Random acts of Science

I picked up a book of science experiments from the library for Littletree, and managed to motivate Purple to do some with her.

The first experiment was making a fire extinguisher out of bicarbonate soda and vinegar. I love mixing up bicarb and vinegar – there’s so many fun things you can do, like the time we made sodium acetate and hot ice.

This experiment was pretty cool, Mix a little bicarb and vinegar in the bottom of a jar, give it a moment to build up some gas

And then put a lit match into the jar. The match went out instantly every time.

We tested putting a lit match into a similar jar without the gas, but it didn’t go out.

The next part was to put a tea light into a small jar, and “pour” the gas onto the candle. The candle went out.

After trying several versions, Littletree put the lit candle in a jar and put the lid on, timing it to see how long it took for the candle to go out. According to Littletree’s experiment, it takes seven seconds for a tea light to burn up all the oxygen in a salsa jar.

Making fire extinguishers is perhaps appropriate, since Littletree spent the evening before playing with sparklers and the long-exposure setting on my camera.