Posted in Science
Well, we didn't actually do any homeschool today, since it is Sunday! But since my blog is new, I decided to post on a really cool experiment we did about a week and a half ago.This experiment comes from Apologia Physical Science- and it so NEAT to watch!!! Unfortunately, I don't have a video, but I do have Pictures.
First we hooked up some insulated copper wires to a nine volt battery, and inserted the ends of the wire into a glass containing water and baking soda (See Photo below):
Notice how Eliana is being careful not to let the ends of the wire touch!
Next, we watched as bubbles started coming up from the wires. According to the book, this is because the Hydrogen and Oxygen Atoms that make up water are being separated from the water so the two gases bubble up out of the water, (See Photo Below):
Can you see the bubbles? Notice how one of the wires is changing?
We waited for about ten minutes, and then this is what it looked like (See Photo below):
Can you still see the bubbles? And look at that water! The blue substance is something called copper hydroxycarbonate, aka "tarnish". This comes from copper interacting with oxygen and carbon, in our experiment the carbon came from the baking soda! This is also the reason the Statue of Liberty looks blue/green, but with Lady Liberty, the carbon comes from the environment.
Well now it was time to pull out the wires and look at them:
You can see that one wire is much more blue than the other, this was the one that was hooked up to the positive terminal.
We didn't want the fun to be done, so we put the wires back in to see just how blue the water would become if we waited 20 minutes:
After this, my hubby got in on the action and put a penny against the wire that was hooked to the positive terminal. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the penny, but of course, it turned blue too.
Now, if my Public School Science classes had done things like this, I might not have had so much trouble staying awake!
Next, we watched as bubbles started coming up from the wires. According to the book, this is because the Hydrogen and Oxygen Atoms that make up water are being separated from the water so the two gases bubble up out of the water, (See Photo Below):
We waited for about ten minutes, and then this is what it looked like (See Photo below):
Well now it was time to pull out the wires and look at them:
We didn't want the fun to be done, so we put the wires back in to see just how blue the water would become if we waited 20 minutes:
Now, if my Public School Science classes had done things like this, I might not have had so much trouble staying awake!
Posted by Anonymous
