changeable,” says Catharine Rankin, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia and president of the Pavlovian Society. “His work showed that they could change as a result of experience.” 

Pavlov and his team then taught the dogs to associate food with neutral stimuli as varied as buzzers, metronomes, rotating objects, black squares, whistles, lamp flashes and electric shocks. Pavlov never did ring a bell, however; credit an early mistranslation of the Russian word for buzzer for that enduring myth. 

The findings formed the basis for the concept of classical, or Pavlovian, conditioning. It extends to essentially any learning about stimuli, even if reflexive responses are not involved. “Pavlovian conditioning is happening to us all of the time,” says W. Jeffrey Wilson of Albion College, fellow officer of the Pavlovian Society. “Our brains are constantly connecting things we experience together.” In fact, trying to “un-wire” these conditioned responses is the strategy behind modern treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as addiction.

Robert Millikan Gets a Charge

Experimental result: The precise value of a single electron’s charge

By most measures, Robert Millikan had done well for himself. Born in 1868 in a small town in Illinois, he went on to earn degrees from Oberlin College and Columbia University. He studied physics with European luminaries in Germany. He then joined the University of Chicago’s physics department, and even penned some successful textbooks. 

But his colleagues were doing far more. The turn of the 20th century was a heady time for physics: In the span of just over a decade, the world was introduced to quantum physics, special relativity and the electron — the first evidence that atoms had divisible parts. By 1908, Millikan found himself pushing 40 without a significant discovery to his name. 

The electron, though, offered an opportunity. Researchers had struggled with whether the particle represented a fundamental unit of electric charge, the same in all cases. It was a critical determination for further developing particle physics. With nothing to lose, Millikan gave it a go. 

In his lab at the University of Chicago, he began working with containers of thick water vapor, called cloud chambers, and varying the strength of an electric field within them. Clouds of water droplets formed around charged atoms and molecules before descending due to gravity. By adjusting the strength of the electric field, he could slow down or even halt a single droplet’s fall, countering gravity with electricity. Find the precise strength where they balanced, and — assuming it did so consistently — that would reveal the charge’s value. 

When it turned out water evaporated too quickly, Millikan and his students — the often-unsung heroes of science — switched to a longer-lasting substance: oil, sprayed into the chamber by a drugstore perfume atomizer. 

The increasingly sophisticated oil-drop experiments eventually determined that the electron did indeed represent a unit of charge. They estimated its value to within whiskers of the currently accepted charge of one electron (1.602 x 10-19 coulombs). It was a coup for particle physics, as well as Millikan. 

“There’s no question that it was a brilliant experiment,” says Caltech physicist David Goodstein. “Millikan’s result proved beyond reasonable doubt that the electron existed and was quantized with a definite charge. All of the discoveries of particle physics follow from that.”

Young, Davisson and Germer See Particles Do the Wave

Experimental result: The wavelike nature of light and electrons 

When: 1801 and 1927, respectively 

Light: particle or wave? Having long wrestled with this seeming either/or, many physicists settled on particle after Isaac Newton’s tour de force through optics. But a rudimentary, yet powerful, demonstration by fellow Englishman Thomas Young shattered this convention. 

Young’s interests covered everything from Egyptology (he helped decode the Rosetta Stone) to medicine and optics. To probe light’s essence, Young devised an experiment in 1801. He cut two thin slits into an opaque object, let sunlight stream through them and watched how the beams cast a series of bright and dark fringes on a screen beyond. Young reasoned that this pattern emerged from light wavily spreading outward, like ripples across a pond, with crests and troughs from different light waves amplifying and canceling each other. 

Although contemporary physicists initially rebuffed Young’s findings, rampant rerunning of these so-called double-slit experiments established that the particles of light really do move like waves. “Double-slit experiments have become so compelling [because] they are relatively easy to conduct,” says David Kaiser, a professor of physics and of the history of science at MIT. “There is an unusually large ratio, in this case, between the relative simplicity and accessibility of the experimental design and the deep conceptual significance of the results.”

More than a century later, a related experiment by Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer showed the depth of this significance. At what is now called Nokia Bell Labs in New Jersey, the physicists ricocheted electron particles off a nickel crystal. The scattered electrons interacted to produce a pattern only possible if the particles also acted like waves. Subsequent double slit-style experiments with electrons proved that particles with matter and undulating energy (light) can each act like both particles and waves. The paradoxical idea lies at the heart of quantum physics, which at the time was just beginning to explain the behavior of matter at a fundamental level. 

“What these experiments show, at their root, is that the stuff of the world, be it radiation or seemingly solid matter, has some irreducible, unavoidable wavelike characteristics,” says Kaiser. “No matter how surprising or counterintuitive that may seem, physicists must take that essential ‘waviness’ into account.”

Robert Paine Stresses Starfish

Experimental result: The disproportionate impact of keystone species on ecosystems

When: Initially presented in a 1966 paper

Just like the purple starfish he crowbarred off rocks and chucked into the Pacific Ocean, Bob Paine threw conventional wisdom right out the window. 

By the 1960s, ecologists had come to agree that habitats thrived primarily through diversity. The common practice of observing these interacting webs of creatures great and small suggested as much. Paine took a different approach. 

Curious what would happen if he intervened in an environment, Paine ran his starfish-banishing experiments in tidal pools along and off the rugged coast of Washington state. The removal of this single species, it turned out, could destabilize a whole ecosystem. Unchecked, the starfish’s barnacle prey went wild — only to then be devoured by marauding mussels. These shellfish, in turn, started crowding out the limpets and algal species. The eventual result: a food web in tatters, with only mussel-dominated pools left behind. 

Paine dubbed the starfish a keystone species, after the necessary center stone that locks an arch into place. A revelatory concept, it meant that all species do not contribute equally in a given ecosystem. Paine’s discovery had a major influence on conservation, overturning the practice of narrowly preserving an individual species for the sake of it, versus an ecosystem-based management strategy.

“His influence was absolutely transformative,” says Oregon State University’s Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist. She and her husband, fellow OSU professor Bruce Menge, met 50 years ago as graduate students in Paine’s lab at the University of Washington. Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration from 2009 to 2013, saw over the years the impact that Paine’s keystone species concept had on policies related to fisheries management.

Lubchenco and Menge credit Paine’s inquisitiveness and dogged personality for changing their field. “A thing that made him so charismatic was almost a childlike enthusiasm for ideas,” says Menge. “Curiosity drove him to start the experiment, and then he got these spectacular results.”

Paine died in 2016. His later work had begun exploring the profound implications of humans as a hyper-keystone species, altering the global ecosystem through climate change and unchecked predation.

Adam Hadhazy is based in New Jersey. His work has also appeared in New Scientist and Popular Science , among other publications. This story originally appeared in print as "10 Experiments That Changed Everything"

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Top 10 Chemistry Experiments You Don't Want to Miss

May 03, 2021 3 min read

A few years back we shared a series about how to teach the different areas of science at home, which you can find here:

• Teaching Biology at Home
• Teaching Earth Science at Home
• Teaching Astronomy at Home
• Teaching Chemistry at Home
• Teaching Physics at Home

The posts in the series have remained some of our most popular posts and so we thought we would help you all out by sharing our favorite experiments for each discipline!

So far we have shared our favorite biology , earth science , and astronomy experiments. Today, we are going to share ten of our favorites for chemistry.

And without further ado, here are our top 10 chemistry experiments!

Top 10 Chemistry Experiments

1. Explore marker chromatography.

This STEAM activity versatile enough to do with what you have on hand and definitely delivers the "WOW" factor.

It's a great project for   decorating a tree, making   beautiful butterflies, or for making a scientific version of a   tie-dye t-shirt. Whatever you decide to do with your marker chromatography artwork, the process is the same.

2. Test which one freezes first. 

Winter is a great time to explore the principles of chemistry through experimentation! Although, with a freezer you can enjoy this experiment year-round.

This simple experiment will help your students to see   how salt changes the freezing point of water .

3. Make a bioplastic in your kitchen.

This chemistry experiment shares how to make a simple bioplastic in your microwave!! What is a bioplastic you ask? It's a plasticky material made from biological chemicals.

Now, we can't exactly make a completely hard bioplastic in our microwave. However, we will make a super cool gel-like bioplastic using cornstarch and a few other items.

4. Polishing silver with chemistry.

I know you are thinking - silver polish can't possibly be a super fun chemistry experiment. But, the directions in this post contain the best possible homemade silver polish.

Uncle Cecil and President Lincoln of Sassafras Science fame tried hundreds of experiments just to make sure. This silver-polishing, scientific magic trick will make an afternoon chore into a super fun chemistry experiment.

5. Experiment with Borax.

Borax is an old-school laundry booster that many of the slime recipes use. But what do you do with the rest of the box when you are done? 

You could get all retro and add it to your next load of laundry, but what fun is that? Today, we are going to share with you three chemistry experiments that use Borax - ones that you will want to do over and over again until the whole box is gone!

6. Do a kitchen acid test.

A kitchen acid test is always fun because of the color changes.  But more than that, this hands-on science activity is a great way to show your kids a bit about the chemistry of acids and bases!

7. Send a secret message.

You use chemistry to be like a spy and send a secret message ! This  kitchen science activity is one you can use over and over again.

8. Explode fireworks in your kitchen.

There is a lot of chemistry behind fireworks - the colors alone are due to different chemicals!

And although, you can't explode actual fireworks in your kitchen, but you can learn about them and then do a simple chemistry experiment to see fireworks in your kitchen !

9. Play with dry ice.

Dry ice is a fun way to explore the states of matter. It's one of those materials that appear to boil in room temperature water, sending out billows of white, wispy smoke.

This post shares three  chemistry activities with dry ice from our lab to yours that you can use to explore this amazing material.

10. Mix up a batch of crazy colors.

This chemistry experiment is part color-change , part stink-up-the-kitchen and it requires a bit of preparation, but it is totally worth it! It's one of the best ways to show the difference between acids and bases.

Wrapping it Up

There are loads more options for chemistry experiments out there that we love - in fact, we probably could have done a post with 100 experiments! But these are the ten we don't want you to miss.  If you want more chemistry experiments, check out our   Chemistry Pinterest board .

If you want it all pulled together for you, check out the following our homeschool science programs with easy-to-use plans for teaching chemistry:

• For Preschool –   Intro to Science  and Summer's Lab
• For Elementary Students –  Chemistry for the Grammar Stage  and  Chemistry Lapbooks
• For Middle School Students –   Chemistry for the Logic Stage
• High School Students –  Chemistry for High School

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Cool Chemistry Experiments

Cool chemistry experiments raise student interest in science and boost enthusiasm for learning. They are also a lot of fun! Here are some spectacular demonstrations and experiments to try.

Elephant Toothpaste

Elephant toothpaste is one chemistry experiment you shouldn’t miss. The experiment produces heaps of foam, which you can color or even form into shapes by using special containers. The classic version is a reaction between sodium or potassium iodide and peroxide. There is also a kid-friendly version that is safe for children (and adults) to touch.

Color Change Chemiluminescence

Most likely, you know about chemiluminescence from glow sticks , but there are more dramatic reactions you can try. For example, there is a cool chemistry experiment where you mix together chemicals, add peroxide, and the solution glows red and then glows blue . This experiment illustrates an exothermic reaction and a decomposition reaction.

Colored Fire Cool Chemistry Experiment

Making colored fire certainly qualifies as a cool chemistry experiment. Just choose the chemical for the color you want. Some of the chemicals are appropriate for making colored fire spray bottles , too. In addition to looking awesome, colored fire demonstrates the emission spectra of ions.

Copper and Nitric Acid Chemistry Experiment

The copper and nitric acid experiment is as easy as it gets, but it produces dramatic results that illustrate the metal activity series and coordination complexes. All you do is drop a piece of copper into nitric acid. The liquid changes from clear to blue-green and the reaction releases bubbles of reddish-brown vapor. Eventually, the liquid changes color to brown.

Sodium in Water Reaction

Sodium and other alkali metals react vigorously with water. The reaction become more vigorous as you move down the periodic table, so mixing sodium and water is the safest version of this chemistry experiment. You only use a tiny bit of the metal, yet it burns brightly and gives of sparks and flames. Sodium burns with a yellow flame, but other metals have their own characteristic colors. For example, potassium in water has a purple flame and rubidium in water has a red flame.

Chemical Traffic Light

The chemical traffic light is one of many color change chemistry demonstrations . It is a redox reaction where a solution changes red, green, and amber, like a traffic light. Temperature affects the rate of the color change, so it also illustrates principles of kinetics.

Thermite Reaction

The thermite reaction is one of the more dramatic chemistry experiments. All you do is mix a metal and a metal oxide and ignite it. But, this is no ordinary fire. The reaction is very bright and extremely hot. It is the burning of metal, so it serves as an example of oxidation, combustion, and exothermic reactions.

Dancy Gummy Bear

The dancing gummy bear is a chemistry experiment featuring a gummy bear candy “dancing” in purple flames. But, you can use any candy. A related experiment involves dropping a bit of charcoal into a tube of molten potassium nitrate, making the charcoal dance . The project illustrates combustion, oxidation, exothermic reactions, and the flame test for potassium.

Sugar and Sulfuric Acid Cool Reaction

The sugar and sulfuric acid reaction has another name: the carbon snake. This is a dehydration reaction and decomposition reaction that breaks sugar molecules into elemental carbon, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and water. The result is a steaming column of black carbon rising from its container. The experiment smells of burning caramel and rotten eggs.

Flower Shop Reaction

The flower shop or odor of violets reaction does not look as cool as some of the other reactions on this list, but it definitely smells the best. The simple reaction involves mixing two common chemicals and applying heat, releasing a chemical that smells like violets. This experiment demonstrates a rearrangement reaction. Another cool effect is the way the molecule affects the sense of smell such that the fragrance never becomes overpowering or fades.

• Shakhashiri, Bassam Z. (1983).  Chemical Demonstrations: A Handbook for Teachers of Chemistry  (1st ed.). University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN: 978-0299088903.
• Summerlin, Lee R.; Borgford, Christie L., Ealy, Julie B. (1988).  Chemical Demonstrations: A Sourcebook for Teachers Volume 2 (2nd ed.). American Chemical Society. ISBN: 978-0841215351.

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We can all agree that science is awesome. And you can bring that awesomeness into your very own home with these 20 safe DIY experiments you can do right now with ordinary household items.

1. Make Objects Seemingly Disappear Refraction is when light changes direction and speed as it passes from one object to another. Only visible objects reflect light. When two materials with similar reflective properties come into contact, light will pass through both materials at the same speed, rendering the other material invisible. Check out this video from BritLab  on how to turn glass invisible using vegetable oil and pyrex glass.

2. Freeze Water Instantly When purified water is cooled to just below freezing point, a quick nudge or an icecube placed in it is all it takes for the water to instantly freeze. You can finally have the power of Frozone from The Incredibles on a very small scale! Check out the video on this "cool" experiment. 

3. Create Oobleck And Make It Dance To The Music Named after a sticky substance in a children’s book by Dr Seuss , Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid, which means it can behave as both a solid and a liquid. And when placed on a sound source, the vibrations causes the mixture to gloopily dance. Check out these instructions from Housing A Forest  on how to make this groovy fluid funk out in every way.

4. Create Your Own Hybrid Rocket Engine With a combination of a solid fuel source and a liquid oxidizer, hybrid rocket engines can propel themselves. And on a small scale, you can create your own hybrid rocket engine, using pasta, mouthwash and yeast. Sadly, it won’t propel much, but who said rocket science ain’t easy? Check out this video from NightHawkInLight on how to make this mini engine.

5. Create "Magic Mud" Another non-Newtonian fluid here, this time from the humble potato. "Magic Mud" is actually starch found in potatoes. It’ll remain hard when handled but leave it alone and it turns into a liquid. Make your own “Magic Mud” with this video.

6. Command The Skies And Create A Cloud In A Bottle Not quite a storm in a teacup, but it is a cloud in a bottle. Clouds up in the sky are formed when water vapor cools and condenses into visible water droplets. Create your own cloud in a bottle using a few household items with these wikiHow instructions .

7. Create An Underwater Magical World First synthesized by Adolf van Baeyer in 1871, fluorescein is a non-toxic powder found in highlighter pens, and used by NASA to find shuttles that land in the sea. Create an underwater magical world with this video from NightHawkInLight .

9. Make Your Own Lava Lamp Inside a lava lamp are colored bubbles of wax suspended in a clear or colorless liquid, which changes density when warmed by a heating element at the base, allowing them to rise and fall hypnotically. Create your own lava lamp with these video instructions.

10. Create Magnetic Fluid A ferrofluid is a liquid that contains nanoscale particles of metal, which can become magnetized. And with oil, toner and a magnet , you can create your own ferrofluid and harness the power of magnetism! 

12. Make Waterproof Sand A hydrophobic substance is one that repels water. When sand is combined with a water-resistant chemical, it becomes hydrophobic. So when it comes into contact with water, the sand will remain dry and reusable. Make your own waterproof sand with this video .

13. Make Elephant's Toothpaste Elephant’s toothpaste is a steaming foamy substance created by the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, which sort of resembles giant-sized toothpaste. Make your own elephant’s toothpaste with these instructions.

14. Make Crystal Bubbles When the temperature falls below 0 o C (32 o F), it’s possible to freeze bubbles into crystals. No instructions needed here, just some bubble mix and chilly weather.

15. Make Moving Liquid Art Mixing dish soap and milk together causes the surface tension of the milk to break down. Throw in different food colorings and create this trippy chemical reaction.

16. Create Colourful Carnations Flowers absorb water through their stems, and if that water has food coloring in it, the flowers will also absorb that color. Create some wonderfully colored flowers with these wikiHow instructions .

17. "Magically" Turn Water Into Wine Turn water into wine with this  video  by experimenter Dave Hax . Because water has a higher density than wine, they can switch places. Amaze your friends with this fun science trick.

18. Release The Energy In Candy (Without Eating It) Dropping a gummy bear into a test tube with potassium chlorate releases the chemical energy inside in an intense chemical reaction. That’s exactly what's happening when you eat candy, kids.

19. Make Water "Mysteriously" Disappear Sodium polyacrylate is a super-absorbent polymer, capable of absorbing up to 300 times its own weight in water. Found in disposable diapers, you can make water disappear in seconds with this video .

20. Create A Rainbow In A Jar Different liquids have different masses and different densities. For example, oil is less dense than water and will float on top of its surface. By combining liquids of different densities and adding food coloring, you can make an entire rainbow in a jar with this video .

There you have it – 20 experiments for you to explore the incredible world of science!

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Top 10 Exciting Chemistry Experiments

by Samantha Johnson | May 29, 2023 | Science Projects , Top

Chemistry experiments offer a captivating and hands-on approach to understanding the fascinating world of chemicals, reactions, and the properties of matter. From colorful explosions to mysterious transformations, these experiments not only engage and entertain but also provide valuable insights into the principles of chemistry.

This article will explore the top 10 exciting chemistry experiments that will ignite curiosity, spark interest, and inspire a love for science. Each experiment showcases different aspects of chemistry, ranging from chemical reactions and the properties of elements to the principles of heat, light, and energy. These experiments are suitable for both educational settings and enthusiastic learners looking to explore the wonders of chemistry at home. They are designed to be safe and accessible, ensuring participants enjoy the thrill of discovery while adhering to proper safety protocols.

Whether you’re a student, teacher, or simply a science enthusiast, these experiments offer an opportunity to explore the foundations of chemistry in a fun and engaging manner. Let’s dive into the top 10 exciting chemistry experiments that will leave you in awe of the incredible world of chemistry.

1. Elephant Toothpaste:

Elephant Toothpaste is one of the chemistry experiments with the most eye-catching visuals. With a catalyst like potassium iodide, hydrogen peroxide is broken down quickly, producing a massive foaming response. The colorful foam explosion mimics toothpaste being squeezed out, thus the name. The effectiveness of catalysts and the idea of exothermic reactions are both demonstrated in this experiment.

This experiment highlights the idea of exothermic reactions and the effectiveness of catalysts in speeding up chemical processes. As a result of the gas’s rapid release of heat, the foam rises and overflows, creating an exciting visual spectacle.

2. Dancing Flames:

The Dancing Flames experiment explores the fascinating behavior of various metals when they are added to a flame. Burning different metal salts, such as copper sulfate or potassium chloride, produces an impressive display by emitting different colors. As a result of electron transitions inside the metal ions, varied colors are made, illuminating the connection between energy levels and light emission.

This chemical experiment clearly illustrates the connection between energy levels and light emission. The metal ions’ electrons move to higher energy levels as they take energy from the flame. They release energy through photons , which we experience as colorful light when they return to their ground state.

Additionally, this experiment sheds light on atomic structure, electron transitions, and the connection between energy and light emission.

3. Alka-Seltzer Rocket:

The Alka-Seltzer Rocket experiment combines physics and chemistry to produce a miniature rocket fuelled by a chemical reaction. The canister is launched into the air by adding water and an effervescent pill, such as Alka-Seltzer , to a film canister and closing it. This causes a build-up of carbon dioxide gas. The fundamentals of gas pressure, chemical reactions, and propulsion are shown in this practical experiment.

In addition to being exciting, this chemical experiment offers essential insights into gas laws, chemical processes, and energy transfer. It lets students see how pressure builds up provides the experience of the excitement of a simple chemical reaction powering a rocket-like launch.

4. The Blue Bottle:

An intriguing illustration of a reversible redox reaction is the Blue Bottle Experiment. The solution’s color shifts from blue to clear and back again due to the addition of substances like glucose, sodium hydroxide, and methylene blue. This experiment highlights the oxidation-reduction cycle, reaction kinetics, and chemical equilibrium.

This chemical experiment is an excellent example of chemical kinetics and the dynamic nature of chemical equilibrium . It demonstrates how external influences like oxygen availability and agitation may change the equilibrium between the reduced and oxidised forms of the reducing agent.

This experiment engages students and peaks their curiosity by providing a visually arresting illustration of reversible reactions and the idea of equilibrium. It prompts discussions about the influence of environmental factors on chemical systems.

5. Dry Ice Bubble:

The Dry Ice Bubble experiment explores the intriguing characteristics of solid carbon dioxide. A thick white fog is created by mixing dry ice and warm water inside a container. The combination becomes mesmerizing when added soap generates a bubble filled with carbon dioxide gas. The resultant transparent drop is filled with whirling fog, producing a stunning visual effect. It will briefly float before popping if it is lightly touched or released into the atmosphere. Phase transitions and the behavior of gases are introduced in this chemical experiment.

This fun science experiment illustrates the concepts of gas expansion and sublimation , in which a substance changes straight from a solid to a gas.

6. The Invisible Ink:

The Invisible Ink Experiment is an intriguing chemistry experiment that allows secret messages to be written and revealed using chemical substances. Using lemon juice, milk, or other substances as ink and heat. Special reagents as a developer make hidden messages visible through chemical reactions. This experiment explores the principles of oxidation, pH indicators, and the concept of hidden chemistry.

The key to the experiment lies in the chemical reactions between the ink and the heat source. For instance, in the case of lemon juice, the citric acid undergoes oxidation when exposed to heat, resulting in a color change. This chemical experiment can be efficiently conducted at home, fostering an understanding of chemical substances’ unique properties and applications.

7. Copper Electroplating:

Copper electroplating is a fascinating chemistry experiment demonstrating the process of coating a metal object with a thin layer of copper using an electric current. A thin layer of copper is created by submerging the item in a solution containing copper ions and attaching it to a power source, altering the object’s appearance. This chemical experiment demonstrates the electrochemical concepts of metal plating, electrochemical principles , oxidation-reduction processes , and metal deposition.

This chemical experiment also highlights the ideas of oxidation, reduction, and the transport of electrons during electrochemical processes. It demonstrates how applying a small layer of another metal may prevent corrosion or improve the aesthetics of metals. Electronics, automotive, and jewelry manufacturing are some areas where electroplating is used in practice.

8. The Rainbow Fire:

The Rainbow Fire experiment displays the radiant colours that various metal salts generate when placed in a flame. A display of colored flames may be created by lighting a pinecone or a piece of wood soaked in a solution containing different metal salts. This experiment combines elements of combustion, heat, and the unique emission spectra of metal ions.

A vivid blue flame is produced by copper sulphate , a deep red flame by strontium chloride , and a violet flame by potassium chloride . A magnificent rainbow effect may be produced by mixing several metal salts, resulting in various colours. It emphasises the distinctive characteristics of various metal ions and their capacity to emit specific wavelengths of light. This chemical experiment not only captivates the audience but also provides an opportunity to discuss the relationship between light, energy, and electron transitions in atoms.

9. The pH Indicator Rainbow:

The pH Indicator Rainbow experiment is an intriguing chemistry experiment that highlights various pH indicators when exposed to acidic or basic liquids. A series of color changes corresponding to different pH values may be seen using hands like litmus paper, red cabbage juice, or phenolphthalein. This experiment introduces the concepts of indicator colors, acid-base reactions , and pH .

When exposed to an acidic solution, indicators frequently turn red or pink, a sign of a low pH. The primary answer, on the other hand, results in blue or green colors, which signify a higher pH. The pH Indicator Rainbow experiment sheds information on indicator behavior and the value of pH monitoring in various contexts.

10. Instant Ice:

In the Instant Ice experiment, water is supersaturated with sodium acetate to demonstrate how quickly it may freeze. The solution immediately crystallizes and turns into ice in seconds when a little crystal or a brief disturbance causes it to do so. The ideas of nucleation , supercooling, and phase transitions are investigated in this experiment.

This chemical experiment sheds intriguing light on the idea of supercooling and the significance of nucleation in freezing processes. It demonstrates the complex interplay between energy, temperature, and the role played by impurities or disturbances in initiating phase changes. It inspires conversations about the characteristics of water, how things behave at various temperatures, and how outside influences affect phase shifts.

Conclusion :

Chemistry experiments provide a dynamic and interactive way to explore the wonders of the scientific world. From the vibrant colors of the pH Indicator Rainbow to the mysterious transformations of the Dry Ice Bubble. These experiments offer a hands-on experience that sparks curiosity, fosters understanding, and leaves a lasting impression.

Throughout this article, we have delved into the top 10 exciting chemistry experiments, each offering a unique insight into the principles and phenomena of chemistry. Whether it’s observing the instant freezing of water in the Instant Ice experiment or witnessing. The captivating dance of flames in the Dancing Flames experiment, these experiments showcase the beauty and power of chemical reactions.

Engaging in these experiments provides an opportunity to learn about fundamental scientific concepts and encourages critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a sense of wonder. They invite participants to explore the properties of elements, the behavior of substances, and the dynamics of chemical reactions. Unleash your inner scientist, explore the possibilities, and let the captivating reactions and transformations unfold before your eyes. The wonders of chemistry await you!

Also Read: Top Engineering Projects

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Top 10 Mad Science-Worthy Chemistry Experiments

Chemistry is a fascinating science, but it's often taught poorly in today's boring schools. Here's how chemistry should be taught: by mad scientists! Here's Neatorama's list of the Top 10 Mad Science-Worthy Chemistry Experiments:

1. Briggs-Rauscher Reaction

[ YouTube Clip ]

The Briggs-Rauscher reaction is a well known example of oscillating chemical reactions, also known as chemical clocks because the periodicity can be used to tell time. What's going on in the beaker is actually quite a complex set of chemical reactions. Here's how to do it: http://chemistry.about.com/cs/demonstrations/a/aa050204a.htm

2. Gummy Bear and Molten Potassium Chlorate

Who'da thunk that Gummy Bear can be so ... violent? Here's what happen if you drop a Gummy Bear (which is mostly sugar), to a tube of molten potassium chlorate:

3. Diet Coke and Mentos

Mentos in various carbonated liquids. From left to right: carbonated water (Perrier), Classic Coke, Sprite, and Diet Coke. By K. Shimada [Wikipedia]

You've all seen this before. The Diet Coke and Mentos experiment by Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz of EepyBird was the stuff of Internet legend back in 2007. But what exactly happens when you drop a Mentos into a solution of Diet Coke?

MythBusters explain :

According to Hyneman (he's the mustachioed MythBuster), it's a process called "nucleation," in which the particular chemistry of the Mentos candy interacts with the chemistry of the carbonated Diet Coke, causing the carbon dioxide gas, or CO2, to suddenly come out of suspension in the liquid and make a break for freedom. [...] Hyneman says, "There's a cascade that happens with -- it's a little esoteric -- an ion exchange. Basically the Mentos start to dissolve, and it's like tripping a switch. It's not what you would call a chain reaction, because that's something else in chemistry terms, but it's a cascade whereon all of a sudden, all of the CO2 that was contained in the liquid is suddenly not as attracted to the liquid as it was before, because of this slight change in the chemistry that occurs."

Whatever you do, don't eat a mentos then chug a mouthful of diet soda, mmkay?

4. Elephant Toothpaste

Yes, even elephants need to maintain good dental hygiene, but what kind of toothpaste do they use? Here's a favorite chemistry demo called Elephant Toothpaste (no, elephants don't actually use this as a toothpaste, silly - it's only called that because it looks like the kind and quantity of toothpaste an elephant would use).

This one's easy to do, all you need is dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, and potassium iodide: http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistrydemonstrations/a/elephanttooth.htm

5. Grape Plasma

What happens if you put a grape and nuke it in a microwave? You get something very cool ... and dangerous at the same time, because it *will* ruin your microwave, release poisonous gases, and you *can* burn down your house - so don't do it, mmkay? Watch:

What just happened? Here's the explanation, according to The Plasma Universe :

It is relatively easy to generate a plasmoid using a microwave and a medium that will initiate the formation of a plasmoid, this can be caused by the carbon microparticles in the smoke from a naked flame or match, which ignites and moves about as plasmoids, and some biological cells are known to produce plasma under microwave conditions, such as grapes (electrons try to move through highly resistive grape-skin, and plasmoids may form) This is due to the fact that microwaves, being high frequency electromagnetic radiation in the GHz range, are capable of exciting electrodeless gas discharges in air, similar to the process used in Sulfur lamps.

6. Burning Salts

Quick: what color is fire? Orangey red? Obviously you haven't seen alcohol, barium chloride, boron, strontium, calcium, lithium, sodium, copper, and potassium salts set aflame ...

7. Magnesium in Dry Ice

You've probably heard that fire needs oxygen to burn (indeed, the principle behind CO 2 fire extinguisher is to use the heavier carbon dioxide to displace the oxygen needed by the flame).

But does a fire really need oxygen? Not burning magnesium! It'll burn even when encased in dry ice (solid CO 2 ). Note: magnesium shavings are used - not powder, which will explode if you try to set it on fire.

8. Ferrofluid

Ferrofluid , a colloidal mixture of nanoscale magnetic particles in a solvent, reacts to magnetic field in an awesomely bizarre way. Sachiko Kodama uses ferrofluid to create dynamic sculptures called Morpho Towers . Another example by Steven Laporte over at YouTube:

9. Mercury Beating Heart

A drop of mercury in a solution of potassium chromate and sulfuric acid, set so it's almost touching an iron nail, will start to beat like a heart. Journal of Chemical Education explains why: Link

10. The World of Chemistry

John Farrier posted this back in May, 2009 but it's too good not to post again here. Behold, the World of Chemistry, a video from the Europe Research Commission using a dance party to explain basic chemical reactions.

Don't miss these other fun science articles from Neatorama:

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72 Easy Science Experiments Using Materials You Already Have On Hand

Because science doesn’t have to be complicated.

If there is one thing that is guaranteed to get your students excited, it’s a good science experiment! While some experiments require expensive lab equipment or dangerous chemicals, there are plenty of cool projects you can do with regular household items. We’ve rounded up a big collection of easy science experiments that anybody can try, and kids are going to love them!

Easy Chemistry Science Experiments

Easy physics science experiments, easy biology and environmental science experiments, easy engineering experiments and stem challenges.

1. Taste the Rainbow

Teach your students about diffusion while creating a beautiful and tasty rainbow! Tip: Have extra Skittles on hand so your class can eat a few!

Learn more: Skittles Diffusion

2. Crystallize sweet treats

Crystal science experiments teach kids about supersaturated solutions. This one is easy to do at home, and the results are absolutely delicious!

Learn more: Candy Crystals

3. Make a volcano erupt

This classic experiment demonstrates a chemical reaction between baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (acetic acid), which produces carbon dioxide gas, water, and sodium acetate.

Learn more: Best Volcano Experiments

4. Make elephant toothpaste

This fun project uses yeast and a hydrogen peroxide solution to create overflowing “elephant toothpaste.” Tip: Add an extra fun layer by having kids create toothpaste wrappers for plastic bottles.

5. Blow the biggest bubbles you can

Add a few simple ingredients to dish soap solution to create the largest bubbles you’ve ever seen! Kids learn about surface tension as they engineer these bubble-blowing wands.

Learn more: Giant Soap Bubbles

6. Demonstrate the “magic” leakproof bag

All you need is a zip-top plastic bag, sharp pencils, and water to blow your kids’ minds. Once they’re suitably impressed, teach them how the “trick” works by explaining the chemistry of polymers.

Learn more: Leakproof Bag

7. Use apple slices to learn about oxidation

Have students make predictions about what will happen to apple slices when immersed in different liquids, then put those predictions to the test. Have them record their observations.

Learn more: Apple Oxidation

8. Float a marker man

Their eyes will pop out of their heads when you “levitate” a stick figure right off the table! This experiment works due to the insolubility of dry-erase marker ink in water, combined with the lighter density of the ink.

Learn more: Floating Marker Man

9. Discover density with hot and cold water

There are a lot of easy science experiments you can do with density. This one is extremely simple, involving only hot and cold water and food coloring, but the visuals make it appealing and fun.

Learn more: Layered Water

10. Layer more liquids

This density demo is a little more complicated, but the effects are spectacular. Slowly layer liquids like honey, dish soap, water, and rubbing alcohol in a glass. Kids will be amazed when the liquids float one on top of the other like magic (except it is really science).

Learn more: Layered Liquids

11. Grow a carbon sugar snake

Easy science experiments can still have impressive results! This eye-popping chemical reaction demonstration only requires simple supplies like sugar, baking soda, and sand.

Learn more: Carbon Sugar Snake

12. Mix up some slime

Tell kids you’re going to make slime at home, and watch their eyes light up! There are a variety of ways to make slime, so try a few different recipes to find the one you like best.

13. Make homemade bouncy balls

These homemade bouncy balls are easy to make since all you need is glue, food coloring, borax powder, cornstarch, and warm water. You’ll want to store them inside a container like a plastic egg because they will flatten out over time.

Learn more: Make Your Own Bouncy Balls

14. Create eggshell chalk

Eggshells contain calcium, the same material that makes chalk. Grind them up and mix them with flour, water, and food coloring to make your very own sidewalk chalk.

Learn more: Eggshell Chalk

15. Make naked eggs

This is so cool! Use vinegar to dissolve the calcium carbonate in an eggshell to discover the membrane underneath that holds the egg together. Then, use the “naked” egg for another easy science experiment that demonstrates osmosis .

Learn more: Naked Egg Experiment

16. Turn milk into plastic

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but don’t be afraid to give it a try. Use simple kitchen supplies to create plastic polymers from plain old milk. Sculpt them into cool shapes when you’re done!

17. Test pH using cabbage

Teach kids about acids and bases without needing pH test strips! Simply boil some red cabbage and use the resulting water to test various substances—acids turn red and bases turn green.

Learn more: Cabbage pH

18. Clean some old coins

Use common household items to make old oxidized coins clean and shiny again in this simple chemistry experiment. Ask kids to predict (hypothesize) which will work best, then expand the learning by doing some research to explain the results.

Learn more: Cleaning Coins

19. Pull an egg into a bottle

This classic easy science experiment never fails to delight. Use the power of air pressure to suck a hard-boiled egg into a jar, no hands required.

Learn more: Egg in a Bottle

20. Blow up a balloon (without blowing)

Chances are good you probably did easy science experiments like this when you were in school. The baking soda and vinegar balloon experiment demonstrates the reactions between acids and bases when you fill a bottle with vinegar and a balloon with baking soda.

21 Assemble a DIY lava lamp

This 1970s trend is back—as an easy science experiment! This activity combines acid-base reactions with density for a totally groovy result.

22. Explore how sugary drinks affect teeth

The calcium content of eggshells makes them a great stand-in for teeth. Use eggs to explore how soda and juice can stain teeth and wear down the enamel. Expand your learning by trying different toothpaste-and-toothbrush combinations to see how effective they are.

Learn more: Sugar and Teeth Experiment

23. Mummify a hot dog

If your kids are fascinated by the Egyptians, they’ll love learning to mummify a hot dog! No need for canopic jars , just grab some baking soda and get started.

24. Extinguish flames with carbon dioxide

This is a fiery twist on acid-base experiments. Light a candle and talk about what fire needs in order to survive. Then, create an acid-base reaction and “pour” the carbon dioxide to extinguish the flame. The CO2 gas acts like a liquid, suffocating the fire.

25. Send secret messages with invisible ink

Turn your kids into secret agents! Write messages with a paintbrush dipped in lemon juice, then hold the paper over a heat source and watch the invisible become visible as oxidation goes to work.

Learn more: Invisible Ink

26. Create dancing popcorn

This is a fun version of the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment, perfect for the younger crowd. The bubbly mixture causes popcorn to dance around in the water.

27. Shoot a soda geyser sky-high

You’ve always wondered if this really works, so it’s time to find out for yourself! Kids will marvel at the chemical reaction that sends diet soda shooting high in the air when Mentos are added.

Learn more: Soda Explosion

28. Send a teabag flying

Hot air rises, and this experiment can prove it! You’ll want to supervise kids with fire, of course. For more safety, try this one outside.

Learn more: Flying Tea Bags

29. Create magic milk

This fun and easy science experiment demonstrates principles related to surface tension, molecular interactions, and fluid dynamics.

Learn more: Magic Milk Experiment

30. Watch the water rise

Learn about Charles’s Law with this simple experiment. As the candle burns, using up oxygen and heating the air in the glass, the water rises as if by magic.

Learn more: Rising Water

31. Learn about capillary action

Kids will be amazed as they watch the colored water move from glass to glass, and you’ll love the easy and inexpensive setup. Gather some water, paper towels, and food coloring to teach the scientific magic of capillary action.

Learn more: Capillary Action

32. Give a balloon a beard

Equally educational and fun, this experiment will teach kids about static electricity using everyday materials. Kids will undoubtedly get a kick out of creating beards on their balloon person!

Learn more: Static Electricity

33. Find your way with a DIY compass

Here’s an old classic that never fails to impress. Magnetize a needle, float it on the water’s surface, and it will always point north.

Learn more: DIY Compass

34. Crush a can using air pressure

Sure, it’s easy to crush a soda can with your bare hands, but what if you could do it without touching it at all? That’s the power of air pressure!

35. Tell time using the sun

While people use clocks or even phones to tell time today, there was a time when a sundial was the best means to do that. Kids will certainly get a kick out of creating their own sundials using everyday materials like cardboard and pencils.

Learn more: Make Your Own Sundial

36. Launch a balloon rocket

Grab balloons, string, straws, and tape, and launch rockets to learn about the laws of motion.

37. Make sparks with steel wool

All you need is steel wool and a 9-volt battery to perform this science demo that’s bound to make their eyes light up! Kids learn about chain reactions, chemical changes, and more.

Learn more: Steel Wool Electricity

38. Levitate a Ping-Pong ball

Kids will get a kick out of this experiment, which is really all about Bernoulli’s principle. You only need plastic bottles, bendy straws, and Ping-Pong balls to make the science magic happen.

39. Whip up a tornado in a bottle

There are plenty of versions of this classic experiment out there, but we love this one because it sparkles! Kids learn about a vortex and what it takes to create one.

Learn more: Tornado in a Bottle

40. Monitor air pressure with a DIY barometer

This simple but effective DIY science project teaches kids about air pressure and meteorology. They’ll have fun tracking and predicting the weather with their very own barometer.

Learn more: DIY Barometer

41. Peer through an ice magnifying glass

Students will certainly get a thrill out of seeing how an everyday object like a piece of ice can be used as a magnifying glass. Be sure to use purified or distilled water since tap water will have impurities in it that will cause distortion.

Learn more: Ice Magnifying Glass

42. String up some sticky ice

Can you lift an ice cube using just a piece of string? This quick experiment teaches you how. Use a little salt to melt the ice and then refreeze the ice with the string attached.

Learn more: Sticky Ice

43. “Flip” a drawing with water

Light refraction causes some really cool effects, and there are multiple easy science experiments you can do with it. This one uses refraction to “flip” a drawing; you can also try the famous “disappearing penny” trick .

Learn more: Light Refraction With Water

44. Color some flowers

We love how simple this project is to re-create since all you’ll need are some white carnations, food coloring, glasses, and water. The end result is just so beautiful!

45. Use glitter to fight germs

Everyone knows that glitter is just like germs—it gets everywhere and is so hard to get rid of! Use that to your advantage and show kids how soap fights glitter and germs.

Learn more: Glitter Germs

46. Re-create the water cycle in a bag

You can do so many easy science experiments with a simple zip-top bag. Fill one partway with water and set it on a sunny windowsill to see how the water evaporates up and eventually “rains” down.

Learn more: Water Cycle

47. Learn about plant transpiration

Your backyard is a terrific place for easy science experiments. Grab a plastic bag and rubber band to learn how plants get rid of excess water they don’t need, a process known as transpiration.

Learn more: Plant Transpiration

48. Clean up an oil spill

Before conducting this experiment, teach your students about engineers who solve environmental problems like oil spills. Then, have your students use provided materials to clean the oil spill from their oceans.

Learn more: Oil Spill

49. Construct a pair of model lungs

Kids get a better understanding of the respiratory system when they build model lungs using a plastic water bottle and some balloons. You can modify the experiment to demonstrate the effects of smoking too.

Learn more: Model Lungs

50. Experiment with limestone rocks

Kids  love to collect rocks, and there are plenty of easy science experiments you can do with them. In this one, pour vinegar over a rock to see if it bubbles. If it does, you’ve found limestone!

Learn more: Limestone Experiments

51. Turn a bottle into a rain gauge

All you need is a plastic bottle, a ruler, and a permanent marker to make your own rain gauge. Monitor your measurements and see how they stack up against meteorology reports in your area.

Learn more: DIY Rain Gauge

52. Build up towel mountains

This clever demonstration helps kids understand how some landforms are created. Use layers of towels to represent rock layers and boxes for continents. Then pu-u-u-sh and see what happens!

Learn more: Towel Mountains

53. Take a play dough core sample

Learn about the layers of the earth by building them out of Play-Doh, then take a core sample with a straw. ( Love Play-Doh? Get more learning ideas here. )

Learn more: Play Dough Core Sampling

54. Project the stars on your ceiling

Use the video lesson in the link below to learn why stars are only visible at night. Then create a DIY star projector to explore the concept hands-on.

Learn more: DIY Star Projector

55. Make it rain

Use shaving cream and food coloring to simulate clouds and rain. This is an easy science experiment little ones will beg to do over and over.

Learn more: Shaving Cream Rain

56. Blow up your fingerprint

This is such a cool (and easy!) way to look at fingerprint patterns. Inflate a balloon a bit, use some ink to put a fingerprint on it, then blow it up big to see your fingerprint in detail.

57. Snack on a DNA model

Twizzlers, gumdrops, and a few toothpicks are all you need to make this super-fun (and yummy!) DNA model.

Learn more: Edible DNA Model

58. Dissect a flower

Take a nature walk and find a flower or two. Then bring them home and take them apart to discover all the different parts of flowers.

59. Craft smartphone speakers

No Bluetooth speaker? No problem! Put together your own from paper cups and toilet paper tubes.

Learn more: Smartphone Speakers

60. Race a balloon-powered car

Kids will be amazed when they learn they can put together this awesome racer using cardboard and bottle-cap wheels. The balloon-powered “engine” is so much fun too.

Learn more: Balloon-Powered Car

61. Build a Ferris wheel

You’ve probably ridden on a Ferris wheel, but can you build one? Stock up on wood craft sticks and find out! Play around with different designs to see which one works best.

Learn more: Craft Stick Ferris Wheel

62. Design a phone stand

There are lots of ways to craft a DIY phone stand, which makes this a perfect creative-thinking STEM challenge.

63. Conduct an egg drop

Put all their engineering skills to the test with an egg drop! Challenge kids to build a container from stuff they find around the house that will protect an egg from a long fall (this is especially fun to do from upper-story windows).

Learn more: Egg Drop Challenge Ideas

64. Engineer a drinking-straw roller coaster

STEM challenges are always a hit with kids. We love this one, which only requires basic supplies like drinking straws.

Learn more: Straw Roller Coaster

65. Build a solar oven

Explore the power of the sun when you build your own solar ovens and use them to cook some yummy treats. This experiment takes a little more time and effort, but the results are always impressive. The link below has complete instructions.

Learn more: Solar Oven

66. Build a Da Vinci bridge

There are plenty of bridge-building experiments out there, but this one is unique. It’s inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old self-supporting wooden bridge. Learn how to build it at the link, and expand your learning by exploring more about Da Vinci himself.

Learn more: Da Vinci Bridge

67. Step through an index card

This is one easy science experiment that never fails to astonish. With carefully placed scissor cuts on an index card, you can make a loop large enough to fit a (small) human body through! Kids will be wowed as they learn about surface area.

68. Stand on a pile of paper cups

Combine physics and engineering and challenge kids to create a paper cup structure that can support their weight. This is a cool project for aspiring architects.

Learn more: Paper Cup Stack

69. Test out parachutes

Gather a variety of materials (try tissues, handkerchiefs, plastic bags, etc.) and see which ones make the best parachutes. You can also find out how they’re affected by windy days or find out which ones work in the rain.

Learn more: Parachute Drop

70. Recycle newspapers into an engineering challenge

It’s amazing how a stack of newspapers can spark such creative engineering. Challenge kids to build a tower, support a book, or even build a chair using only newspaper and tape!

Learn more: Newspaper STEM Challenge

71. Use rubber bands to sound out acoustics

Explore the ways that sound waves are affected by what’s around them using a simple rubber band “guitar.” (Kids absolutely love playing with these!)

Learn more: Rubber Band Guitar

72. Assemble a better umbrella

Challenge students to engineer the best possible umbrella from various household supplies. Encourage them to plan, draw blueprints, and test their creations using the scientific method.

Learn more: Umbrella STEM Challenge

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10 Awesome Chemistry Experiments for High School Students

The subject of chemistry is one subject that sends shivers down the spines of students, and sometimes even parents(maybe when they remember their own high school days). Yet chemistry is everywhere, right from the food we eat to the pharmaceuticals we use and the cosmetics we are so fond of.

Therefore, performing certain fun-filled experiments with our high schoolers is a sure-shot way to get the fear of chemistry out of their minds. Where fear stops, curiosity is aroused. Hence, let the learning begin.

Fun-filled chemistry experiments for high school students

1. mystical cloud.

To create the mystical cloud, perform the following steps:

• In an opaque bottle, mix 30% hydrogen peroxide. 
• Lower a tea bag containing potassium iodide into the bottle. 
• The exothermic reaction between the hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodide will rapidly release oxygen gas, forming a large, mystical-looking cloud in the bottle.

Explanation:

This experiment demonstrates the chemical reaction that produces the cloud, as well as the concept of gas formation. The opaque bottle creates a dramatic visual effect, making the cloud appear “mystical.” 

This mystical cloud experiment is sure to catch the eye, as well as the young minds of our high schoolers and get them started on the chemistry journey!

2. Dancing spaghetti experiment

Here is how to do the dancing spaghetti chemistry experiment:

• Pour 1 cup of water into a tall clear glass and add 2 teaspoons of baking soda. Stir until the baking soda is fully dissolved.
• Break uncooked spaghetti noodles into 1-inch pieces and place about 6 pieces into the glass. The spaghetti will sink to the bottom.
• Add 5 teaspoons of vinegar to the glass. Observe as the spaghetti pieces start to rise up and “dance” around due to the chemical reaction between the baking soda and vinegar producing carbon dioxide gas bubbles.
• As the spaghetti dance slows down, add a bit more vinegar to keep the reaction going and the spaghetti dancing.

The spaghetti dances because the carbon dioxide bubbles attach to the rough surface of the noodles, decreasing their density so they float up. When the bubbles pop at the surface, the spaghetti sinks again until more bubbles form. This demonstrates the principles of buoyancy and chemical reactions.

This dancing spaghetti experiment will help the student understand the magic of chemistry in lifting the spirits of scientific inquiry.

3. Bouncy balls to explore polymer properties

Steps to make the bouncy balls:

• Mix 3 level spoonfuls of Elmer’s glue (which contains the polymer polyvinyl acetate), with 5 mL of water and 1 level spoonful of borax powder(which forms cross-links between the polymer chains). Allow to interact for 10-15 seconds before stirring.
• Once the mixture becomes difficult to stir, remove it from the container and knead it with your hands. The ball will start to be sticky and messy but will solidify as you knead it.
• Record observations about the ball’s appearance, stretchiness, and bounciness.
• Try varying the amounts of glue, water, and borax, or adding cornstarch to see how it affects the final bouncy ball properties.

This experiment allows students to explore how changing the polymer composition and cross-linking affects the physical properties of the resulting material. It’s a great hands-on way to learn about the versatile nature of polymers.

The bouncy balls are an exciting and fun-filled experiment to understand everyday applications of chemistry.

4. Colourful flames experiment

Here are some ways to create colorful flames by adding different chemicals :

• Sprinkle salts like sodium chloride (table salt), copper(II) chloride, strontium chloride, or barium nitrate into an alcohol flame to produce yellow, green, red, or blue colors. The heat excites the atoms in the salts, causing them to emit characteristic colored light as the electrons return to their ground state.
• Soak wood chips or sawdust in solutions of metal salts like copper sulfate (blue-green), strontium chloride (red), lithium chloride (pink), or boric acid (green). Allow to dry, then toss the treated chips onto a campfire to produce colored flames.
• Embed metal salts into paraffin wax to make “colored fire wax cakes”. Melt wax in a double boiler, mix in the desired salts, pour into cupcake liners, and let harden. Toss the wax cakes onto a fire for long-lasting colored flames.

Explanation :

The colors produced depend on the specific metal ions present. Sodium gives yellow, copper gives blue-green, strontium gives red, and barium gives green flames. The colors are produced because the metal ions in the salts emit light at specific wavelengths when heated in the flame. This is the same principle used to create colored fireworks

Creating colorful flames by adding different chemicals to a flame is a beautiful rainbow experiment to spark an igniting and everlasting flame of interest for chemistry.

5. Extracting anthocyanin pigment from red cabbage to create a natural pH indicator

To extract anthocyanin pigment from red cabbage and create a natural pH indicator, follow these steps:

• Chop red cabbage leaves into fine pieces to allow the water to extract the anthocyanins.
• Add the chopped cabbage to a pot and cover with distilled water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally
• Filter the solution through a coffee filter or strainer to remove the cabbage pieces, leaving just the anthocyanin-infused water
• (Optional) Boil off 20-50% of the solution to concentrate the anthocyanins for more vibrant colors.5
• Use the anthocyanin solution to test the pH of various household substances:
• Acids like lemon juice, vinegar, and grapefruit juice will turn the solution red.
• Neutral substances like water will keep the solution blue or purple
• Bases like baking soda and ammonia will turn the solution green or yellow.

The anthocyanin pigments change color due to a chemical reaction that occurs at different pH levels. This natural pH indicator provides a fun way to explore acids, bases, and neutrals.

This red cabbage experiment thus is an exciting experiment to familiarise the students with the entire spectrum of pH with its acids, bases, and neutrals!

6. Elephant toothpaste experiment

The key steps to form the elephant toothpaste foam are:

• Mix 1/2 cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide with a squirt of dish soap in a plastic bottle.
• Add a few drops of food coloring if desired.
• In a separate cup, mix 1 tablespoon of yeast with 3 tablespoons of warm water. Stir for 30 seconds.
• Quickly pour the yeast mixture into the bottle and watch the foamy reaction erupt.

The reaction occurs because the catalyst (yeast or potassium iodide) speeds up the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen gas. The dish soap traps the oxygen bubbles, creating a dramatic foaming effect. The reaction continues as long as there is hydrogen peroxide and a catalyst remaining.

Thus, this exothermic reaction creates the elephant toothpaste, as well as exponentially engages the curiosity of the students performing the experiment.

7. Chromatography with coffee filters

Chromatography with coffee filters is a simple science experiment that demonstrates the separation of colors in ink or dye. To do this experiment:

• Draw a circle with a washable marker on a coffee filter, leaving the center blank. Fold the filter into a triangle. 
• Suspend the folded filter in a cup of water, making sure only the tip touches the water. The water will travel up the filter, separating the colors in the marker. 
• After 15-30 minutes, the colors will separate and become visible on the filter. Common results show blue, green, and red/pink colors emerging from the original black marker. 

This experiment works because of capillary action and chromatography – the water carries the water-soluble dye molecules at different rates through the filter material. However, it is important to remember that Permanent markers do not work as well since their dyes are not water-soluble. 

The separation of colors provides a spectacular result that will surely capture the imagination of young minds!

8. Lava lamp experiment

Steps to create the spectacular lava lamp:

• Fill a clear plastic bottle about 1/4 full with water. Pour vegetable oil into the bottle until it is almost full, then wait a couple of minutes for the oil and water to separate.
• Add a few drops of food coloring, which will sink through the oil, and mix with the water
• Break an Alka-Seltzer tablet into pieces and drop them into the bottle. The tablet will sink to the bottom, start dissolving, and release carbon dioxide gas bubbles.
• The bubbles will attach to the colored water blobs, making them float to the top. When the bubbles pop, the colored water will sink back down.

The lava lamp works because oil is less dense than water, so it floats on top. The food coloring has the same density as water, so it sinks through the oil. The gas bubbles from the Alka-Seltzer are lighter than water, so they float up, bringing the colored water with them

Fun tip: To keep the lava lamp going, just drop in another piece of Alka-Seltzer tablet when the bubbling slows down. Your evergreen lava lamp may just spark a permanent love for all chemicals and chemistry!

9. Magic milk experiment

The magic milk experiment demonstrates how soap interacts with the fats and proteins in milk:

• The magic milk experiment involves pouring milk into a shallow dish and then adding food coloring. 
• It is followed by touching a cotton swab dipped in dish soap to the surface of the milk. This causes the food coloring to swirl and dance around, creating a colorful “fireworks” effect.

The reason this happens is that the soap molecules have a hydrophilic (water-loving) end and a hydrophobic (water-fearing) end. When the soap touches the milk, the hydrophobic ends attach to the fat molecules, causing them to move around rapidly. The food coloring gets swept up in this motion, resulting in a colorful display. 

Another way to get even more creative with the experiment is to try it with different types of milk to see how the fat content affects the results. The more fat in the milk, the more dramatic the color display will be, and faster your student will be fascinated with chemistry!

10. Ammonia fountain experiment

The ammonia fountain experiment demonstrates the high solubility of ammonia gas in water due to hydrogen bonding. Here’s how it works:

• A flask is filled with dry ammonia gas by heating a mixture of calcium hydroxide and ammonium chloride.
• Water is injected into the flask through a syringe, causing the ammonia gas to rapidly dissolve. This creates a partial vacuum inside the flask.
• The external atmospheric pressure forces water up a tube and out through a jet, creating a fountain effect. The ammonia solution is alkaline, so adding a pH indicator like phenolphthalein turns it pink.
• As more ammonia dissolves, the pressure inside the flask drops further, causing the fountain to continue for several minutes.

This experiment illustrates the concepts of solubility, gas laws, and acid-base chemistry at an introductory level. It can also be done with other highly soluble gases like hydrogen chloride.

The ammonia fountain experiment will surely skyrocket your high schooler’s interest in chemistry experiments and the various explanations of the world it opens to them.

Chemistry is often referred to as the “central science” because it connects various fields, including physics, biology, and environmental sciences. Thus, it is absolutely imperative that students not view it as a textbook roadblock on the way to graduation. Rather, it should be seen as an exciting hiking trip that will become more adventurous while passing each milestone. 

The same holds true for physics. And we can prove to you that physics can be fun too with these physics experiments for high school students!

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10 Amazing Chemical Reactions

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Mixing baking soda and vinegar is a popular way to see what happens when chemicals react. If you want to learn more about chemical reactions, there are plenty of others you can perform at home or in a school lab. The 10 below produce some of the most amazing results.

Thermite and Ice

CaesiumFluoride / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0

The thermite reaction is basically an example of what happens when metal burns. What happens if you perform the thermite reaction on a block of ice? You get a spectacular explosion. The reaction is so stupendous that the "Mythbusters" team tested it and verified it was real.

Briggs-Rauscher Oscillating Clock

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This chemical reaction is amazing because it involves a cyclic color change . A colorless solution cycles through clear, amber, and deep blue for several minutes. Like most color change reactions, this demonstration is a good example of a redox reaction or oxidation-reduction.

Hot Ice or Sodium Acetate

Sodium acetate is a chemical that can be supercooled, meaning it can remain a liquid below its normal freezing point. The amazing part of this reaction is initiating crystallization. Pour supercooled sodium acetate onto a surface and it will solidify as you watch, forming towers and other interesting shapes. The chemical also is known as "hot ice" because the crystallization occurs at room temperature, producing crystals that resemble ice cubes.

Magnesium and Dry Ice Reaction

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When ignited, magnesium produces a very bright white light—this is why handheld sparkler fireworks are so brilliant. While you may think fire requires oxygen, this reaction demonstrates that carbon dioxide and magnesium can participate in a displacement reaction that produces fire without oxygen gas. When you light magnesium inside a block of dry ice, you get brilliant light.

Dancing Gummy Bear Reaction

The dancing gummy bear is a reaction between sugar and potassium chlorate, which produces violet fire and a lot of heat. It's an excellent introduction to the art of pyrotechnics because sugar and potassium chlorate are representative of a fuel and oxidizer, such as you might find in fireworks. There's nothing magical about the gummy bear. You can use any candy to supply the sugar. Depending on how you perform the reaction, though, you may get more of a sudden immolation than a bear tango.

Fire Rainbow

When metal salts are heated, the ions emit various colors of light. If you heat the metals in a flame, you get colored fire. While you can't simply mix different metals together to get a rainbow fire effect , if you line them up in a row, you can get all the colored flames of the visual spectrum.

Sodium and Chlorine Reaction

Sodium and chlorine react to form sodium chloride, or table salt. Sodium metal and chlorine gas don't do much on their own until a drop of water is added to get things going. This is an extremely exothermic reaction that generates a lot of heat and light.

Elephant Toothpaste Reaction

The elephant toothpaste reaction is the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, catalyzed by the iodide ion. The reaction produces a ton of hot, steamy foam, which can be colored or even striped to resemble certain kinds of toothpaste. Why is it called the elephant toothpaste reaction? Only an elephant tusk needs a strip of toothpaste as wide as the one produced by this amazing reaction.

Supercooled Water

If you chill water below its freezing point, it doesn't always freeze. Sometimes it supercools, which allows you to make it freeze on command. Aside from being amazing to observe, the crystallization of supercooled water into ice is a great reaction because just about anyone can obtain a bottle of water to try it out for themselves.

Sugar Snake

Mixing sugar (sucrose) with sulfuric acid produces carbon and steam. However, the sugar doesn't simply blacken. Rather, the carbon forms a steaming tower that pushes itself out of a beaker or glass, resembling a black snake. The reaction smells like burnt sugar, too. Another interesting chemical reaction can be produced by combining sugar with baking soda. Burning the mixture produces a safe "black snake" firework that burns as a coil of black ash but doesn't explode.

• 10 Fun Chemistry Demonstrations and Experiments
• Halloween Reaction or Old Nassau Reaction
• Color Change Chemistry Experiments
• How to Do the Color Change Chameleon Chemistry Demonstration
• Identify an Unknown Chemical Mixture
• Briggs-Rauscher Oscillating Color Change Reaction
• Equation for the Reaction Between Baking Soda and Vinegar
• Phosphate-Buffered Saline or PBS Solution
• How to Create an Exothermic Chemical Reaction
• Create a Magic Genie in a Bottle Effect (Chemistry)
• How to Perform the Dancing Gummi Bear Demonstration
• Silver Ornaments: A Holiday Chemistry Project
• The Blue Bottle Chemistry Demonstration
• You've Got Ingredients for a Chemical Volcano
• How to Make Chemical Piranha Solution
• Create an Endothermic Reaction

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Expertly communicate the excitement of chemistry with these time-tested classroom practicals.

These resources have been compiled from the book Classic chemistry experiments : a collection of 100 chemistry experiments developed with the support of teachers throughout the UK.

If you'd like to buy a copy of the book, visit our online bookshop . If you're a Royal Society of Chemistry member, don't forget to use your 35% discount.

A Cartesian diver

An old favourite experiment, the Cartesian diver is easy for students to complete. Explore important ideas that build a foundation of knowledge. 

Chemistry and electricity

Create coloured writing from acids, alkali, and salt solution, all activated through electrolysis.

Disappearing ink

Explore the reaction between acids and bases as students create disappearing ink, in this favourite classroom practical.

Electricity from chemicals

Use various metals, in pairs, and n electrolyte to form a cell. Then observe the formation of ions around the reactive metal, and compare the speed with which they form around the less reactive metal. Includes kit list and safety instructions. 

Experiments with particles

Explore physical states, and how material interact with three practicals. Students use common classroom items to explore, and then note their findings. Includes kit list and safety instructions. 

Identifying the products of combustion

In association with Nuffield Foundation

Illustrate the presence of water and carbon dioxide in the products of hydrocarbon combustion in this demonstration. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

Particles in motion?

Explore the movement of gas particles in this practical but reacting calcium carbonate with hydrochloric acid. Includes kit list and safety instructions. 

Producing a foam

Explore foams and their properties in this experiment, so students learn how foam is produced and produce their own. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

Properties of the transition metals and their compounds

Student discover the diversity of transition metals in this practical that puts their knowledge of these common elements to the test. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

Rubber band experiment

A rubber band, a hairdryer, and a curious mind will see students discover the principles of heat based reactions. Includes kit list and safety instruction.

Testing salts for anions and cations

A full range of chemicals will guide students into discovering how to identify the composition of unknown substances. Includes kit list and safry instructions. 

The effect of concentration and temperature on reaction rate

Reaction rate can be altered by many things, in this practical students explore how temperature and concentration effect reaction in an closer look at kinetics. Includes kit list and safety instructions. 

The effect of temperature on reaction rate

Discover more about collision theory in this practical, where a sodium thiosulfate and hydrochloric acid mixture produce an interesting reaction. Includes kit list and safety instructions. 

The effect of temperature on solubility

Hot or cold, which water is better for soluble substances? Explore your finding from this practical into the effect of temperature on solubility. Includes kit list and safety instructions. 

The electrolysis of solutions

Electricity is passed through various solutions and the products are identified. Includes kit list and safety instructions

The preparation and properties of oxygen

Produce a potassium manganate(VII) reaction using a test tube, Bunsen burner, and scientific inquisition to detect the presence of oxygen. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

The reactivity of the group 2 metals

Compare group 1 and group 2 metals with this practical that shows their reactivity rates, where students can take control of their own observations and come to their own conclusions

The volume of 1 mole of hydrogen gas

Understand the volume of one mole of hydrogen gas through a magnesium and acid reaction, taking note of the temperature and pressure. Includes kit list and safety instructions. 

Compare the viscosity of thick and thin liquids in this experiment, which gets young learners exploring how viscosity alters the speed of an air bubble through the substances. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

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50 Chemistry Projects That Will Amaze Kids!

February 26, 2019 by Ana Dziengel 5 Comments

Chemistry projects feel like magic , do they not? If you think about some of your favorite science projects, the ones you love to try with your kids or the ones that amazed YOU as a kid, more likely than not most of them involved chemistry.

Now I know a lot of us associate chemistry with lab coats, beakers and specialty ingredients but the reality is there are so many chemistry projects you can do using very simple, easy to find ingredients, often found in your own pantry. And since these types of simple chemistry projects use relatively safe ingredients, they are perfect to try with younger kids, ie. preschool and elementary aged children! In fact I think it’s so important for young kids to have a positive association with chemistry from a young age that fosters a love of this branch of science.

When most children are finally exposed to chemistry in school, it is at the high school level where the subject turns complex quickly; hopefully giving kids a chance to have fun at young age mixing up concoctions and watching chemical reactions will help carry their interest through the more complicated days of study ahead.

This post is a GIANT compilation of  chemistry projects that would be great for the science fair, classroom demos, or at home science with your kids.

Before we get started let’s talk a little bit about what chemistry is and for parents I also included a section covering How to Do Chemistry Projects at Home. If you are a classroom teacher you can skip this section and head right to the projects here.

What is chemistry?

Chemistry is the branch of science that studies matter (anything that has mass and takes up space) and its properties, and how different substances (especially molecules and their atoms) interact, combine, and change to form new substances.

Here are some important definitions to know when working on chemistry projects:

• Element A substance that cannot be separated into any further substances. There are 120 known elements.
• Atom The smallest particle of an element
• Molecule Groups of atoms held together by a chemical bond.
• Ion  An atom or molecule that has an electric charge

While most people think of chemistry purely in terms of chemical reactions, chemistry also covers the study of the states of matter as well as the density of substances.

The five branches of chemistry are:

• Analytical chemistry
• Physical chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Inorganic chemistry
• Biochemistry

Read more about what each branch covers here.

How to Do Chemistry Projects at Home

Many chemistry projects can be done at home using simple materials and are a great way to foster a love of science in kids! I wholeheartedly believe that a wow factor in a project engages and inspires kids to learn more. If you want to try chemistry projects at home here are some suggestions and precautions:

Safety First

Even though most of the projects in this list use safe, easy to find materials they should be used with safety precautions and under adult supervision. Why? Sometimes the chemical reaction that ensues can irritate the skin or eye, can be harmful if swallowed, or is just plain sticky or  messy and adults should be on hand to supervise use . Also be advised that there are a few projects on this list that do use materials that are unsafe for kids to handle. These projects are meant to be demonstrations only and are labeled  accordingly.

• Use household items for chemistry   The classic chemistry project that never fails to impress is the reaction of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (look for a number of variations on this classic in our Acids and Bases section) but there are lots of other great ingredients for chemistry to find in your kitchen including sugar, salt, yeast, lemons, dish soap, milk, Kool- Aid, cabbage, gelatin, and food coloring to name a few…before you order any materials online, try some projects with pantry essentials.
• Safety Goggles
• Large plastic beakers
• Prepare for mess Since a lot of chemistry involves reactions and the ensuing mess, be sure to choose a place in your home that you can easily clean up and where you won’t worry about getting dirty. A patio, breakfast area, or the garage are great choices.
• Generous work area Be sure to have a large table available so everyone has plenty of room to work and/or view projects without bumping into each other.
• Access to Water Clean up is always easier with water at the ready! Choose a location near a hose or shop sink.

Managing Messes

• Hose it down  Depending on the project I suggest doing super messy chemical reactions outside. That way spills can be hosed down easily.
• Painter’s Tarp & Trays  If you cannot go outside a large plastic painter’s tarp is a great way to contain spills and mess. I also highly recommend doing projects on trays or cookie sheets. The raised edges help contain bubbly brews and are easy to dump out and wash.
• Dump station Have a bucket nearby to act as dump station for liquid reactions. Bring it around a table and dump at each station.
• Think about disposal Vinegar kills grass! Slime bits clogs drains! Be sure to consider where you can dump out the liquids safely.

Chemistry Projects for Kids

The following chemistry projects for kids are sorted by topic: Chemical Reactions, Acids and Bases, Carbon Reactions, Chromatography, Colloids & Solutions, Polymers,  and Crystals.

Please note that many if these projects could fit in two or more categories in this post as they demonstrate various scientific and chemical processes. I only classified them once on this list.

Chemistry Projects with Chemical Reactions 

What is a chemical reaction.

Chemical reactions occur when the chemical bonds in a substance are either destroyed or created. In other words the bonds in a molecule are broken during a chemical reaction and the atoms rearranged to create new molecules. Interestingly enough the number of original atoms does not change during the reaction, they are simply reconfigured.

An easy way to explain chemical reactions to kids is to use this analogy: Atoms are like letters, molecules are like words. Chemistry is like taking apart words and rearranging the letters to form a new word.

Read more about chemical reactions here.

Chemical Reactions Projects:

1. milk painting, 2. citrus battery, 3. elephant toothpaste.

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4. Density Lava Lamps

To make a density lava lamp fill a plastic bottle with the following liquids: Clear corn syrup, water with a few drops of food coloring, and  layer of vegetable oil. Be sure to leave a space at the top of the bottle. Wait until the liquids settle then add in a tablet of extra strength alka seltzer. Watch as the alka seltzer and water react and bubble up through the oil layer.   To see this in a  step by step video check out this video (Pssst this is one of our students!!!)

5. Plastic Milk   and Curds & Whey Experiment

6 . color mixing.

Pour water into three clear plastic cups, then add blue, red, and yellow food coloring to each. Have an additional cup full of uncolored water available as well. Give your child an empty ice cube tray and pipettes and let them create different colors by mixing different ratios of two different primary colors in each ice cube compartment. The secondary colors are new colors created from two primary colors. This is a simple visual of how chemical reactions work.

7. Chemistry Clock

8. blow balloons with yeast and sugar, 9. shiny pennies.

• Collect dirty tarnished pennies.
• Pour different acidic liquids into shallow containers. Try vinegar, salsa, lemon & lime juice.
• Add a teaspoon of salt to each container and stir to combine.
• Place a handful of pennies in each container and soak for 5 minutes.
• Remove them from the solution and rinse in soapy water. Let dry on separate paper towels.
• Compare the results! Which ones are shiniest? Which are dull? Did any turn green?

Acids are corrosive and sour tasting. Liquids such as vinegar, lemon juice, and tomato juice are acids. Pennies are made from copper which tarnishes (turns dark) when exposed to oxygen over time. Placing the copper pennies in an acid will clean the copper oxide off them and make them shiny again.

Learn about Acids and Bases

Most liquids are either an acid or a base. Liquids with lots of hydrogen ions in them are considered acids. Liquids with many hydroxide ions are bases. Scientists use a scale called the ph scale to measure how acidic or basic a liquid is. The more hydrogen ions in a liquid the more acidic it is and ranks low on the ph scale. The more hydroxide ions in a liquid the more basic it is and ranks high on the ph scale.  You can see what that looks like here.

When acids and bases are mixed chemical reactions occur and the solution becomes neutralized.

Acid and Bases Projects:

1. baking soda & vinegar volcano, 2. lemon volcano, 3. the colorful cabbage juice science experiment   and acid base experiment with cabbage, 4. dancing rice, 5. green eggs & ham, 6. bubbly citric acid brew , 7. baking soda vs baking powder science experiment, 8. exploding bags, 9. rainbow rubber eggs , 10. surprise eggs  , 11. rainbow wizard’s brew, chemistry projects with fire (carbon reactions).

Carbon is the most important element for life. Chemicals that contain carbon are called organic compounds.  Carbon has two main forms: The first is in the hard form of diamonds and graphite, and the second is the impure form found in charcoal, coal and soot.

SAFTEY WARNING: Carbon reactions are always fascinating to watch however the presence of fire means that these experiments must be supervised by adults at all times!  

Carbon Reactions Projects:

1. smoking fingers, 2. fire snake, 3. silver egg, 4. invisible ink, chromatography.

Chromatography is the process of separating mixtures. We usually think of it in terms of color hence the prefix -chroma, however in chemistry is means simply a method of separating mixtures by letting them slowly move past each other. It applies to both liquids and gasses.  This is wonderful in-depth explanation of chromatography.

Chromatography Projects:

1. chromatography  .

In this project you will separate the color black into other colors. Fold a coffee filter in half. Fold in half two more times until you have a triangular shape. Color the tip of the coffee filter with washable black marker. Get a good coat of ink on the filter. Add a small amount of water to a plastic cup. Place the black tip of the coffee filter in the cup Wait and observe. Come back to the filter after an hour or two and see what happens to the ink. As the coffee filter absorbs water through capillary action, the black ink moves through the filter and is separated by the water into other colors. You should see blue, green and even red as the water separates the ink.

2. Chromatography Flowers

3. chromatography art, 4. chromatography bags, colloids and solutions/solubility.

Colloids and Solutions are two types of homogenous mixtures.

• Colloids are mixtures in which a small particles of a substance are suspended throughout another substance but not chemically bonded. They are stable though and do not separate. Examples of colloids are gelatin, butter, mayonnaise, fog and smoke.
• Solutions are mixtures in which the particles of one substance are completely dissolved in another substance. The solute is the substance being dissolved and the solvent is the substance doing the dissolving. An example of a solution is saltwater.

If you want a more in-depth primer on solutions and colloids hop over here .

Colloid Projects:

1. colloid examples, 2.  oobleck  , 3. make butter , 4. gelatin streaking, solutions/solubility projects:, 5. ice sculptures , 6. ice cream in a bag.

A printable of the science facts at play here

7. Skittles Science

8. magical water blossoms  <span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_selres_start”></span>, 9. diffusion art, 10. paint solubility  , 11. bleeding blossoms  .

A polymer is a substance made up of a long chain of molecules.  Polymers are typically flexible materials like plastic or gum.

The classic polymer kids LOVE to make is slime! Glue is already a polymer but when combined with sodium tetraborate (borax ) the protein molecules of the glue and the borate ions crosslink, making it harder for the molecules to move and forming the gooey, sticky, substance we know as slime.

Other polymers you are probably familiar with are plastic bags, balloons, instant snow, and even the powdery substance found in diapers that expands when wet.

Polymer Projects:

1. best basic slime  .

Bonus: Get the Science Behind Slime printable here

2. Heat Sensitive Slime

3. diy bouncy balls, 4. magic plastic bag experiment, 5. instant terrariums, 6. how to make paper, 7. skewer through balloon , 8. dry erase figure   and dry erase drawings, 9. recycled plastic flowers.

Crystals are a type of material that is formed by patterns of repeating molecules. There are four types of chemical bonds in crystals and therefore four categories of crystals. These are: Covalent, Molecular, Metallic, and Ionic Crystals. You can grow crystals by mixing up a super saturated solution (usually with a type of salt and water) and letting it settle over time so crystals will form. Check out the various types of easy to grow crystal below and go here to read more about the science of crystals .

Crystals Projects:

1. classic borax crystals , 2. overnight crystal garden, 3. egg geodes, 4. crystal wind catchers, 5. crystal landscapes, 6. candy geodes , 7. salt crystals, conclusion & more.

Alright you guys, do you feel like you have some good project ideas for exploring chemistry with kids? Many of these will make greats science fair projects. Be sure to start with them as a topic then start asking questions, form a hypotheses, and do some experiments.

Now I have to admit that I really fell in love with chemistry projects as an adult. Working with kids in camp, after school, and with my own kids at home I’ve had the chance to try fun chemistry projects and discovered that I love watching chemical reactions AND the reactions on the faces of kids and bystanders during demonstration or project!

If you have kids who fall in love with this branch of science please do check out the incredible book series Elements , Molecules , and Reactions by Theodore Gray (see the series in our Amazon science ideas list here ) The books are stunning, informative, easy to understand and, wait for it…funny!

Another valuable resource for kids who love chemistry is Mel Science’s Chemistry subscription box. They send you a starter kit for free with all the materials you’ll need and then each month you get a new chemistry experiment delivered to your door! This is great product because a lot of specialty chemistry ingredients are hard to find and these kits simplify getting the materials you need! Check it out here:

Are you passionate about raising creative kids?

Join over 22,179 parents and educators who want connect with kids and nurture their creative process through magical, easy projects you can do TOGETHER.

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February 26, 2019 at 10:31 pm

These were some really awesome projects. I really liked the Citrus Battery projects. It seems simple and easy for a young kid. I wish schools should give more focus to such experiments instead of shoving down the theoretical knowledge down the throat of young kids.

Carol Biggs says

March 1, 2019 at 4:58 am

Is all of this info available on book form?

Ana Dziengel says

March 6, 2019 at 5:49 am

Not at this time but that’s a great idea!

Betsy Mitten says

March 5, 2019 at 10:43 am

Thank you for making this fantastic collection of experiments with clear directions and easy to understand explanations of the science behind the fun! I know I’ll refer to this list often. I especially appreciate the way the experiments are classified/organized. I teach art with science connections and we are already planning on chalkboard and magnetic slime :). I’ll be sure to tag Babble Dabble Do when I post photos of work inspired by this on target collection!

Kyra Rodriguez says

March 5, 2019 at 10:54 pm

These are all great ideas! I’m pretty sure the kids will have fun and love this activities

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• 10 Greatest Discoveries in Chemistry

Periodic Table of the Elements

The periodic table of the elements is one of the most important developments in the history of the field of chemistry. The periodic table consists of all of the chemical elements that are known and they are arranged and organized on the table according to their electron configurations, atomic numbers, and their recurring chemical properties. The order in which the elements are presented on the table correspond to their atomic number.

The person who first published the periodic table of the elements was Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist. He developed the table based on his findings and the findings of other chemists, including John Newlands and Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier. Newlands published a work entitled the Law of Octaves in 1865. This work discussed the periodicity of the known elements of the time according to their atomic weight. In his work, he also made a proposal that helped identify the potential for elements, including germanium. However, the Society of Chemists did not recognize or endorse his idea until more than two decades later.

Mendeleev published a two-volume work entitled Principles of Chemistry between 1868 and 1870, after he became a teacher. This work because the ultimate textbook regarding chemistry and the elements. In the book, he strived use a chemical’s properties in order to classify them in a simple table.

While oxygen has always existed since before mankind was even on the earth, discovering the nature of oxygen and its elements was a huge accomplishment in the history of chemistry. Joseph Priestley is the scientist who is credited with discovering oxygen in 1774, but Antoine Lavoisier gets the credit for discovering the element that oxygen is made from.

However, there is some controversy over who was actually the first person to discover this all-important element. In 1772, a Swedish chemist by the name of Carl Wilhelm Scheele made the same discovery that Priestley made. Unfortunately, he didn’t officially publish his findings until 1777, which was five years after his discovery.

Priestley conducted several experiments to help understand the nature of oxygen better. He experimented with its role in respiration and in combustion. He also used oxygen in an experiment in which he dissolved fixed air in water. This created carbonated water, but he called it “dephlogisticated air.”

While Priestley experimented with oxygen and found out much about it, it was Lavoisier who actually gave the element its name. He also accurately described how it plays a role in combustion. In addition, he worked with others to help come up with oxygen’s chemical nomenclature.

Some thought that the cathode rays were actually streams of particles. Others thought the rays traveled through a mysterious “ether.” It wasn’t until 1897 when JJ Thomson decided to find out what exactly was going on with electric currents. Thomson, who taught physics at the UK’s Cambridge University, placed cathode tubes in magnetic and electric fields. He knew that the fields moved particles from one side to another, but they did not have an effect on how the waves actually move.

During his experiments, he found that the cathode rays bend over to one side. As a result, he determined that cathode rays must be made of small particles, which he termed “corpuscles.” At first, he thought these small particles were too small for anybody to care about. However, he found out that electric currents were composed of moving electrons. And since most of the products that people use these days are operated by electricity, the electron became one of the most important discoveries in chemistry and physics.

One of the most popular and most widely used psychedelic drugs during the 1960s was LSD. It is still used today by people who like to go on psychedelic “trips” from time to time. But LSD was not invented as a way for people to get high. In fact, its psychedelic properties were not even discovered until five years later.

Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman is credited with being the first to synthesize LSD on November 16, 1938 while working in Switzerland at the Sandoz Laboratories. At the time, he was part of a much larger research program that was looking for alkaloid derivatives. They had been researching ergot, which is a fungus that is found in some types of tainted breads and had been used for medicinal purposes for decades. When it is in its natural form, ergot is a fatal poison that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths over the centuries. But it wasn’t until the late 17 th century when ergot was believed to be the cause of the numerous deaths.

When administered in small doses, however, ergot could be used to constrict blood vessels and help with childbirth. Part of the problem was isolating the useful properties of this fungus to prevent other unwanted reactions. This is what Hoffman’s team was working on at Sandoz.

Five years after it was first synthesized, Hofmann decided to work on it some more. While he was re-synthesizing it in order to extend the study of it, he grew dizzy and had to take a break from working on it. He wrote in his journal  that he had to go back home where he then felt dizzy and restless. He also described feeling as though he was in an intoxicated state with a highly stimulated imagination. It was almost dreamlike, as he wrote in his journal. He described seen amazing pictures and intense colors in a kaleidoscope fashion. In all, Hofmann said the experience lasted for about two hours before it began to fade away.

Atomic Theory

Dalton wasn’t the first person to believe that all life was made up of tiny particles called atoms, though. This idea originated to the 5 th century in Greece when Leucippus of Miletus, a Greek philosopher of the time, and his student Democritus believed that atoms were too small to be seen. Their theory went on to say that atoms were solid and did not have any internal structure. They also believed that taste, color and other qualities were made up of atoms.

Aristotle did not agree with the theory that everything was made up of small particles. And since he was such an influential person of his time and even beyond his time, the philosophy of an atomic theory was largely dismissed for several centuries.

Dalton gave credibility to the idea of the atomic theory when he published A New System of Chemical Philosophy. His theory was based on four ides. The first is that atoms composed chemical elements. The second is that the atoms in an element had the exact same weight. Third, the atoms in different elements had varying weights. And finally, atoms only combined in small ratios of whole numbers in order to form compounds. The Greeks had many of these ideas and Dalton built on them. His main contribution to the theory was a way to determine an elements atomic weight. In 1805, he published an essay which included the atomic weights for more than 20 elements. In addition, Dalton is also credited with being the first person to provide standard symbols for recognizing the elements.

Smallpox Vaccine

The smallpox vaccine may have been one of the most important chemistry discoveries in the history of mankind. Smallpox was a condition that was running rampant throughout the West and in Europe during the 17 th and 18 th centuries. There would be epidemics periodically and these epidemics would wipe out a huge portion of the population. In some cases, it killed as many as 35 percent of the people who became infected with it. Most of those who survived smallpox had scars and problems for the rest of their lives after the infection. It affected everybody – those who were poor and even those who were wealthy. However, the eastern countries were dealing with smallpox very effectively and they had prevented the disease for several centuries. Places like China, the Middle East and even Africa had a method for preventing smallpox that was soon introduced to the West.

Lady Mary Wortley  Montagu gets credit for raising awareness of the rest of the world’s method for dealing with smallpox. She was a member of the British nobility and she lived in Turkey during the time her husband, a British ambassador, was stationed there. She contracted smallpox in 1715 but survived. However, the disease had taken its toll on her physical appearance, causing her face to be misshapen and extremely scarred. She didn’t want her kid to go through the same thing so she was very interested when she heard that the Turks had a way to prevent this illness.

Although Lady Mary brought the idea to the West, Edward Jenner is the one credited with discovering and developing the modern vaccine for smallpox. Using information from studies on the cowpox virus, which is similar to smallpox, he was able to make a vaccine that was safer to use for humans. In fact, the word “vaccine” is actually derived from the Latin word “vaca,” which means cow. He did many experiments with his cowpox vaccine and in 1796, he presented his data to the Royal Society. Jenner was able to reduce the death rate from smallpox from a high mortality rate down to almost zero.

In the 1970s, it was announced that the smallpox vaccine had essentially been eradicated. There are still two samples of the original virus – one at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Russia, and one at the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia. They are kept around mainly for research purposes, but also in case there is a new outbreak and these samples are needed to create a new vaccine.

Radioactivity

In the 1890s and early 1900s, Marie and Pierre Curie worked with uranium ore, extracting the uranium from it and experimenting with it and studying it. As a result, they discovered and were able to isolate radioactive materials. Marie found that the residual materials from the uranium were actually more active than pure uranium.

The Curies were building on earlier findings that were discovered by Antoine Henri Becquerel in 1896. He was a French scientist who was doing experiments on exposing uranium-bearing crystal to the sunlight. After sitting the uranium in the sun and then placing it on a photographic plate, there was an image on the plate. He put the uranium in a drawer for a few days because the weather was cloudy and sunlight experiments were not possible. When he came back to the uranium a few days later, he found that it had left an image even though there was no light. This was radioactivity, but it was the Curies who coined the term following their experiments with spontaneous emissions.

In 1903, the Curies and Becquerel shared the Nobel Prize in physics for their work in discovering radioactivity. Marie Curie won another Nobel Prize in 1911 for discovering radium and polonium, becoming the only person to win two Nobel Prizes.

Pasteurization

But this method has been used in the food and drink industry since then for many other things because it helps delay the spoilage process that is caused by the growth of microbes in food and drinks. In France, he applied his research and findings to the wine and beer industry, saving them from certain collapse that was coming from the problems of production and contamination.

In 1863, Napoleon III commissioned Pasteur to study wine contamination. He found that the contamination was caused by microbes and he began heating the wine to temperatures between 120 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which killed the microbes. This was called pasteurization.

Roy Plunkett accidentally invented Teflon, the non-stick substance that most cookware uses these days, in 1938 while working at Kinetic Chemicals. He was working on creating a new CFC refrigerant at the time. But during his experiments using a pressurized storage container, he found that the iron from the inside of the container he was using actually acted as a catalyst.

Nearly 20 years later, a French engineer by the name of Marc Gregoire used Plunkett’s findings and coated a cooking pan for the first time with the Teflon resin. The brand was called Tefal.

Teflon is one of the most slippery materials known today and it is inert to almost all chemicals. It was first marketed in 1945 under the Dupont company. Its molecular weight can be more than 30,000,000, which means that it is one of the largest molecules known to be in existence. It is a colorless and odorless power that has revolutionized the cooking industry by making non-stick pans and pots available to the average consumer. But it also has a much wider range of uses for industrial purposes and household purposes.

The discovery of penicillin is credited to Alexander Fleming, a Scottish scientist and Nobel Prize winner in 1928. Fleming found that growing Penicillium rubens created a property that could be used as an antibiotic. He named this discovery penicillin.

Felming’s discovery almost did not happen though. In fact, it was almost thrown away in the trash. He was studying a Petri dish that had already been discarded when he found that the mold in the dish actually contained a powerful antibiotic. At the time of the discovery, Fleming was working at St. Mary’s Hospital. He had just returned from a family vacation when he was going through the Petri dishes that he left aside for another scientist to use while he was gone.

Fleming spent the next few weeks doing experiments and trying to single out the substance in the mold that had killed the bacteria. He discussed his finding with a mold expert – C.J. La Touche – who worked in the same building. That is when they reached the conclusion that the mold had to be a penicillium mold. They also speculated that the mold had possibly floated up to Fleming’s lab from La Touche’s lab, which was located directly beneath Fleming’s. During his further experiments, Fleming found that the new mold he had discovered was non-toxic. He published his findings in 1929, but there was not a great acceptance of what he found.

While he did discover this antibiotic, it wasn’t until nearly a decade later when someone was able to turn this discovery into the drug that it was become today.

With Fleming’s discovery of penicillin erupted a strong interest in the field and study of antibiotics in the modern era. And although Fleming gets the credit for discovering this antibiotic property, it wasn’t until more than a decade later when Howard Walter Florey, an Australian Nobel Prize winner, along with Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley developed penicillin as a medicine while working at Oxford University during World War II. They isolated the substance that had bacteria-killing properties and turned it into a brown powder. Once they found that it was safe to use, they mass produced it so it could be available to the soldiers during the war. It saved hundreds if not thousands of lives of soldiers who would have died of an infection otherwise. It was used and is still used to treat problems like pneumonia, syphilis, gangrene and much more.

Chemist Articles

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• 10 Useful Chemical Elements
• 9 Deadly Chemical Inventions

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Top 10 safe chemical reactions

Easy experiments to do at home

There are sev­er­al chem­i­cal re­ac­tions you can safe­ly and eas­i­ly per­form at home. The fol­low­ing ex­per­i­ments are gen­er­al­ly easy to find sup­plies for, easy to im­ple­ment, and safe with the ob­ser­vance of ba­sic pre­cau­tions. Which of these will end up on your to-do list?

1 — “Sug­ar snake”

This demon­stra­tion is like­ly the most spec­tac­u­lar ex­per­i­ment among safe chem­i­cal re­ac­tions. You’ll need a fire-re­sis­tant slab, a tablet of sol­id fuel, and two tablets of cal­ci­um glu­conate (most like­ly avail­able at your lo­cal phar­ma­cy). The ex­per­i­ment is sim­ple. Set the sol­id fuel on the tile and ig­nite it, then use tweez­ers to add two tablets of cal­ci­um glu­conate. Ob­serve as the sub­stance twists and morphs into long rib­bons that re­sem­ble snakes. This re­ac­tion has a sim­ple ex­pla­na­tion: as the cal­ci­um glu­conate burns, it re­leas­es car­bon diox­ide, which fills and dras­ti­cal­ly in­creas­es the vol­ume of the burnt sub­stance.

2 — Cop­per(II) hy­drox­ide and glu­cose

To con­duct this ex­per­i­ment, you’ll need cop­per(II) sul­fate, an al­ka­li so­lu­tion of sodi­um hy­drox­ide (sold in hard­ware stores), and a glu­cose so­lu­tion (sold in phar­ma­cies). Mix­ing cop­per(II) sul­fate and sodi­um hy­drox­ide will yield a blue pre­cip­i­tate. Grad­u­al­ly adding glu­cose and heat­ing will cause the blue pre­cip­i­tate to dis­ap­pear, and the so­lu­tion will turn first yel­low, then red.

3 — Chem­i­cal lamp

You’ll need a trans­par­ent bot­tle, wa­ter, sun­flow­er oil, an as­pirin, and red or blue food col­or­ing. To make the lamp, mix the sun­flow­er oil and wa­ter in the bot­tle. Pour the food col­or­ing into the emul­sion and add the as­pirin. Col­ored flakes will rise to the sur­face of the emul­sion with­out mix­ing with the oil. If you shine a light through the so­lu­tion in the dark, the lamp will glow a mes­mer­iz­ing red or blue.

5 — Mak­ing an iron nail “cop­per”

For this ex­per­i­ment, you’ll need a cop­per wire, an iron nail, acetic acid (vine­gar), ta­ble salt, and bak­ing soda. First, mix the vine­gar with the salt and im­merse an iron nail in the so­lu­tion. Then, clean the sur­face of the cop­per wire with bak­ing soda and place it in the so­lu­tion. Wait for half an hour and re­trieve the iron nail, which should now be cov­ered in cop­per. This oc­curs via two re­ac­tions: the re­ac­tion of cop­per with acetic acid in the pres­ence of at­mo­spher­ic oxy­gen, and the sub­sti­tu­tion of the ob­tained cop­per ac­etate with iron ac­etate.

6 — Non-flammable mon­ey

Ap­ply some potas­si­um alum so­lu­tion to a ban­knote. Place the treat­ed bill in a pa­per en­ve­lope, hold the en­ve­lope with tweez­ers, and set fire to it. The en­ve­lope will burn, but the ban­knote will re­main un­scathed. The mon­ey doesn’t burn due to the alum, which it­self does not burn, and doesn’t al­low the bill to burn.

7 — Non-flammable mon­ey (2)

To con­duct this ex­per­i­ment, you’ll need to mix half a glass of 96% ethyl al­co­hol and half a glass of wa­ter, then dis­solve a pinch of salt in the re­sult­ing so­lu­tion. Use tweez­ers to dip a ban­knote in the so­lu­tion for a few sec­onds, then take it out and and set fire to it with a lighter. The ethyl al­co­hol coat­ing the bill will burn away, while the sod­den ban­knote will re­main un­harmed. Once it dries out, you can use it just as you nor­mal­ly would!

8 — Starch and io­dine

To con­duct this ex­per­i­ment, you’ll need a heat-re­sis­tant flask, 20 g of starch, and 5 drops of io­dine so­lu­tion. Mix the starch with wa­ter, then add the io­dine so­lu­tion. At room tem­per­a­ture, the so­lu­tion turns dark blue. If you heat the ob­tained so­lu­tion on an elec­tric stove, it will turn col­or­less once again. This re­ac­tion can serve to prove that starch can form a com­pound with an io­dine so­lu­tion. As the so­lu­tion of io­dine and starch is un­sta­ble, the starch re­forms when heat is ap­plied, and the free io­dine evap­o­rates. Look here for more in­ter­est­ing ex­per­i­ments with starch.

9 — Potas­si­um per­man­ganate and hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide

First, pul­ver­ize a tablet of UHP (hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide - urea) and trans­fer the pow­der to a glass jar. Add liq­uid soap and wa­ter. Next, pre­pare an aque­ous so­lu­tion of potas­si­um per­man­ganate. Pour the potas­si­um per­man­ganate so­lu­tion into the glass jar with soap and hy­dro­gen per­ox­ide. Ob­serve the vi­o­lent ox­i­da­tion-re­duc­tion re­ac­tion and the for­ma­tion of pink foam. This re­ac­tion re­leas­es oxy­gen, which fills the liq­uid soap with gas bub­bles and helps cre­ate foam. The chem­i­cal re­ac­tion takes place ac­cord­ing to the equa­tion:

4KM­nO₄ + 4H₂O₂ = 4M­nO₂ + 5O₂↑+ 2H₂O + 4KOH

We should note that you ab­so­lute­ly should not touch the al­ka­line so­lu­tion ob­tained in the re­ac­tion.