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Experiments Archived | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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For more than 25 years Steve Spangler Science has been bringing FUN to science, with these popular items!

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I remember as a kid diving to the bottom of the swimming pool to retrieve unopened cans of soda pop. No, someone didn't accidentally drop the cans of soda into the pool. Instead, our parents tossed the unopened cans of soda into the pool as a game on the fourth of July or any time they wanted to keep us busy. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why we kept retrieving the cans, but we did. So, based on my personal experience, I knew that unopened cans of soda sink in water . . . until I saw my first can of soda float. Why do some cans of soda float and others sink?

SICK Science® is a registered trademark of Steve Spangler, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Experiment Materials

An assortment of unopened soda cans (diet, regular, brand name, generic) Note: Use standard 12-ounce cans. Mini-cans will not work.

A large, deep container of water like a 5-gallon bucket or an aquarium

How Does It Work

This demonstration is an excellent way to learn about density. You can determine how dense an object is by using the density equation: Density = Mass divided by Volume. The density of water is 1.0 grams per milliliter. Any object that has a density greater than 1.0 g/mL will sink and any object with a density of less than 1.0 g/mL will float.

Let's look at the variables. Volume refers to how much space an object occupies. For fluids, volume is usually measured in liters (L) or milliliters (mL). When you compared the different cans of soda, you probably noticed that the cans contained the same amount of liquid (355 mL). Since the cans of soda used for this experiment have the same volume, the only variable left to consider in the density equation is the mass. In order for the density to change, the mass must change . . . and it does!
If a diet and a regular soda can are placed on a double-pan balance scale, it quickly becomes clear that the regular soda is heavier (or has more mass) than the diet soda. Mass refers to how much stuff exists within an object, and for the purposes of our experiment, mass is measured in grams.

What's inside the can of regular soda that makes it so much heavier than diet soda? Comparing the list of ingredients on both cans you see that a can of regular soda has about 150 calories while diet soda has 0 calories. All of those calories come from one place . . . sugar! Diet sodas usually contain aspartame, an artificial sweetener, while regular sodas use sugar. Take a look at the nutritional information on the side of the cans. Notice how much sugar is in a regular soda (look under carbohydrates). Most regular sodas have between 39 and 43 grams of sugar. This added mass is why the cans of regular soda sink in water.

So, how much is 40 grams of sugar? If you go to a restaurant and order tea, some people add two or three packets of sugar (okay, some people stir in six packets of sugar, but we're talking about the average person). How many packets of sugar make up 40 grams? Of course, not every packet of sugar is the same, but a little research of the published nutritional information from fast food restaurants in the United States revealed that a packet contains about 4 grams of sugar, and those 4 grams of sugar have 15 calories. This means that there about ten packets of sugar in a can of regular soda, accounting for the 150 calories. That's a lot of sugar!

So the density of a soda actually depends on how much sugar or sweetener is used. The 40 grams of sugar added to a can of regular soda make it sink, and the relatively tiny amount of artificial sweetener used in diet soda has a negligible effect on the mass, enabling the can to float.

Take It Further

Try the experiment again using salt water. Are your results any different? What if you continue adding salt? How much salt do you have to add before your results change?
Consider changing the temperature of the water or the temperature of the cans. Do either of those changes affect the results?

Note: If the can of regular soda floats, there might be an air bubble trapped under the bottom of the can. Tip the can to the side to release the pocket of air trapped under the can.

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Sinking Soda Surprise - SICK Science | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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I remember as a kid diving to the bottom of the swimming pool to retrieve unopened cans of soda pop. No, someone didn't accidentally drop the cans of soda into the pool. Instead, our parents tossed the unopened cans of soda into the pool as a game on the fourth of July or any time they wanted to keep us busy.

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White flowers are beautiful, and so are pink flowers, but what if you could have flowers that changed from white to pink and back again? That's exactly what happens with the Magic Color Changing Flowers . The chemistry behind these magnificent flowers will boggle your mind and create stunning visuals that will have you wanting to repeat this simple process all day.

SICK Science ® is a registered trademark of Steve Spangler, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

How Does It Work

Almost all solutions (liquids) can be classified as acids or bases. The more acidic or basic something is, the more it reacts with other chemicals. Examples of weak acids are vinegar (acetic acid) and citric acid (found in many fruits). Examples of strong acids are hydrochloric acid (in your stomach) and nitric acid. Examples of weak bases are mild soaps, detergents, and baking soda. Examples of strong bases are lye, ammonia, and sodium hydroxide.

Phenolphthalein [fee-nal- thay-leen] is an indicator that is colorless in an acidic solution and turns pink or magenta when in a base. So, when you spray ammonia (or your "Magic Water") onto the white flowers that have been soaked with phenolphthalein, the indicator reacts with the base (ammonia) and the flowers turn bright pink.

The changes in color that occur when an acid or base is mixed with an indicator is an example of a chemical reaction. When two chemicals come together, sometimes they just ignore each other (no chemical reaction). Other times, they can gain, lose, or swap atoms, and change their physical structure. When this happens, a new product has been made and a chemical reaction has taken place.

Take It Further

Now that your carnation is pink, how can you get it back to white? Let the flower sit in the open air and keep track of what happens to the color. Some photos every few minutes might reveal what is happening.

Among many other ways, carbon dioxide gas (CO ₂) gets added to the atmosphere every time you exhale. When CO ₂ mixes with water moisture in the air, a weak acid can form. It is called carbonic acid. It is this weak, atmospheric acid that causes the phenolphthalein to slowly move from pink to colorless again.

Science Fair Connection

Safety Information

Lab safety is as important to your experiment as the tools you use - maybe more!

Adult supervision is the best way to do things safely.

Wear safety glasses for every experiment!

Read all the Steps before beginning your work so you know what to expect.

Keep your lab space spotless. Clean up spills, messes, and broken materials right away.

Put lids back on all chemical containers as you use them.

Do not eat or drink anything in your lab. Keep that for the kitchen, not the lab.

Ammonia is a strong base and it stinks. It is safe to use as long as you are careful but it is an irritant. Never spray it toward you or anyone else. Keep it out of your eyes, nose, and mouth. A spray mist can move a long way, too. An immediate soap-and-water rinse gets spills off of your skin.

When you are finished, put everything away and clean up your lab space. (You want to be invited back to do more research later.)

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Magic Color Changing Flower | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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White flowers are beautiful, and so are pink flowers, but what if you could have flowers that changed from white to pink and back again? That's exactly what happens with the Magic Color Changing Flowers . The chemistry behind these magnificent flowers will boggle your mind and create stunning visuals that will have you wanting to repeat this simple process all day.

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Some things in this world just don't mix-dogs and cats, oil and water, needles and balloons. Everyone knows that a balloon's worst fear is a sharp object . . . even a sharpened wooden cooking skewer. With a little scientific knowledge about polymers, you'll be able to perform a seemingly impossible task-pierce a balloon with a wooden skewer without popping it. Suddenly piercing takes on a whole new meaning!

SICK Science® is a registered trademark of Steve Spangler, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

How Does It Work

The secret is to use the portion of the balloon where the rubber molecules are under the least amount of stress or strain. If you could see the rubber that makes up a balloon on a microscopic level, you would see many long strands or chains of molecules. These long strands of molecules are called polymers, and the elasticity of these polymer chains causes rubber to stretch. Blowing up the balloon stretches these strands of polymer chains.

After drawing on the balloon with the Sharpie marker, you probably noticed that the dots on either end of the balloon were relatively small in comparison to the enlarged dots in the middle section of the balloon. You've just uncovered the area of least stress-the ends of the balloon. You wisely chose to pierce the balloon at a point where the polymer molecules were stretched out the least. The long strands of molecules stretched around the skewer and kept the air inside the balloon from rushing out. When you removed the skewer, you felt the air leaking out through the holes where the polymer strands were pushed apart. Eventually the balloon deflated, but it never popped, right?

Trying to pierce the balloon in the middle section is nearly impossible unless you have some help from a piece of clear tape. Normally, the long chains of rubber molecules are under so much stress or tension that they tear easily with the slightest puncture. The clear tape helps to hold the rubber molecules in place, preventing them from tearing apart when the balloon is punctured. In an attempt to fool the people who know how to push a skewer through the ends of a balloon, magicians will secretly place pieces of clear tape in the middle section of a balloon to keep the balloon from popping when they puncture the balloon in this "forbidden" area. It's just another way to make even the smartest people say, "How did you do that?"

Aside from learning about the science of polymers, the Skewer Through the Balloon activity can be used as a great way to demonstrate a life lesson on how to approach a potentially stressful situation. The key to approaching any stressful situation is to find the area of least stress and to use this as an entry point as you attempt to relieve the tension. In other words, every stressful situation has a "best point of entry" and requires a good exit strategy if you are going to be successful in diffusing the potentially volatile situation. It's a great object lesson at any age!

Take It Further

Pushing a skewer through the ends of the balloon is a challenging task, but attempting the same thing in the middle of the balloon is impossible . . . unless you have a few pieces of clear tape. Blow up a new balloon and place a small piece of clear tape in the middle of the balloon. Position the sharpened point of the skewer in the middle of the tape and carefully push the end of the skewer into the balloon without popping it! Try it again, but this time use a straight pin or the sharpened end of a safety pin. What role does the tape play in keeping the balloon from popping?

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Balloon Skewer | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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Some things in this world just don't mix-dogs and cats, oil and water, needles and balloons. Everyone knows that a balloon's worst fear is a sharp object . . . even a sharpened wooden cooking skewer. With a little scientific knowledge about polymers, you'll be able to perform a seemingly impossible task-pierce a balloon with a wooden skewer without popping it.

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Spangler Hands-on Science Workshop for Teachers

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Diaper Polymer - Cool Science Experiment

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Buy Water Gel Here: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/water-gel-magic-slush-powder.html When our science guy, Steve Spangler, wants to know if Mark has a change of clothes here at the station, you know that today's experiment probably involves lots of water. It's a simple lesson in chemistry... and trust. Want more experiments like this?

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Create a violent, bubbling storm of wax within the confines of a cup.
When you hear about a volcano erupting, what do you think is going on? If you're like us, you think of red hot chunks of rock being hurled thousands of feet in the air, flows of liquid magma, and plumes of smoke. That's not always the case. Some volcanoes erupt underwater and their smoking hot by-products are immediately cooled. With the volcano in a cup, you can see what happens underwater on a smaller, safer scale.

SICK Science® is a registered trademark of Steve Spangler, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Experiment Materials

Experiment

How Does It Work

The core of the earth has liquid hot magma that, on occasion, erupts through the crust. The volcanic eruptions we generally think of occur on land and result in the sky-high smoke plumes and lava flows that we see on the news. However, nearly 80% of all volcanic eruptions occur underwater. Until scientists got footage of an underwater eruption in 2009, we had no idea what they looked like.

With the Volcano in a Cup, you recreate liquid hot magma by heating wax that is covered by sand. The liquid hot wax bubbles through the sand and causes miniature eruptions in the surface of the sand as it does so. Think of each bubble in the sand's surface as an underwater volcano. When the wax bubbles through the surface of the sand, it is met by much colder water that cools the wax and causes it to harden.

Science Fair Connection

Creating an underwater volcano is pretty cool, but it isn't a science fair project. You can create a science fair project by identifying a variable, or something that changes, in this experiment. Let's take a look at some of the variable options that might work:

Try changing the size of the wax to represent different-sized pools of magma.

Try changing the depth of sand covering the wax to represent different depths of volcanic eruptions.

These are just a few ideas, but you aren't limited to them! Try coming up with different ideas of variables and give them a try. Remember, you can only change one thing at a time. If you are testing different sizes of wax, make sure that the other factors are remaining the same!

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Volcano in a Cup (Erupting Wax) | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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Create a violent, bubbling storm of wax within the confines of a cup. When you hear about a volcano erupting, what do you think is going on? If you're like us, you think of red hot chunks of rock being hurled thousands of feet in the air, flows of liquid magma, and plumes of smoke.

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Read the full experiment at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/storm-in-a-cup-erupting-wax When you hear about a volcano erupting, what do you think is going on? If you're like us, you think of red hot chunks of rock being hurled thousands of feet in the air, flows of liquid magma, and plumes of smoke.

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Fire Water Balloon - Cool Science Experiment

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Skewer Through Balloon - Cool Science Experiment

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Color Changing Milk - Cool Science Experiment

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Iron for Breakfast - Sick Science! # 123

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Experiment

How Does It Work

Many breakfast cereals are fortified with food-grade iron (chemical symbol: Fe) as a mineral supplement. Metallic iron is digested in the stomach and eventually absorbed in the small intestine. If all of the iron from your body were extracted, you'd have enough iron to make two small nails.

Iron is found in a very important component of blood called hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the compound in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs so it can be utilized by the body. It's the iron in the hemoglobin that gives blood its red appearance.

A diet without enough iron can cause you to be tired, catch diseases more easily, and make your heart and breathing rates too fast. Food scientists say that a healthy adult requires about 18 mg of iron each day. As you can see, iron plays a very important part in maintaining a healthy body.

Please note that there is a difference between metallic iron and nutritional iron found in natural foods such as spinach and red meat. To date there are differences in opinion in the scientific community as to the benefits of foods being fortified with metallic iron, such as Total® cereal.

Science Fair Connection

Note About Magnets

Magnets come in all shapes, sizes, and strengths. Ask at your local hardware store for a strong magnet for a science experiment. The strongest magnets in the world are called neodymium, or "rare-earth," magnets. They are ten times stronger than standard ceramic magnets and are commonly used in speakers and computer disc drives. It is possible to pull the iron out of cereal using a standard magnet, but you'll get much better results using a neodymium magnet.

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Eating Nails for Breakfast | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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Experiment Many breakfast cereals are fortified with food-grade iron (chemical symbol: Fe) as a mineral supplement. Metallic iron is digested in the stomach and eventually absorbed in the small intestine. If all of the iron from your body were extracted, you'd have enough iron to make two small nails.