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There's a lot of chemistry behind the simple lighting or extinguishing of a flame. Would you believe us if we told you that you could extinguish a flame just by placing it partway into a graduated cylinder? What if we told you that you could relight the fire without a match or lighter? Both propositions seem unlikely, if not downright impossible. With the Flame Light Relight experiment, however, you'll see how a few household items can mix together and create a fire-based experience you have to see to believe.

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

How Does It Work

Most flames require oxygen, fuel, and sufficient heat to ignite and stay lit. These three components of fire are referred to as the fire triangle or combustion triangle. Removal of any of the three components will cause the flame to extinguish or "go out."

In the instance of the popsicle flame, the three necessary components are present during the initial lighting of the fire. The heat generates from a separate flame, the lighter. The wood of the popsicle stick provides the fuel. Finally, the oxygen level present in the atmosphere is enough to sustain a flame.

When you stick the flaming popsicle stick into the first graduated cylinder it extinguishes. That means one of the three components of the fire triangle is missing, but which one?

The secret lies in the bubbling mixture in the cylinder. The baking soda (also known as sodium bicarbonate) is a base. The vinegar, or acetic acid, is a weak acid. When baking soda and vinegar are combined, the immediate acid-base reaction creates carbonic acid. Carbonic acid is unstable and decomposes into carbon dioxide (CO ₂) and water (H ₂O). The bubbling that you see inside of the cylinder is the production of the CO ₂ gas. When you dip the popsicle stick into the cylinder, you're exposing the flame to concentrated CO ₂ gas. The lack of oxygen extinguishes the flame.

Upon placing the popsicle stick into the second graduated cylinder, the ember begins to glow more intensely until the flame reignites. The invisible property at work is the reintroduction of oxygen (O ₂). The high concentration of O ₂ in the cylinder makes the heat source more intense until the flame ignites again.

Hydrogen peroxide (H ₂O ₂) is fairly unstable and always trying to decompose into water (H ₂O) and oxygen (O ₂). When yeast is mixed with hydrogen peroxide, it acts as a catalyst to the decomposition. This creates oxygen at a much faster rate which you can see bubbling inside of the graduated cylinder. Placing the partially glowing ember into the concentrated oxygen completes the fire triangle and reignites the flame.

Science Fair Connection

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Flame Light Relight (Science Magic) - SICK Science - The Lab

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There's a lot of chemistry behind the simple lighting or extinguishing of a flame. Would you believe us if we told you that you could extinguish a flame just by placing it partway into a graduated cylinder? What if we told you that you could relight the fire without a match or lighter?

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Create a battery-powered light bulb from household items
When you are conducting experiments and demonstrations using electricity, you'll use the science of circuits. Amazing things are possible with circuits including alarms, radios, and lights. In the Build a Light Bulb experiment, you'll use household items to construct a complete circuit that results in a homemade light bulb.

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

Experiment Materials

Eight D-sized batteries

Mason jar or other clear glass

Electrical tape

Pie pan

Scissors

Toilet paper tube

.5 mm mechanical pencil refill

Two sets of small alligator clips

Experiment

How Does It Work

When you touch the free ends of the alligator clips to your "super battery," you form a complete circuit. That means electricity flows freely through the entire apparatus that you have just built. This flow of electricity channels through the graphite-based mechanical pencil refill that is connected by alligator clips. The flowing electricity has a noticeable effect on the pencil refill, as it begins to glow and give off smoke. This happens because the electricity heats the graphite refill to an incredible temperature.

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Build a Light Bulb (Circuits) - SICK Science | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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Create a battery-powered light bulb from household items When you are conducting experiments and demonstrations using electricity, you'll use the science of circuits. Amazing things are possible with circuits including alarms, radios, and lights. In the Build a Light Bulb experiment, you'll use household items to construct a complete circuit that results in a homemade light bulb.

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Fruit-Power Battery | Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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Once the Fruit-Power Battery is connected to the LED, you've completed a circuit. As the electrical current passes through the LED, it powers the LED and then passes back through all of the lemons before getting to the LED again. By the way, an LED is polar sensitive.

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If you've ever ventured into a naturally formed cave, you probably saw pillars stretching from the ceiling to the floor. They're called stalactites and they take hundreds and thousands of years to form as precipitation drips from down from the cave's ceiling. In the Washing Soda Stalactite experiment, you'll cut the stalactite formation process down to just a couple of days.

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

Experiment

How Does It Work

When you add the washing soda to the beakers, you stir it into hot water. Hot water is more accepting of additives like washing soda, so you can mix more washing soda into hot water than you can into cold water.

To start the stalactite formation, the washcloth has to transfer the water and dissolved washing soda from the beakers to the plate. This principle is called capillary action. Capillary action is the same process that enables plants and trees to transfer water and nutrients from the ground up through their roots and trunks and into their leaves, branches, flowers, and fruit. The washcloth uses capillary action to soak itself in the washing soda solution until it's too saturated to hold any more liquid. Once the washcloth is over-saturated, the excess washing soda solution begins to drip from the lowest part of the washcloth, right over the plate.

As the water cools and drips from the washcloth, it wants to get rid of some of the washing soda and leaves it attached to the washcloth or deposits it onto the plate below. Eventually, the excess washing soda forms a complete pillar.

Science Fair Connection

Creating stalactites 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 testing different dissolvable substances such as salt or baking soda. Which substance creates the largest pillar? Which substance creates a pillar the quickest?

Try altering the heights of the beakers and dip in the center of the washcloth. How does this change the shape or size of the pillar?

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 substances, make sure that the other factors are remaining the same.

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Washing Soda Stalactite - Cave Pillar - SICK Science | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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If you've ever ventured into a naturally formed cave, you probably saw pillars stretching from the ceiling to the floor. They're called stalactites and they take hundreds and thousands of years to form as precipitation drips from down from the cave's ceiling.

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Invisible convection currents are revealed using a very colorful demonstration.
Cool, crisp, clean mountain air has long been an important reason why people move to Colorado, USA. Unfortunately, the air in the city of Denver isn't quite as clean as it has been. By the 1970s, pollution over the city had a name-the "brown cloud." Denver's location at the foot of the Rocky Mountains makes it prone to temperature inversions in which warm air higher in the atmosphere traps cooler air near the ground. This condition prevents pollutants from escaping into the atmosphere. However, the phenomenon of temperature inversion is not unique to Denver, as evidenced by numerous reports of similar brown cloud sightings over major cities throughout the world. This demonstration provides a great illustration of what's really happening in the atmosphere as hot and cold air masses meet.

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

Experiment Materials

Four empty, identical bottles (Browse the juice aisle at a grocery store to find bottles similar to those shown. As a general rule, the opening of the bottle should be at least an inch [25 mm] in diameter.)

Access to hot and cold water

Food coloring (yellow and blue) or Fizzers coloring tablets

3 x 5 inch (8 x 13 cm) card or an old playing card

Masking tape

Pen

Paper towels

Adult supervision

Experiment

How Does It Work

Hot air balloons rise because warm air in a balloon is lighter and less dense than cold air. Similarly, warm water is lighter or less dense than cold water. When the bottle of warm water is placed on top of the cold water, the more dense cold water stays in the bottom bottle and the less dense warm water is confined to the top bottle. However, when the cold water bottle sits on top of the warm water bottle, the less dense warm water rises into the top bottle and the cold water sinks into the bottom bottle. The movement of the water is clearly seen as the yellow and blue food colorings mix, creating a green liquid.

The movement of the warm and cold water inside the bottles is referred to as a convection current. In our daily life, warm currents of water occur in oceans. The warm Gulf Stream moves northward along the American Eastern Seaboard and crosses the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Europe. Convection currents in the atmosphere are responsible for the formation of thunderstorms as warm and cold air masses collide.

Although the colored liquids that mix are more interesting to watch, the other set of warm and cold water bottles helps to illustrate an important phenomenon that can occur in the atmosphere in cooler months. During daylight hours, the Sun heats the surface of the Earth and the layer of air closest to the Earth warms. This warm air rises and mixes with other atmospheric gases. When the Sun goes down, less dense warm air higher in the atmosphere blankets the colder air closer to the surface. Because the colder air is more dense than the warm air, the colder air is trapped close to the Earth and the atmospheric gases do not mix. This is referred to as a temperature inversion.

Take It Further

You can take this activity to the next level with a cool demonstration using the Split Demo Tank! Fill one side of the tank with cold (blue) water, and the other side with hot (yellow) water. Remove the divider between the tanks and the water swirls together. As things calm down in the tank, the hot water ends up on top and traps the cold water underneath it. You can use a spoon to stir the two liquids together. To stir up things in the atmosphere, you'll need a pretty good wind or even a storm.

Real-World Application

What are the results of a temperature inversion in the atmosphere? Air pollution is much more noticeable during a temperature inversion since pollutants such as car exhaust and particulates are trapped in the layer of cool air close to the surface. As a result, state agencies in many parts of the country oxygenate automobile fuels during winter months with additives like MTBE in an attempt to reduce the harmful effects of trapped pollution. It is this trapped pollution that causes the brown cloud effect. Wind or precipitation can often alleviate the brown cloud by stirring and breaking up the layer of warm air that traps the cold air and pollution near the surface of the Earth.

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Colorful Convection Currents | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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Invisible convection currents are revealed using a very colorful demonstration. Cool, crisp, clean mountain air has long been an important reason why people move to Colorado, USA. Unfortunately, the air in the city of Denver isn't quite as clean as it has been. By the 1970s, pollution over the city had a name-the "brown cloud."

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Styrofoam is one of the most complex and difficult materials on earth when it comes to decomposition. But, believe it or not, there is a way to make an entire cup of styrofoam vanish in a matter of seconds. It doesn't involve fire, so there's no acrid smoke released, either. It's not actual magic, but knowing the science behind what takes place is pretty darn awesome.

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

How Does It Work

Styrofoam is actually a common name for a material called polystyrene, which is a polymer made up of a long chain of molecules. The acetone is a solvent that easily breaks down the polystyrene, releasing the little air pockets trapped inside and leaving very little residue at the end. In other words, the polystyrene dissolves in the acetone.

As a science teacher, science enthusiast, or an environmentalist, you are aware of the bad effects that styrofoam has on our environment and the space that it takes up in landfills. So why not just use acetone to dissolve waste polystyrene? Problem solved, right? Not quite, since the acetone presents its own environmental and energy consumption issues.

Take It Further

Take this experiment to the next level by trying the additional tricks in Vanishing Peanuts in Steve Spangler's book Fire Bubbles & Exploding Toothpaste.

Safety Information
WARNING: Please follow all of the manufacturer's safety precautions listed on the container of acetone. This solvent is very flammable. Keep away from all flames.
Real-World Application

Currently about 200 million cubic feet per year of polystyrene "loose fill" (packaging material) is used in the United States. Although some companies try and reuse the packing material, most of the polystyrene loose fill is disposed of in a landfill. As students of science, we need to carefully examine such products and ask these questions: How is the material made and what happens to it after it is used? One of the properties of polystyrene loose fill is that it does not compress easily. While this is beneficial when trying to protect something from being crushed or broken, it poses a problem when trying to dispose of it in a landfill. As a result, environmentally conscious companies sought a solution to these problems. One such solution is called Eco-Foam loose fill. It provides the ease of use and cushioning of polystyrene, but gives us many other re-use or disposal options for the future. It readily decomposes in water and can be re-used for your own packages, or you can dispose of it by putting it in your compost pile, watering it into your lawn, or washing it down the sink.

Eco-Foam is made almost entirely from an annually renewable resource... corn! The remaining ingredient is a water-soluble organic polymer called "polyvinyl alcohol." This organic polymer is made from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen... the building blocks of life. When polyvinyl alcohol is exposed to water, naturally occurring bacteria feed on this organic polymer. Under wet conditions, the bacteria will use the starch (which is also composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen) and polyvinyl alcohol as food to begin the cycle of life again.

Many people feel that the answer to our solid waste problem is recycling. While this method will go a long way to help our solid waste problems, it is not the whole solution. One good suggestion is to use as little of the material as possible. Secondly, it makes sense to use a natural product (instead of a synthetic product) that will break down when we are finished using it. We must remember how to re-use!

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Vanishing Styrofoam Cups | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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Styrofoam is one of the most complex and difficult materials on earth when it comes to decomposition. But, believe it or not, there is a way to make an entire cup of styrofoam vanish in a matter of seconds. It doesn't involve fire, so there's no acrid smoke released, either.

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Vanishing Styrofoam Cups - Sick Science! #101

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I love crafts and activities that really bring things to life and this super simple balloon hovercraft does just that. I love that you can transform a balloon and a CD in to a hovercraft.

My boys have a real love of science and I can not claim this to be all my own work. They actually made this first at Cubs!

To make a balloon hovercraft you need:

CD's

Glue

balloons

Drink bottle lid (we used water bottle lids)

To start with take your CD and the top of a bottle. We used water bottle caps, the sports style.

Glue the cap over the hole in the CD. You need to use a strong glue, such as Bostik all purpose or a hot glue gun.

That is the basic hovercraft made, yes it is that simple!

Blow up your balloon and then making sure the bottle top is pushed down place it over the cap.

Put your hovercraft on a smooth floor or a work surface, release the valve and gently push it around.

Now for the science bit!

A hovercraft works by forcing air out beneath it, creating a cushion of air to float on. Hovercrafts usually have a "skirt" that surrounds the base to contain the air; in this project the CD is light enough that it doesn't need a large cushion, so no skirt is necessary.

The balloon acts as a pressurised gas chamber. When you open the cap, the balloon forces air out through the cap, creating a thin cushion of air beneath the CD.

An air hockey board works using the same principles as the CD hovercraft. A fan under the air hockey table pushes air through tiny holes on the table's surface. The flowing air decreases the friction between the hockey puck and the table, allowing the puck to move quickly and freely and allowing you to score!

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I love crafts and activities that really bring things to life and this super simple balloon hovercraft does just that. I love that you can transform a balloon and a CD in to a hovercraft. My boys have a real love of science and I can not claim this to be all my own work.

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...with your foot, in your hands, on your head. But nothing compares to the fun you'll have doing the soda can implosion experiment. Just wait until the can goes "POP!" Then you'll see who has nerves of steel.

Experiment

How Does It Work

Here's the real scoop on the science of the imploding can. Before heating, the can is filled with water and air. By boiling the water, the water changes states from a liquid to a gas. This gas is called water vapor. The water vapor pushes the air that was originally inside the can out into the atmosphere. When the can is turned upside down and placed in the water, the mouth of the can forms an airtight seal against the surface of the water in the bowl. In just a split second, all of the water vapor that pushed the air out of the can and filled up the inside of the can turns into only a drop or two of liquid, which takes up much less space. This small amount of condensed water cannot exert much pressure on the inside walls of the can, and none of the outside air can get back into the can. The result is the pressure of the air pushing from the outside of the can is great enough to crush it.
The sudden collapsing of an object toward its center is called an implosion. Nature wants things to be in a state of equilibrium or balance. To make the internal pressure of the can balance with the external pressure on the can, the can implodes. That's right, air pressure is powerful!

One more thing . . . you probably noticed that the can was filled with water after it imploded. This is a great illustration of how air is pushing all around us. Specifically, the outside air pressure was pushing downward on the surface of the water. Since the air pressure inside the can was less than the pressure outside the can, water from the bowl was literally pushed up and into the can.

This action is similar to what happens when you drink from a straw. Though we say we are "sucking" liquid up through the straw, we really aren't. To put it simply, science doesn't suck . . . it just pushes and pulls. Outside air pressure is pushing down on the surface of the liquid. When you reduce the pressure in your mouth (that sucking action) the outside pressure is greater than the pressure inside your mouth and the soda shoots up through the straw and into your mouth. The same thing is true with the can. The outside air pressure pushing downward on the surface of the water is greater than the force inside the can and the water gets pushed up into the can.

Safety Information

WARNING! IMPORTANT SAFETY RULES
This experiment requires the use of a burner on a stove to heat some water. Children should not perform this experiment without adult supervision. Adults shouldn't do it either unless a really smart kid is watching over their shoulder.

Check out the video from the Ellen Show

Crushing soda cans is fun, but I invited some people to help me take this experiment to a whole new level. In place of a soda can, we used a steel 55-gallon drum, a propane camping stove, and a kid's swimming pool filled with ice water. Ellen Show

Additional videos with Steve on Ellen
Additional Ellen Videos

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Air Pressure Can Crusher | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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with your foot, in your hands, on your head. But nothing compares to the fun you'll have doing the soda can implosion experiment. Just wait until the can goes "POP!" Then you'll see who has nerves of steel. Experiment Here's the real scoop on the science of the imploding can.

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Invisible Soda | Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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You probably have seen what happens when you put drops of vinegar or orange juice into milk. The milk is curdled by the acid content of vinegar (acetic acid) and orange juice (citric acid) and a solid (a precipitate) forms where the drops are.

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Spangler Hands-on Science Workshop for Teachers

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Invisible Soda - Cool Science Experiment

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Check out cool science kits and toys: www.stevespanglerscience.com See the full experiment here: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/invisible-soda Over the years, our science guy, Steve Spangler, has made soda a staple in our science lab. There's a good chance that you'll be running to the kitchen after you see what Steve and Mark have up their sleeves.